Free Republic

This story is all about the most profitable companies from 2005 to 2019.

What do the companies in these three groups have in common?Group A: American Motors, Brown Shoe, Studebaker, Collins Radio, Detroit Steel, Zenith Electronics and National Sugar Refining.Group B: Boeing, Campbell Soup, Colgate-Palmolive, Deere, General Motors, IBM, Kellogg, Procter and Gamble, and Whirlpool.Group C: Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Home Depot, Microsoft, Google, Netflix, Office Depot and Target.All of the companies in Group A were in the Fortune 500 in 1955, but not in 2017.All of the companies in Group B were in the Fortune 500 in both 1955 and 2017.All of the companies in Group C were in the Fortune 500 in...

...Trump called the trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States “the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country” during the first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton. Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders leveled a similar criticism, calling it disastrous when debating the former secretary of date... ...But whether NAFTA has been good or bad for the U.S. economy depends largely on who you ask... ...NAFTA “means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement,” then-President Clinton said in 1993. Fast forward more than two decades later and NAFTA...

The 2012 presidential race will be, in part, a showdown between two different models of economic growth. President Barack Obama and his Democratic administration will defend the once-discredited and now-resurgent theory that government must act as the economy’s “tutor” and use public funds to stimulate it. The Republican nominee, presumably Mitt Romney, will advance the free-market argument that the main source of new growth is the innovative energy of American entrepreneurs and that government needs to get out of the way. An essential part of the free-market argument is “creative destruction,” a theory proposed by the great Austrian economist...

Creative Destruction and the Federal Deficit By Frank Ryan The President announced the 2012 budget of $3.73 Trillion with an expected deficit of $1.1 trillion. The massive deficit combines with the three prior years' deficits of in excess of $1 Trillion each which will push the national debt beyond $16 Trillion. When combined with the exploding state deficits and other unfunded liabilities, the debt crisis will begin to unfold rapidly and unpredictably for our citizens. A national disaster is in the making. Republicans in Congress responded with demands for budget cuts of $100 billion. The current debt crisis requires so...

Journalism can reinvent itself without government 'help' The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking ways to "reinvent" journalism, and that's a cause for concern. According to a May 28 draft proposal, the agency thinks government should be at the center of a media overhaul. The bureaucracy sees it as a problem that the Internet has introduced a wealth of information options to consumers, forcing media companies to adapt and experiment to meet changing market needs. FTC's policy staff fears this new reality. "There are reasons for concern that experimentation may not produce a robust and sustainable business model for commercial...

Surges of large-scale retail bankruptcies such as Circuit City electronics and Mervyns department stores altered the shopping landscape in 2009 -- and experts say 2010 is likely to bring even more changes. Amid a still-tepid economic recovery, big retail chains are expected to continue closing their less productive stores and retrenching on expansion plans. But at the same time, others will be hurtling into the breach to take advantage of falling rents and vacancies in neighborhoods they couldn't get into a few years ago. "The prediction for next year is more re-sizing and relocating of retailers," said real estate broker...

(AP) NEW HOLSTEIN, Wis. -- The Tecumseh Products Co. announced Friday it plans to close its manufacturing plant by the end of August and move operations to "low-cost countries." The company said up to 220 workers will be laid off around April 13, with the company laying off the remaining 320 workers around Aug. 31. "Tecumseh over the past several years has increasingly outsourced the manufacturing of components and certain small engines to low-cost countries, including India, Brazil and China," James Bonsall, Tecumseh president and chief operating officer, said in a Friday press release. "The impact of the decision...

...The stock market isn't the economy. Nor is it a perfect predictor of future economic events. But it's a very reliable gauge of investor sentiment, and investors were sending a clear signal: The Kerry economic plan wasn't good for growth.... These market moves make it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that Republican presidency's are good for markets and the economy, while Democratic ones are bad. But history shows this is simply not true. It is policies that matter, not politicians or political parties. The policies that most encourage wealth creation and higher standards of living are...

Economist Tyler Cowen argues for the cultural benefits of globalization Interviewed by Nick Gillespie What are we to make of the fact that Saddam Hussein selected Frank Sinatra’s version of "My Way" as the theme song for his 54th birthday? Cultural pessimists and critics of globalization would tend to view such a curious choice with alarm or condescension, as just one more case of tawdry American, profit-based pop supplanting "authentic" indigenous music. On the left, political scientist Benjamin Barber decries the spread of "McWorld," a "bloodless economics of profit" that relentlessly exports cheesy American goods to far-flung lands. On the...