Free Republic

All main stock benchmarks closed at records on Friday with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average extending their weekly winning streak to four as Republicans prepared to outline their final version of the tax bill. Stocks have been sensitive to developments from Capitol Hill on the tax bill and any news that is viewed as a step closer to enacting tax cuts tend to buoy market sentiment. The Dow rose 140 points, or 0.6%, to close at 24,648. The S&P 500 climbed 23 points, or 0.9%, to end at 2,675 while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 80...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is asking the public to weigh in on whether it should keep or scrap a controversial Obama-era rule that speeds up union elections. Business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been pushing the NLRB to roll back the rule, which allows elections to be held in as few as 10 days from the filing of a petition. Opponents have dubbed it the “ambush election rule,” claiming it gives employers little notice of an election and almost no time to discuss the issues with their workers. “The rule is heavily, heavily slanted to...

So, you think that you know all there is to know about Christmas? Maybe you string enough lights on your roof to give Clark Griswald a run for his money. Maybe you can identify mistletoe and holly in the wild, chop down your own Christmas tree, and know exactly how many Hallmark Keepsake ornaments they’ve issued since 1973. You can rattle off all of Santa’s reindeer—backwards, starting with Rudolph and ending in Dasher, and know all the words to O’ Tannenbaum. Including all the verses. In German. You own White Christmas—which is indisputably the best Christmas movie ever—on Blu Ray,...

The Trump economy is cracking—GDP growth is on track to top 3% for three quarters running. We haven’t seen that since 2004, and the Dow Jones average has just pierced 24,000. Privates businesses are optimistic and poised to invest with passage of the tax cuts. They have broken free from the Obama era pessimism about free markets and capitalism. This has big consequences for ordinary investors. Even with stocks up overall more than 20% this year, this is no time to sell. Here is a broader look at the economy and what it means for you. In the new millennia,...

As state officials launch a project to add toll lanes to Interstate 270 and the Beltway, they also are exploring the benefits of privatizing maintenance of existing highway sections. The Maryland Department of Transportation last week began soliciting input from businesses on the estimated $7.6 billion plan to expand Interstate 495 through Maryland and I-270 from the Beltway to Frederick. A separate but related $1.4 billion plan calls for adding capacity to I-295. During a Sept. 21 press conference, Gov. Larry Hogan said his idea for relieving congestion on the state’s largest thoroughfares relies on finding a private partner to...

President Donald Trump promised a less restrictive regulatory environment, particularly in banking. Three recent developments — leadership changes at the Comptroller of the Currency Office and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as approved changes to the Dodd-Frank reforms — move that agenda forward. The Dodd-Frank tweaks "might send a powerful political message to the Fed," according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, met with small business owners who are using the social network to grow their business in Viet Nam and internationally on the sidelines of APEC Summit 2017 in the central city of Da Nang on Thursday. “Small businesses are at the heart of our economies – and create the majority of new jobs all around the world. We recently teamed up with MorningConsult for an Economic Impact Survey to understand how small business owners are growing their companies, hiring more employees, and contributing to their communities,” Sandberg said. “In Asia and the Pacific region,...

Construction of Interstate 73 to Myrtle Beach has widespread support among key players in Washington, D.C., and is favored for financing when President Trump introduces an infrastructure package to Congress, according to U.S. Rep. Tom Rice. “The president has said he wants an infrastructure package, and we want to make sure that we are on the radar at the front of the line,” Rice told The Sun News in an interview this week. Rice says he’s held numerous meetings to help secure the $2.4 billion needed with top Trump administration officials, including D.J. Gribbin, special assistant to the president for...

Two years ago, a popular pizza shop in Boston opened its doors promising fair wages to its employees. On Wednesday, Dudley Dough announced it will close at the end of the year, the Boston Globe reported. A fair wage, also called a living wage, is a wage that is high enough to provide a normal standard of living. Regulars at the restaurant say they’re losing a community resource and a singular business based on a premise of economic justice and healthy food, according to the Globe report. What’s the story? The restaurant pitched itself as “pizza with a purpose,” according...

The Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee — engaged in a high-pressure, high-stakes tax policy rewrite — are currently exploring not cutting the income tax rate for people who earn $1 million or more per year. Right now, the marginal tax rate for anyone who makes $418,000 or more per year is 39.6 percent. The Republicans' opening gambit — secretly negotiated for months, and endorsed by Trump — would have cut the highest tax rate to 35 percent. But now, House Republicans' thinking has changed. Under their current thinking, people who earn between $418,000 and $999,999 will be...

