Free Republic

by Nick Sorrentino"Much has been made recently of the rich gaming the system for their own benefit. Of a new “guilded age.” Socialist economist Thomas Piketty’s new book has been getting rave reviews from all over the establishment because it makes the case that very powerful people with nearly bottomless bank accounts have gamed the system and that government induced redistribution is in order. And indeed the rich have gamed the system for their benefit, but as Matthew Continetti points out, the game the super rich want to play for the most part is not one of free markets and...

Another blow was struck for competition, common sense and low taxes as Toyota Motor Corp. announced that they be moving their campus in Torrance, California to a suburb outside of Dallas, Texas. “Toyota Motor Corp. is moving substantial parts of its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., to suburban Dallas,” writes the Detroit News, “as the world’s largest automaker seeks savings from its U.S. sales unit, people familiar with the matter said.” Although no figures are yet available, anecdotal evidence suggests that people are fleeing California, not just companies. SFGate.com says that 66% of all state revenue now comes from personal...

Tens of thousands of Chinese millionaires face an uncertain future after Canada's government moved to scrap its controversial investor visa scheme, which has allowed waves of rich Hongkongers and mainland Chinese to immigrate since 1986. The surprise announcement was made in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget, delivered to parliament in Ottawa on Tuesday. An estimated 45,500 mainland Chinese in the queue for visas in Hong Kong will have their applications "eliminated" and their fees returned. The announcement came less than a week after the South China Morning Post revealed how the scheme was overwhelmed by an influx of applications from...

Are you thinking of going to college? If so, please consider that decision very carefully. You probably have lots of people telling you that an "education" is the key to your future and that you will never be able to get a "good job" unless you go to college. And it is true that those that go to college do earn more on average than those that do not. However, there is also a downside. At most U.S. colleges, the quality of the education that you will receive is a joke, the goal of most colleges is to extract as...

This worked so well for France that Belgium had a real estate boom with the new tax on millionaires was announced. And New Jersey learned that millionaires have a tendency to leave when confronted with higher taxes. But Illinois? Well, per Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Illinois is different: “Well, if they’re in Illinois today, they’re probably so much in love with Illinois that they’re not going to leave,” he said, according to the Tribune–a backhanded acknowledgement of how poorly the state is already doing.Madigan may also be encouraged by California’s example, where millionaires have largely...

A record 9.63 million households had a net worth of $1 million or more last year, a 58 percent increase from 2008. The number of affluent households worth between $100,000 and $1 million also went up in 2013 There was a record 9.63 million households in the U.S. with a net worth of $1 million or more last year, according to new market research. The number of millionaire households surged 58 percent from a dip in 2008, when there were 6.7 million households worth $1 million or more (not including primary residences). In 2007, there were 9.2 million households worth...

Chinese millionaires on Tuesday pleaded for the Canadian government not to throw away the immigration applications of thousands of Chinese nationals as part of its plans to end a backlogged investor program. At a news conference, 10 investor applicants delivered their crestfallen message—that their faith in Canada as a “trustworthy country,” with its attractive rule of law, environment and welfare system, was wavering. Last month, Canada announced its intention to terminate its immigrant investor program and eliminate the longstanding backlog of applications—amounting to more than 65,000 people, most of whom are Chinese. It said immigrant investors pay less in taxes...

Full Title: Joel Osteen's $10.5 Million Mansion, Cross-Less Church and Other Surprising Facts About the Mega-Pastor Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, and the bestselling author of books like Your Best Life Now and I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life, has been dubbed "the smiling preacher" due to his toothy smile and upbeat attitude. Here are a few facts about Pastor Osteen and his ministry you might not know. 1. Joel Osteen Met Victoria Osteen in a Jewelry Store Pastor Osteen and his wife Victoria Osteen met in 1985 when he went to a...

“Now I want to tell you something – I was born and raised in New York,” Hannity said. “I want you to know that and I can’t wait to get out of here. I really can’t. I don’t want to pay their 10-percent state tax anymore. I live in the second-highest property taxed county in the entire country in Nassau County. I can’t wait to sell my house to somebody who wants it. I can’t wait to pay no state income tax down in Florida or Texas. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m leaning Florida because I like the water...

Despite his best efforts, the president who vowed to conquer Wall Street and revive opportunity for everyday Americans on Main Street has this to show for his first five years in office: U.S. stock markets are in record territory, posting 30 percent gains just last year, and Wall Street is home once again to the biggest concentration of billionaires on earth, while wages for the middle class have barely kept up with inflation. As President Obama prepares to lay out an economic agenda to address this disappointing state of affairs in his State of the Union address this month, his...

