Free Republic

Two weeks ago, a unanimous Supreme Court rebuffed the Securities and Exchange Commission Gabelli v. SEC. The SEC maintained that its enforcement actions for fines under the Investment Advisers Act weren't subject to the five-year statute of limitations. This wasn't the first time the courts have pushed back a federal agency for overreaching. It won't be the last. But the SEC's audacity prompts a broader policy question: What good is accomplished by imposing monetary penalties on corporations, as the agency attempted to do in Gabelli? The answer is that when such penalties are sought by the government, they probably do...

Everybody's heard the complaints about recruiting lately. Even with unemployment hovering around 9%, companies are grousing that they can't find skilled workers, and filling a job can take months of hunting. Employers are quick to lay blame. Schools aren't giving kids the right kind of training. The government isn't letting in enough high-skill immigrants. The list goes on and on. But I believe that the real culprits are the employers themselves. With an abundance of workers to choose from, employers are demanding more of job candidates than ever before. They want prospective workers to be able to fill a role...

On Thursday, dozens of American corporations, including Apple, Alcoa, Facebook, eBay, Intel, and Morgan Stanley will submit an amicus brief in the landmark Hollingsworth v. Perry case broadly arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that laws banning same-sex marriages, like California's ballot initiative Proposition 8, are unconstitutional under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. According to a draft copy obtained by Fortune, the companies argue that such laws "send an unmistakeable signal that same-sex couples are in some way inferior to opposite-sex couples, a proposition that is anathema to amici's commitment to equality and fair treatment to all." At...

The federal income tax is a bad joke and it needs to be abolished. All over the nation, hard working American families are being absolutely crushed by oppressive levels of taxation, and our politicians are constantly coming up with new ways to extract money from all of us every single year. Meanwhile, many ultra-wealthy Americans and many of the most profitable corporations in the country pay little to nothing in taxes. In fact, as you will see below, there are dozens of very prominent corporations that make billions of dollars in profits and yet don't pay a dime in...

Pressure from corporate sponsors may be the critical factor in a decision by the Boy Scouts of America to change policy to include homosexual scouts, volunteers and leaders. When a representative from BSA met with Frank Page, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, to discuss the proposed change, Page was told that BSA is "wilting under pressure from some of their corporate sponsors ...," Page explained in a statement to The Christian Post. The Human Rights Campaign, a pro-gay rights advocacy organization, told BSA's corporate sponsors that it would downgrade their "non-discrimination ratings" if they continued...

Because accepting donations from those distasteful, money-grubbing corporations is just not acceptable --- except, you know, when you really need the money.In 2008/2009, President Obama’s inaugural committee (amidst much self-promoted fanfare, I might add) decided to buck precedent and announced that they would not be accepting corporate donations or individual donations in excess of $50k in a grandiose display of thwarting special interests.Now, of course, the situation is quite different --- worn-out donors and a still-"recovering" economy mean that the inaugural committee is totally okay with corporations and the wealthy possibly ingratiating themselves with Team Obama. It is what it...

Obama's 2009 inauguration was bolstered by the feelings of "hope and change" that boosted the President to electoral victory. His official inauguration committee eschewed corporate donations back then, but times have changed dramatically. The Presidential Inauguration Committee set a goal of raising $50 million for Barack Obama's second inauguration, but have turned to big corporations and big labor unions in order to make it there. AT&T, Bank of America, FedEx, Microsoft and Coca-Cola are all on the official list of inauguration donors this year. Joining those corporations are the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Postal Workers Union, the...

A few months ago I went to an all expenses paid job interview in another city. The interview went well and I was one of the top 2-3 candidates. However I did not get the job, which is fine by me for reasons that I will mention later on in this post. I did however find the ‘rejection’ email interesting because it is one of the better examples of what passes for communication in the corporate environment today. Here is the name-redacted email..

But the sources say the new decision is driven by pragmatism: The president and his team just wrapped up the most expensive campaign in history — with costs topping $1 billion — and they’ve determined that their donors are simply tapped out. The cost of an Inauguration can run into the tens of millions. Obama spent $47 million in 2009. And raising that in a matter of six weeks is too difficult without throwing open the flood gates, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The inaugural fundraising team will be screening each corporate donation. Those determined to...

Peter Schiff speaks to mainstream DNC delegates who want to see a cap or ban on corporate profits.