•Corporate America is willing to invest money on a longer-term basis under President Trump, real estate mogul Sam Zell says. •Zell points to deregulation and promises of tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending as major positives for business. •Continued improvement in underlying economic growth continues to "surprise," he says. Corporate America is willing to invest money on a longer-term basis under President Donald Trump than the previous "anti-business administration" of Barack Obama, real estate mogul Sam Zell told CNBC on Tuesday. "Bluntly, the only way I can square anything is I focus on what gets done, not what's said," the...

No city in America runs on anything resembling a free-market model. But Texas' major cities are probably the closest thing, with vast improvements to their economies and living standards to show for it. Their looser land-use laws mean that housing supply grows quickly, stabilizing prices. Their lighter tax and regulatory structure helps businesses locate there and grow. And—shenanigans from the governor's office notwithstanding—their openness to immigrants means they have cheap and robust labor forces.But one market-oriented aspect little discussed is Texas' approach to transportation. The state has 25 toll roads, more than any other state. They are particularly common in Houston and Dallas,...

The emails have landed in my inbox, one every other day or so since Equifax revealed that cyberthieves had helped themselves to the Social Security numbers and dates of birth of more than 140 million Americans in the company’s files.**snip**I want out of Equifax’s system. That company no longer has permission to make money off my personal data. I want them to delete my file and never start a new one.**snip**So, can you dump Equifax? And if not, shouldn’t you be able to?

The National Football League is a glass house that was cracking well before Donald Trump's criticism of players who refuse to stand during the national anthem. The NFL earned an estimated $14 billion last year. But 500-channel television, internet live streaming, video games and all sorts of other televised sports have combined to threaten the league's monopoly on weekend entertainment -- even before recent controversies. It has become a fad for many players not to stand for the anthem. But it is also becoming a trend for irate fans not to watch the NFL at all. Multimillionaire young players, mostly...

Tonight marks the 2-hour season premiere of one of television’s top-rated, most critically acclaimed shows — one that curiously gets little media attention. For nine seasons, “Shark Tank” — a competitive reality program in which inventors pitch to a panel of multi-millionaires (and one billionaire) — has been a consistent ratings winner despite ABC airing it in a Friday night graveyard slot. It’s won four Emmys for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Last August, the show retained its audience against NFL pre-season games. The success of “Shark Tank” has surprised even some sharks. “I thought it was going to be a...

Bold tax reform got a big boost on Wednesday. Leaders in the House, the Senate, and the White House have all agreed on a tax outline, meaning a true update to our broken tax system could be imminent. First, the GOP tax plan framework would lower taxes for individual Americans. It would double the standard deduction for individuals and thereby expand the zero-percent bracket, and it would create three income tax brackets (down from seven): 12, 25, and 35 percent, respectively. Most simply, this will allow all Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. Importantly, the...

REcoin was initially touted as a coin offered with backing in real estate assets purchased with proceeds from the ICO. Zaslavskiy told investors that the company had a ‘team of lawyers, professionals, brokers and accountants’ that would complete the purchases, when in fact, no one had been hired. He also indicated to investors that he had raised between $2 and $4 mln, when the actual figure was closer to $300,000.

Chinese regulators said on Thursday that North Korean companies in China, including those that have joint ventures with Chinese firms, must shut down within less than four months, a signal of growing tensions between the two countries over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missiles programs. The move comes amid heavy pressure from the Trump administration, which has made the North Korean nuclear issue the cornerstone of its policy in Asia. President Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly signaled that the US depends on China to enforce international sanctions on North Korea in an effort to curb Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions....

The nation’s approach to managing public infrastructure is often inefficient. Best practices, such as life-cycle asset management and preventive maintenance, are rarely a priority. We can, however, unlock billions of dollars of infrastructure funding capacity now trapped in existing assets by improving how we build, operate and finance infrastructure. While experts discuss the size and urgency of our infrastructure needs, the debates focus on how to pay for new infrastructure. The Trump administration has identified public-private partnerships (P3) as a primary strategy. A majority of states and D.C. have statutes allowing P3s. Other countries have also adopted P3s as a...

The majority of people who are providing media opinion on Puerto Rico recovery efforts really don’t have any understanding of the scale of the logistics involved when the impact zone is an island. Cutters responding are: ◾Coast Guard Cutter Cypress – Homeported in Pensacola, Fla. ◾Coast Guard Cutter Elm – Homeported in Atlantic Beach, N.C. ◾Coast Guard Cutter Diligence – Wilmington, N.C. ◾Coast Guard Cutter Donald Horsley – San Juan, Puerto Rico ◾Coast Guard Cutter Forward – Portsmouth, Va. ◾Coast Guard Cutter Heriberto Hernandez – San Juan, Puerto Rico ◾Coast Guard Cutter James – Charleston, S.C. ◾Coast Guard Cutter Joseph...