Free Republic

VIRGIN Australia has become the first airline to react to months of declining jet fuel prices, announcing it will restructure its US airfares to reflect the savings. Although it will not do away with the fuel surcharge altogether, the airline will incorporate fuel costs into fares the same as other operating expenses. Flights from Brisbane and Sydney to Los Angeles, are the only routes Virgin Australia operates which attract a fuel surcharge of $680.

Authored by Jim Clifton, Gallup CEO & Chairman,The U.S. now ranks not first, not second, not third, but 12th among developed nations in terms of business startup activity. Countries such as Hungary, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Israel and Italy all have higher startup rates than America does.We are behind in starting new firms per capita, and this is our single most serious economic problem. Yet it seems like a secret. You never see it mentioned in the media, nor hear from a politician that, for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.The...

“for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.” Clifton says for the past six years since 2008, employer business startups have fallen below the business failure rate, spurring what he calls “an underground earthquake” that only stands to worsen as lagging U.S. Census data becomes available. “Let’s get one thing clear: This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American businesses. ... the numbers paint an ominous portrait of America in a dire state of decline. “I don’t want to sound like a doomsayer, but when...

Uncle Sam could take a bigger bite at tax time for consumers who received too much government help last year with their Obamacare premiums. That may be just one of several surprises for millions of Americans in advance of the first tax deadline involving the Affordable Care Act. The majority of Americans who get their health insurance at work should see few changes when filing their taxes. Most will just need to check a box on their tax return indicating they had coverage in 2014. It stands to be more complicated for those individuals who purchased a private health plan...

DISH FAQS Posted: Dec 19, 2014 1:50 PM CST 1. What is happening? By law, WBOC and FOX21 must negotiate carriage agreements with satellite companies like DISH. Usually, these deals are reached without any disruption to your service. In fact, our company has negotiated dozens of agreements. Unfortunately, so far, DISH has refused to reach a fair, market-based deal to carry WBOC and FOX21. Our existing agreement with DISH expires at midnight on Dec. 31, 2014. If no deal is reached before that date, you will lose live access to the shows, sports and local news on WBOC and FOX21,...

.....Since the recession began in December 2007, 1.2 million net jobs have been created in Texas. Only 700,000 net jobs have been created in the other 49 states combined......... Only North Dakota has outpaced Texas on percent job growth, thanks to jobs created by the fracking revolution. California, Texas’ biggest economic rival, has created 985,600 fewer net jobs during the same period. California’s 1.5 percent job growth is ten percentage points lower than Texas’ percent job growth.............................

PepsiCo wants in. So do Caterpillar and Marriott International. Within hours of President Obama’s historic move to restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba, companies in the United States were already developing strategies to introduce their products and services to a market they have not been in for the better part of 50 years — if ever. “Cuba is a potential market for John Deere products and services,” Ken Golden, a spokesman for Deere & Company, a leading maker of farm and construction equipment based in Illinois, said by email. But while there may be robust opportunities for some companies, especially...

The West shouldn’t stoke the fires engulfing Russia’s wounded economy. Talk in Washington and Brussels this week of levying further economic sanctions on Russia seems counterproductive and will only make matters worse for all parties involved. Like it or not, Russia’s economy has grown simply “too big to fail,” and its political and military might is too dangerous to ignore. The West might have better luck in advancing its goals in the region by helping, not hurting, the Russian bear in its time of need.

"I'll give you a couple of things to look for in 2015. Fundamental economic activity as measured in areas such as retail sales, industrial production, housing starts, payroll numbers and the broadest measure of unemployment—all those numbers are going to deteriorate. The economy is going to head down as we get into reporting in early 2015. Along with that will come renewed expectations of action by the Federal Reserve to accommodate the financial system, particularly the banking system, and the combination of those factors will, I believe, help to trigger a massive decline in the U.S. dollar. As a result...

