Free Republic

When legislators return to their statehouses, the usual suspects of concern will be waiting for them—and some new areas that have been waiting in the wings will rear their heads as well. States face looming fiscal problems in Medicaid, public pensions and budget gaps, as well as unemployment issues—both in the number of unemployed people who won’t receive benefits after federal extensions end and continued unemployment trust fund insolvency. That doesn’t even touch the problems of funding the everyday services constituents have come to expect. “A lot of state budget officers are concerned that we will have growth, which is...

With corporate profits at record levels and stocks regaining the ground lost during the financial crisis, Wall Street anxiously anticipates the return of the individual investors to equity markets. It may be a long wait, because the little guy may have concluded stocks are a sucker’s bet. Investors, as opposed to traders, buy stocks in companies whose profits they expect to rise. The conventional wisdom says stock prices will follow profits up, but over the last two business cycles, that simply has not happened. In March 2000, the S&P 500 first closed above 1500. Since corporate profits are up 135...

Coincidentally, our agriculture minister came from Rockefeller Foundation America's foreign policy has always been about maximizing its economic interests at all costs. That America shouldn't be mistaken as a softer, a kinder, and a gentler empire — notwithstanding its display of internal freedom and democracy — wasn't in doubt. And that was demonstrated by the speed with which it went about consolidating and maximizing control of global power upon taking it from Britain, as never seen since the time of Alexander the Great. The actions within its elite foreign policy circles demonstrated that. And this was clearly confirmed in a...

One lone trustee objected to the institution’s betrayal of Andrew Carnegie. As Lagemann reports, a Cornell professor presented to the board a proposal that it focus, not on building libraries, but on spreading library science, which would lead to “advancing popular intellectual progress” (read: “smartening up the slack-jawed yokels”). The lonely dissenter, trustee James Bertram, argued that if the board consented to this recommendation, it "would contravene Carnegie’s clear and known wish 'to give libraries to communities and [to] leave the communities absolutely free to manage them any way they might see fit.'” Because Bertram spoke the truth, the trustees...

Killing the goose that lays the golden egg is one of those old fairy tales for children which has a heavy message that a lot of adults should listen to. The labor unions which have driven the makers of Twinkies into bankruptcy, potentially destroying 18,500 jobs, could have learned a lot from that old children's fairy tale. Many people think of labor unions as organizations to benefit workers, and think of employers who are opposed to unions as just people who don't want to pay their employees more money. But some employers have made it a point to pay their...

Historically, small businesses have been the primary engine of new job creation in the United States. If the economy was getting healthy, we would expect to see the number of jobs at new businesses rise. Instead, we are witnessing just the opposite. We are told that the economy is supposed to be "recovering", but the number of "startup jobs" at new businesses has fallen for five years in a row. According to an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data performed by economist Tim Kane, there were almost 12 startup jobs per 1000 Americans back in the year 2006....

First of all, I'm in the top two percent. Right now, I'm paying 45% of my total income in income taxes, both to the state of Connecticut and to the federal government, and if you take the 3% Medicare tax. After the tax hikes go into effect next year, more than half -- more than half of my total income is going to go to the government. You tell me, what's fair about that when medieval serfs pay 25%, I'm paying half? I don't care what the majority voted to do, they don't have a right to steal my money...

Cheap tequila on the Kookville Express must have been free flowing as tipsy conductor Dana Rohrabacher pulled into the Costa Mesa train station on Dec. 6 to pen another wild, late night Twitter rant. Republicans like to claim they despise class warfare, but Orange County's senior career politician has concocted in his brain precisely the methodology Barack Obama used to romp Mitt Romney 332 to 206 in the electoral college: he simply stole the election. According to Rohrabacher, poor people and foreigners were paid to vote against Romney. Rohrabacher wrote, "1 reason GOP lost was Obama giveaways to cronies who...

So tell me, patriot, have you ever heard of ILAB ? Nope. Do they fix iphones ?Well, not exactly. ILAB is yet another dangerous Marxist-style agency in our bloated Federal Leviathan that almost no one has ever heard of. ILAB is an acronym for "Bureau of International Affairs" and is a sub-bureaucracy of the Department of Labor. It's stated mission is this: *** "The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) leads the U.S. Department of Labor’s efforts to ensure that workers around the world are treated fairly and are able to share in the benefits of the global economy. ILAB’s...

In 5 minutes this video sums up what it's all about. Watch the fantasic Sen. James Risch of the great state of Idao fry the SBA and the Obama adminstration's tax proposal - with one simple question followed by hummanna hummanna hummanna. Followed by Mary Landrieu barfing up communist spew to try to recover from the logical hit the administration took with that question. Action is from 1:24:50 to 1:30:00. But if you're into small business, the whole video is worth a background listen (and watch of the freaky characters). The SBA is a complete waste and needs to be...

<p>What is the proposed Judeo-Christian, Small Business (JCSB) Think Tank (Discussion threads here on FR) really up against ?</p> <p>Why can’t small business scream loud enough for their Congressmen to hear them ? Because they do not have a think tank or non-governmental organization (NGO) that is rabidly pushing their agenda in government and the private sector.</p>

You know how 1960's radicals started the New Left movement, right ? And they now permeate all the key parts of American society, so even if Obama was impeached today - all those 1960's radicals would still be basically running everything that's important ? I think the good guys need to start their own movement to counter this "New Left".

American Express has a Shop Small(R) campaing going on at the moment; you'll see ads all over. I just wanted to cite that as an example of the kind of advocacy the proposed think tank would do: a) a for-profit private sector initiative b) focus on general public awareness, not a particular product or business c) presents tons of possibilities in partners, goals, tie-ins, venues, media attention, etc. This is the type of advocacy program that the think tank would undertake.

At the end of this is the mission statement for the think tank, for those familiar: Can you take a minute to ping all your lists and anyone you think might be remotely interested ? Please ask them to ping all their lists as well. Over the next few weeks/months I'm looking for a handful of people who would like to participate as founding organizers. Please let me know if you want to be on my list. There will be private messages regarding initial organization. Here's the message "marketing article" for first-timers, others can skip to the first post to...

I'm exploring a startup entrepreneurial, free-enterprise, Judeo-Christian advocacy group, a think tank of, by and for non-elites. If you have either a little time or a little money (or both) that you can dedicate to a strictly right-wing think tank, you may be interested. Some are no doubt familiar with my focus on NGOs (non-governmental organizations), the most infamous of which being the Soros network. While many are leftist, there are also those that purport to be right-wing, though most often they are heavily influenced by big business and academia - and virtually not at all by real-world small business...

This weekend you'll spend time with the family. You'll sit around the familiar scene - it's the same every year, delicious turkey, favorite football, ahhhh the pie. Perhaps you'll have a big lull in the conversation. I ask you, please remember - it's a great time to tell everyone about the Small Business Think Tank ! We need people ! ----------> Marketing people - marketing, marketing ----------> All Business Backgrounds - People who can help with Startup of a new business ----------> Accountants, Lawyers, Business Owners --- anyone, really ----------> Kids will be home from college - See if anyone...