Complete Headline: Congress Is Now Mostly A Millionaires’ Club -- For the first time, more than half of congressional lawmakers are worth at least $1 million Congress is loaded, if you weren’t already aware. The Center for Responsive Politics analyzed the personal financial disclosure data from 2012 of the 534 current members of Congress and found that, for the first time, more than half had an average net worth of $1 million or more: 268 to be exact, up from 257 the year earlier. The median for congressional Democrats was $1.04 million and, for Republicans, $1 million even. To calculate...

It must be nice to a president who has overseen one of the worst recoveries in the modern era, who then moralizes those who think job creation is preferable to endlessly issuing government checks backed by paper money and nearly insurmountable debt. But such is the life of vacationing multi-millionaire Barack Obama, who gets to look down at us while he drives by in a golf cart as small businesses are imploding in the wake of his disastrous policies. Meanwhile, the poor keep getting poorer, and the rich keep getting richer. Dave Urbanski of The Blaze reported on the haughty...

The Minneapolis Star Tribune investigates independent political spending over the last few election cycles. The results are stark, but won’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention: A Star Tribune analysis of ­campaign finance records found that just three dozen individuals or entities have contributed more than $27 million to political action and independent expenditure committees over the past three election cycles. The analysis shows those donations heavily favored Democrats. Unless that trend is reversed, Republicans could find themselves at a disadvantage heading into the 2014 elections…. No kidding. One union — the powerful ­Education Minnesota teachers union — poured...

A renowned Wall Street tycoon gave away his entire $800 million fortune before falling to his death in a suicide jump this week.

Determining which restaurants in the nation offer the steepest prices is a tricky task. Most of the restaurants on this list serve the rarest, most premium, and freshest ingredients available, from kitchens run by chefs with expert levels of craftsmanship and artistry, in dining rooms with an exceptional quality of service provided by the front of house staff. But regardless of the justifications, the fact remains that the restaurants on this list are outrageously pricey. To arrive at the top 25 we compiled a list of restaurants commonly known for being outrageously expensive (such as Masa, which is known for...

More than 75 percent of Europe’s banking millionaires are based in the UK, according to a report by the EU’s bank watchdog. More than 2,700 UK-based bankers were paid more than €1 million in 2012, compared to a further 794 across the rest of the EU. Germany was a distant second with 212, followed by France with 177. Ten EU countries had no banking millionaires. The data, contained in the London-based European Banking Authority annual “High Earners” report, reveal the extent of the UK’s dominance of the banking rich-list. …

Day in and day out, the message from the media is the same. Your country is becoming a nightmare. However you can, get out—and do it now, before you’re trapped. From Saul Alinsky to Sarah Palin, the view of the problem is also the same. Society has been divided into Elites and Real People. But the situation now seems so dire that instead of achieving transformative change, many of us are simply opting to flee into dreams—of a post-revolutionary paradise, or of traditional times restored. As the promise of real life claustrophobically collapses around us, we turn our sights on...

Breitbart News has confirmed that much of the credit for Terry McAuliffe’s narrow 47.9 percent to 45.5 percent victory over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in Tuesday’s election is attributable to a $4 million donation the McAuliffe campaign gave to the Democratic Party of Virginia, which used those funds to run a highly effective ground game for the party’s full slate of candidates. Ashley Bauman, press secretary for the Democratic Party of Virginia, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that "[w]hile we used that money [the $4 million donated to the Democratic Party of Virginia from the McAuliffe campaign]...

Buried inside the budget deal brokered by Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid: a payout to the millionaire widow of the late Democratic senator Frank Lautenberg. There is appropriated for payment to Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, widow of Frank R. Lautenberg, late a Senator from New Jersey, $174,000.” Agreed to by the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate. Lautenberg’s networth $56.8 million last year

What I find most interesting here is that McAuliffe and a bunch of important people and entities — including Flanders’ law firm, the former Cranston Chief of Police, a large-scale bookie once sentenced to prison, and a monsignor who was a top official for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence — all found their way into this same get-rich-quick scheme. It’s smells a lot like something designed for people who think they’re too important to follow the law. I’m not a lawyer, but I can tell you this — if anyone ever approaches you with a guarantee that he can...