West Bloomfield, MI — Michigan abortionist Michael Arthur Roth’s abortion business, the Novi Laser and Aesthetic Center, was evicted last month from its second office space this year. Currently, his abortion business remains closed. An eviction document provided to Operation Rescue by long-time pro-life activist Lynn Mills, shows that a court request for eviction from his office at 33200 West 14 Mile in West Bloomfield was filed on October 21, 2014. The eviction was ordered due to Roth’s violation of a provision of his lease. Roth had until November 27, 2014, to vacate the premises. Photos taken through his office...

Owner of Dellwood Market says he will not rebuild after locals looted his business for the third time.

Scientists are tuning in on the power of the spoken word, seeking the secrets of charisma. By analyzing the harmonics of pitch, frequency and timbre, researchers at University of California, Los Angeles are discovering how charismatic public speakers use their voices to dominate, rouse and influence a large audience. They are finding that successful politicians in various countries, including Italy, France and Brazil, all share key vocal qualities that strongly affect how people respond to them, independent of the meaning of the words they say or the ideas they express. In a separate analysis of some prominent business leaders, the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leading U.S. CEOs, angered by the Obama administration's challenge to certain "workplace wellness" programs, are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, according to people familiar with the matter. Major U.S. corporations have broadly supported President Barack Obama's healthcare reform despite concerns over several of its elements, largely because it included provisions encouraging the wellness programs. The programs aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses. A bipartisan provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law allows employers to reward workers...

Elon Musk spoke at the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's 2014 Centennial celebration. The October 22-24 Centennial Symposium featuring some of the most illustrious names in aerospace reflecting on past achievement, celebrating today’s innovative research and education, and offering their perspectives on what lies ahead. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his company will make a first attempt to land the booster stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform during the upcoming ISS resupply mission. If the attempt is successful, the company plans to refurbish and reuse the booster stage, making spaceflight history and paving the way for...

With business confidence at post-crisis lows (in the US and around the world), it is hardly surprising that consumer confidence would fade and at 88.7 (vs 96.0 expectations), this is the biggest miss since June 2010. It appears last month's exuberant surge/beat was anomalous as we tumble from 94.5 in October, in spite of tumbling gas prices and record high stocks... The drop was largely driven by a slide in 'hope' as expectations fell to the lowest since June. Labor, employment, and business conditions all dropped.

1 Texas 2 Florida 3 Tennessee 4 North Carolina 5 South Carolina 6 Indiana 7 Arizona 8 Nevada 9 Louisiana 10 Georgia

Confused why despite endless daily propaganda that the US economy is getting better - after all "just look at the record high S&P 500" - fewer and fewer Americans believe the narrative, as the Democrats and Obama found out the very hard way in last week's midterm elections? Then the following explanation written by the owner of a small business - the segment of the US economy that has historically led every single recovery but this time was left behind - should help answer some questions.The reason small businesses are disappearing written by a small business owner.I want to...

Rick Perry ascended from Lieutenant Governor to Governor of Texas in December 2000 when then-governor George Bush resigned after being elected the 43rd President of the United States. Perry will retire in January with the tenth longest gubernatorial tenure in U.S. history. Perry made job creation one of his principle mantras, and he has overseen remarkable employment gains under his watch with 2.1 million jobs added during his tenure. The total represents 30% of the jobs added in the U.S. since 2000 and more than twice as many as any other state. The so-called “Texas miracle” does not show any...

Enrollment for small businesses under ObamaCare is falling short of the government’s expectations, according to a federal audit to be announced Thursday. About 76,000 people have enrolled in the state-run exchanges, a dismal total that nearly guarantees that the Obama administration will miss its target for small businesses, according to a report by the nonpartisan General Accountability Office (GAO) provided early to The Hill. The report confirms fears of many Democrats, who have acknowledged that last year’s botched launch would keep people from signing up. The bad news also provides new fuel for Republicans intent on dismantling ObamaCare in the...

I heard about fifteen minutes of Rush today, when he talked about how badly the polls were predicting the election results. Is there a business opportunity for an enterprising Freeper to start an accurate polling company? Or do conservative candidates already have access to accurate polling, but it's just the midstream media types who use their own (skewed) polls to manufacture their own agenda-driven news articles?