Free Republic

Main Street Bank lends most of its money to small businesses and is earning decent profits. But the Kingwood, Texas, bank is about to get out of the banking business. In an extreme example of the frustration felt by many bankers as regulators toughen their oversight of the nation's financial institutions, Main Street's chairman, Thomas Depping, is expected to announce Wednesday that the 27-year-old bank will surrender its banking charter and sell its four branches to a nearby bank. Mr. Depping plans to set up a new lender that will operate beyond the reach of banking regulators—and the deposit-insurance safety...

A blogger named David McElroy recently wrote of a Birmingham (Alabama) businessman who, after listening to a room full of moochers and leeches piss whine and moan about the evils of business, publicly threw in the towel regarding his attempt to open a new coal mine. David compared what happened to a scene right out of “Atlas Shrugged” and then mused, “But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or is it already happening and we just don’t know it?” Well, David,...

If it had been a scene in “Atlas Shrugged,” the guy would have disappeared into the secrecy of Colorado with a shadowy figure who we would later learn to be John Galt. In real life, the story will probably be more complex. But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or it it already happening and we just don’t know it? The man you see in the picture at the right is named Ronnie Bryant. He operates coal mines in Alabama. I’d...

Ayn Rand died 29 years ago, yet her legacy thrives. A film based on her most well-known novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’ premieres on April 15, traditionally known as Tax Day in the U.S. Perhaps because of the film premiere or perhaps because of the current political climate, Rand is being discussed, debated and in some instances, despised all over again. Gone missing from commentary on RandI noted comments on a left-leaning message board where someone had posted a link to an article at The US Report about a billboard many people see on I-95 as they drive south. The billboard asks...

Then I asked the crowd of tea partiers who they were. I asked them to raise their hands when I called out Republican, Democrat, Independent, and Constitutionalist. They did and then I told them that it was extremely important that all parties work together to root out the Marxist Moonbats who had taken over DC. Then I gave a quick overview of the Book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere." "I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it." The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your...

Limbaugh Vows to Leave US Over Health Care (March 9) -- Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has thrown down the gauntlet. If the U.S. Congress passes health care reform, Limbaugh will leave the country to receive his medical treatment. Specifically, Limbaugh told a caller that he envisions traveling to Costa Rica should the government, through a federal program costing upwards of $1 trillion, expand health care coverage to approximately 30 million Americans who are currently uninsured. Costa Rica, as it happens, offers universal heath care to all of its residents. Limbaugh's guarantee is but the latest variation of what...

Has the AIG CEO Robert Benmosche, just three months into the job, had enough? The Wall Street Journal scoops the field this morning with news from inside the AIG board room that Benmosche has informed the board "he is considering stepping down as chief executive of the government-controlled insurer." Benmosche dropped the bomb last week, saying he was "done." According to the Journal's sources, Benmosche "is chafing under constraints imposed by AIG's government overseers, particularly a recent compensation review by the Obama administration's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg." He's not quite out the door yet, though. He agreed to think over...

The headline in Investor’s Business Daily, Sept. 16, 2009: “45% of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul.” The headline in the Boston Globe, Sept. 28, 2009: “States risk it, raise tax on rich.” The problem with four of nine U.S. doctors saying they “would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement” is that “the number of doctors is already lagging population growth,” reports IBD. Add millions of new patients to a shrinking supply of doctors and the obvious result is an English-style queue, longer waits in pain, and a centrally directed rationing of service....

The resistance is well underway. Affluent Americans – defined as the top 20 percent of U.S. households by income – spent about 10 percent less in 2008 than they did in 2007, according to a study by luxury-goods researcher Unity Marketing. And those households with incomes of $250,000 or more are cutting back on spending even more than all affluent households overall. 54 percent of these consumers are spending even less in 2009 than in 2008. Those $250,000+ earners, threatened and demonized by President Obama, are retaliating with their most powerful and damaging weapon: not spending. It is a quiet,...

McDonald's, the fast food giant, will join the ranks of companies quitting the UK when it moves its European headquarters to Geneva later this year. Senior executives, including Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald's operations in Europe, will be based there. The US company, which opened its first restaurant in London in 1974, joins other large US corporations that have based their European operations in Switzerland, including Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and Yahoo. Google also chose Zurich for its European headquarters, despite having a large office in the UK capital. McDonald's said the move "enables us to conduct the...

In order to maximize effectiveness, the 'Going Galt' plan to 'call in conservative' on July 30 needs some major adjustments. The plan as it now stands has some logistical problems that need to be corrected. If the goal is to force Washington to take notice of the rage of citizens around the country, any protest must have maximum visibility, participation, and persistence. I am not certain that only one day will do it.

Perhaps its time. There have been a number of people on the forum talking about this, with one of the most recent converts being "iflyjetzzz". Look, we can rant and rave about market manipulation and government-sponsored games. We can petition the SEC, the FBI and Congress. We can demand that they stop it all we want. But they haven't and likely won't until and unless America gets pissed off enough to force them to act. So how do we make that happen, yet remain within the law? Its not that hard, and in the intermediate and longer-term it would be...

On July 30 conservatives plan to 'go Galt,' named after Ayn Rand's character John Galt in her book Atlas Shrugged. On that day millions plan to 'call in conservative,' refusing to go to work or to spend any money. Washington needs a serious, in-your-face wakeup call as citizens continue to grow increasingly angry over the government's socialist agenda that they seem determined to shove down our throats.

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 1409, S. 560) does more than take away secret ballot elections: It empowers the federal government to impose contracts on newly organized companies. The government would set wages, benefits, work assignments, promotion procedures, and any major changes to business operations. Because EFCA has no meaningful small businesses exemption, it would authorize federal control of up to 4 million small businesses employing 39 million Americans. Consequently, bureaucrats with no management experience would effectively control these small businesses, says James Sherk, the Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy at the Heritage Foundation. The misnamed Employee Free...

Are you ACTIVATED? Are you ready to do a lot of work, for no pay, for the greatest cause of your life? Then answer this call. OregonTeaParty, acting in coordination with national sponsors Michelle Malkin, Smart Girl Politics, #tcot, DontGo Movement, & Dana Loesch, is seeking volunteer county coordinators to organize local tea parties in Oregon counties. Email me NOW @ geoffludt [at] gmail [dot] com