Free Republic

The cost of a dozen eggs has now surpassed the price of a pound of beef, marking the first time that’s happened since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping data in 1980. The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs ran at $4.82 in January 2023, while a pound of ground beef was $4.64. In January 2022, eggs were $1.93, and beef was $4.77, but egg prices have soared by 70% in the last year alone. Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, says the “real culprit” behind sky-high prices is a “collusive scheme” among top U.S....

In the 1870s, the term “robber baron” was first used to describe an exploitative class of industrialists who utilized their wealth to create monopolies of resources and amass control in the fledgling United States. The name describes an illegitimate aristocracy of unelected plutocrats. John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie; all American industrial royalty whose names line the streets of America and the pages of our history books. One hundred fifty years later, we face a new global class of robber barons. Once a year, the world’s richest and most influential people meet behind closed doors in Davos, Switzerland, to...

It seems Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has ticked off Republicans in her state. The at-large representative voted with Democrats to impeach President Trump following last week's riot at the Capitol. The FBI is only beginning its investigation of last week's riot, but the lack of findings didn't stop Liz Cheney from joining House Democrats to hold the president responsible for the violence. Following Cheney's vote to impeach the president, the Wyoming Republican Party said in a statement that never before has the state party seen "this type of an outcry from our fellow Republicans." According to the party, "the anger...

We study history to learn from it. If we can discover what worked and what didn’t work, we can use this knowledge wisely to create a better future. Studying the triumph of American industry, for example, is important because it is the story of how the United States became the world’s leading economic power. Free markets worked well; government intervention usually failed. The years when this happened, from 1865 to the early 1900s, saw the U.S. encourage entrepreneurs indirectly by limiting government. Slavery was abolished and so was the income tax. Federal spending was slashed and federal budgets had surpluses...

This week, Berners-Lee will launch Inrupt, a startup that he has been building, in stealth mode, for the past nine months. Backed by Glasswing Ventures, its mission is to turbocharge a broader movement afoot, among developers around the world, to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it. In other words, it’s game on for Facebook, Google, Amazon. For years now, Berners-Lee and other internet activists have been dreaming of a digital utopia where individuals control their own data and the internet remains free and open. But for Berners-Lee, the time for...

OUR SILICON VALLEY ROBBER BARONS08.10.16 11:00 PM ET Today’s Tech Oligarchs Are Worse Than the Robber Barons Yes, Jay Gould was a bad guy. But at least he helped build societal wealth. Not so our Silicon Valley overlords. And they have our politicians in their pockets. A decade ago these guys—and they are mostly guys—were folk heroes, and for many people, they remain so. They represented everything traditional business, from Wall Street and Hollywood to the auto industry, in their pursuit of sure profits and golden parachutes, was not—hip, daring, risk-taking folk seeking to change the world for the better....

...when there was a Texas drought that hurt the crops of farmers there, Congress allotted $10,000 to buy seed grain to help them recover. But [President Grover] Cleveland vetoed the expenditure and explained why like this:I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think,...

A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled. The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti’s request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania. “I paid everything, and didn’t know about the $6.30,” Battisti said. “For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy.” …

What both parties in Washington are doing to America in terms everyone understands.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to bring the Obama-Waxman-Markey (OWM) anti-global warming cap-and-trade energy bill to the floor for a final vote Friday, which raises an interesting question: How much money will Pelosi make if the measure becomes law, as seems quite likely? Pelosi, of course, is not the only member of Congress to own significant shares of energy companies. Senators and representatives from all over the country do, not just the "oilies" from energy states like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. But as House Speaker, Pelosi's ownership of an unknown number of shares in the Clean Energy Fuels Corp....

NEW YORK - Just in time for Valentine's Day, The New York Times today delivered a remarkable front-page bouquet to Robert Rubin, in the form of an unusually generous assessment of the former Treasury secretary's attempted string-pulling on Enron's behalf.

Mutual-fund firms rocked by asset decline Stock and bond funds take major hit; record outflows in October By Sam Mamudi, MarketWatch Last update: 2:28 p.m. EST Nov. 25, 2008NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- After seeming to weather the worst of the credit storm, the mutual-fund industry has been getting walloped, losing more than 20% of assets under management in just five months. Data from research firm Lipper show that as of Oct. 31, mutual funds of all types -- stock funds, bond funds and money market funds -- had $9.5 trillion in assets. That's a 20.8% drop from where the industry...

RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration. Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly. The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for...

The U.S. government is considering direct financial assistance to facilitate a possible merger between General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Chrysler LLC, a private sector source familiar with Treasury discussions told Reuters on Monday. The Treasury Department is weighing aid of at least $5 billion, which could include capital injections and government purchases of bad auto loans, according to the source, a financial policy executive who spoke anonymously because the discussions are private. Emergency financing, at least initially, most likely would be focused on GM and Chrysler and not Ford Motor Co (F.N), which is struggling but still better off financially...

I'm not putting a reference in becasue I want my freakin' title, I'm pissed. But search and you shall find ...

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring. Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest...

Since unconfirmed reports have to be placed in Vanity, I will leave it up to MODS and posters as to this classification. I was told Lehman was not bailout like Bears because most of Lehman's portifilo was in Europe not American investments and the Fed's knew Americans would not stand for bailing out Europe. Any of our fund managers or more experienced folks know? I was told this comment was initially on the web by our Fed Chairman however was pulled later.

PERHAPS the greatest scandal of the mortgage crisis is that it is a direct result of an intentional loosening of underwriting standards - done in the name of ending discrimination, despite warnings that it could lead to wide-scale defaults.

Alas, it's not my biography, but I'll be doing some "color commentary" on "The Rockefellers." This is on "Biography Channel" (and I don't know if this is separate from A&E or if you get it with an A&E package). Air date is 12/26 at 8:00 EST. The following hour, I'll be on again, same channel, on a new show called "Total Excess," about the lifestyles of the rich and ridiculous. Should be fun.