Free Republic

ORLANDO, Fla. — The employees who kept the data systems humming in the vast Walt Disney fantasy fief did not suspect trouble when they were suddenly summoned to meetings with their boss. While families rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and searched for Nemo on clamobiles in the theme parks, these workers monitored computers in industrial buildings nearby, making sure millions of Walt Disney World ticket sales, store purchases and hotel reservations went through without a hitch. Some were performing so well that they thought they had been called in for bonuses. Instead, about 250 Disney employees were told in...

In an effort to cram as many people as possible into an airplane, a company from Italy called Aviointeriors, have created the Skyrider, which cuts passenger space down to just 23 inches. The Skyrider seat is being unveiled next week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas conference in Long Beach, and could soon find its way into many commercial airlines that are looking to save space.

With all of the talk of the economic recovery tailspin engendered by the Obambi administration, one government mandate has slipped under the radar with relatively little fanfare. This is an increase in the federally mandated minimum-wage up to $7.25 per hour. It is the latest in three hikes in the minimum wage, dating from two years ago: the minimum wage was raised to $5.85 per hour on July 24, 2007; to $6.55 / hour on July 24 2008; and finally to $7.25 / hour last week. The knee-jerk reactions to this, from the left, are predictable. The Obambi administration is...

A judge in Stuttgart, Germany, is currently trying to decide on a lawsuit in which a man hired his neighbour to impregnate his wife. It gets weirder. Demetrius Soupolos, 29, and his former beauty queen wife, Traute, were very keen to have a child together, but Demetrius was sterile so they began to seek out other possible options. The option the couple eventually decided on was to hire their neighbour Frank Maus, 34, to impregnate Traute. Maus, who was already married with two children agreed to do the job for the fee of €2,000. For three evenings a week for...

Fed Ex has lost 20% of it's early week stock value in the last 48 hours. The package delivery business is taking a beating but Fed Ex is in free fall. Did the One announce a bailout for them?

Angel Mills worked at GST AutoLeather in Williamsport, Md., most of her adult life. She cut, inspected, packed and shipped leather upholstery until she was laid off in June 2003 as the company scaled back local operations and shifted production to Mexico. "It's sad. It's scary. I've been a factory worker all my life, and I didn't know what I wanted to do," said Ms. Mills, a 38-year-old Williamsport resident with a teenage son. But by March 2004 she was taking a half-year course to become a state-licensed massage therapist. A federal program that helps workers who lose jobs owing...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Even with the economy adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty in 2004 rose to 37 million, up 1.1 million from 2003, according to Census Bureau figures released August 29. It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure, indicating that the recovery from the 2000 recession has not "trickled down" to everyone. Indeed, the Census Bureau also reported that "2004 marked the second consecutive year in which real median household income showed no change." These new statistics put a damper on the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The war on terror is so visually dramatic that its gruesome headlines and sound bites actually limit our view of the larger world. In fact, those life-and-death themes often mask an otherwise mustard-or-mayo complacency about broader, even revolutionary change. The global economic forces that with increasing speed are now altering the United States' economic future are an example. The trends are downright alarming as the post-World War II prosperity that so many Americans still take for granted is clearly imperiled -- in my view, irreversibly so. Because each year the United...

We were told that GATT and NAFTA were going to be the salvation of the world. Trade barriers were to be removed and farm prices would improve, not only in the United States but around the world. Our exports would increase, higher income would prevail and the entire world would be a much better place in which to live. I was listening to talk radio when a caller tried to explain to Rush Limbaugh how disastrous the "giant sucking sound" would be. Rush cut the caller short by saying that his advisers who were economists told him that NAFTA was...

We were told that GATT and NAFTA were going to be the salvation of the world. Trade barriers were to be removed and farm prices would improve, not only in the United States but around the world. Our exports would increase, higher income would prevail and the entire world would be a much better place in which to live. I was listening to talk radio when a caller tried to explain to Rush Limbaugh how disastrous the "giant sucking sound" would be. Rush cut the caller short by saying that his advisers who were economists told him that NAFTA was...

We're in a modest economic recovery, one that is still fragile. And this recovery is not creating jobs. I'm far more concerned about the jobless nature of this recovery than the level of interest rates or market levels. Government and corporate policies are sending more jobs, capital and American know-how overseas to produce goods and services more cheaply. The proof is in the numbers: The U.S. account deficit, the broadest measure of transactions with other nations, swelled to $503 billion in 2002. That's not the way it was supposed to work. Increased global trade was supposed to lead to better...