Some companies are notorious for using interview processes that bring you back to the days of your college entrance exams wrought with riddles, written tests, bizarre questions, and multiple rounds of group or in-person interviews. So which companies have the toughest interview processes out there? Glassdoor dug through more than 80,000 interview reviews shared over the past year to uncover the Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview. Company Interview Difficulty Rating Interview Experience: Positive Interview Experience: Negative Company Rating Company Rating McKinsey 3.9 62% 13% 4.1 Very Satisfied Boston Consulting 3.8 70% 10% 4.1 Very Satisfied Oliver Wyman 3.7...

Obama Calls for Amendment Limiting Free-Speech Rights By Matt Cover August 30, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama endorsed a constitutional amendment that would restrict the free-speech rights of political activist groups by overturning the Supreme Court decision in the landmark Citizens United v FEC case that granted First Amendment rights to corporations. “Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United,” Obama wrote during a question and answer session on the website Reddit on Wednesday. “Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of...

Today Rush made a rather profound observation without even realizing it: RUSH: "Of course corporations are people. What else would they be? Buildings don't hire people." Duh. Really? Yeah, last time I interviewed with that building it didn't do me any good. I interviewed with that desk and I could not get a response whatsoever. Yeah, and then I went and I talked to the White House. And the White House put out a statement. The White House isn't people. It's just a building. If corporations aren't people, how the hell can the White House be people? How can Congress...

Legally speaking, corporations have the same rights as people. We asked you to imagine if there was a real person who embodied everything we know about some of the biggest companies in the world. What would they look like, what job would they have, just how punchable could a human being possibly be?

Earlier this month General Mills came out in opposition to Minnesota's marriage amendment ballot measure. Now supporters of the proposed amendment have launched a boycott of General Mills, imploring consumers to dump their Cheerios, Yoplait, and the myriad other products the Golden Valley manufacturer makes and markets. The National Organization for Marriage said Tuesday, June 26, that it is initiating a protest of General Mills and has launched a website with an online petition in response to General Mills taking a public position on the amendment, which seeks to preserve Minnesota law that defines marriage as the union of a...

In these tough economic times, millions of Americans have leaned heavily on food stamps. This government assistance program also has done well by some of the country’s biggest banks and corporations.   An investigation by the advocacy group Eat Drink Politics found banks and businesses have reaped multi-million-dollar contracts from the government to administer food stamp programs at the state level. Yet, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), doesn’t make public how much profit the banks and other businesses earn by acting as government agents for the program.   One significant beneficiary...

What is ALEC? The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is dedicated to promoting Jeffersonian, free market principles. At ALEC, bi-partisan state legislators from every state come together to develop and share pro-growth, pro-jobs policies. Why Stand With ALEC? Obama's former "green jobs" czar and self-proclaimed communist, Van Jones, has partnered with George Soros and Big Labor to put pressure on state legislators and supportive companies to stop supporting ALEC and their free market agenda. How Can I Help? The left has already been successful in persuading several large corporations to leave the ALEC Private Enterprise Members. Send them, the remaining...

You cannot understand the left if you do not understand that Leftism is a religion. It is not G0d-based (some Left-wing Christians' and Jews' claims notwithstanding), but otherwise it has every characteristic of a religion. The most blatant of those characteristics is dogma. People who believe in Leftism have as many dogmas as the most fundamentalist Christian. One of them is material equality as the preeminent moral goal. Another is the villainy of corporations. The bigger the corporation, the greater the villainy. Thus, instead of the devil, the left has Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, the "military-industrial complex," and...

Reducing employees by more than three quarters in three years is a bold and difficult task. What will it leave behind? Who, under this plan, will still be a US IBM employee in 2015? Top management will remain, the sales organization will endure, as will employees working on US government contracts that require workers to be US citizens. Everyone else will be gone. Everyone.

I’ve sat by and watched progressives attack our liberties, our Constitution and our way of life for long enough. No more. For too long, conservatives have been content to sit on what we call the high ground while the Left racks up small victory after small victory until all we have left is the high ground under our butts. Enough. They go after Rush Limbaugh, and conservatives say, “This is an outrage,” but do nothing. The most extreme, racist left-wing groups contact advertisers and sponsors and pressure them to abandon shows and networks that made them. And too often –...