Free Republic

Nearly half of 80,000 small businesses surveyed say they won’t survive the current economic climate, ongoing inflation or another four years of Biden administration policies, according to the survey conducted by RedBalloon and Public Square. Their May Freedom Economy Index found that small businesses “remain in survival mode,” with 40% delaying paying bills to manage cash flow and 70 percent putting staffing plans on hold, neither hiring nor reducing staff, “the highest reading … over the past year,” the report states. Among those surveyed, 64% said the U.S. is headed toward stagflation, when inflation continues to climb and the economic...

Bankruptcy courts are working overtime this year, with corporate America seeing the highest monthly bankruptcy count since 2020. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, the US recorded 75 new bankruptcies filed by mid-size and large corporations in June. Given ongoing economic pressures, this trend could continue.So far, in 2024, there have been 346 bankruptcy filings, including 17 cases with liabilities exceeding ~$1B — outstripping any comparable figure from the last 13 years.The consumer discretionary sector accounted for 55 of these filings — while the healthcare and industrial sectors each had 40.‘Til debt do us part: S&P Global blames high interest...

A group of top business leaders sent a letter to President Biden Friday urging him to end his reelection campaign in the wake of his poor debate performance last week. As of Friday morning, the letter was signed by 186 people who said they were fearful about the future of the country. **SNIP** In the letter, the group said it admires the president’s decades of service and noted his legacy will be known as one that rescued democracy from a large threat. “To ensure that legacy is cemented, we ask that you pass the torch of leadership to the next...

Politics typically comes with plenty of spin. Even something seemingly unyielding or absolute like a number can get squished and twisted like putty. As such, flashy economic data points extolled by candidates always come with plenty of asterisks, caveats and “yes, buts.” In this election cycle, those qualifiers have multiplied in part due to quirks in the numbers themselves: A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and a once-in-a-generation inflation event sent shockwaves through the economy, distorting data and presidential economic records in the process. “Interpreting economic data is like interpreting a Monet painting in the best of times,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at...

Rep. Ilhan Omar is facing a new ethics complaint alleging she did not report tens of thousands of dollars in assets from her husband's weed and alcohol business. Since Omar and Tim Mynett, a Democratic operative, wed in 2020, there has been scrutiny over his business ventures. Now, there is a scathing new complaint against Mynett following a Minnesota Reformer report. It states that he is being sued for failing to properly pay back his business investors. It calls on the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to launch a 'preliminary inquiry' before referring the matter to the House Ethics Committee....

Crosman is shutting down one of its product plants in Ontario County. According to the Rochester Business Journal, the East Bloomfield-based air gun manufacturer stated in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed with the state that 10 people would be laid off by the end of the year as a result. The furloughs are expected to begin in September. Additional details were not released. Crosman is a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of air guns, accessories, and related consumables.

More companies are declaring bankruptcy and shutting down operations, citing inflation and high costs. Inflation and the economy remains a top issue among all voters, according to a recent The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll. Retailers are closing nearly 3,200 stores this year, according to a recent analysis from CoreSight Research. The closures are a 24% increase from 2023. U.S. drug stores and pharmacy closures led to 8 million square feet of shuttered retail space this year, the research company said. It also notes that retailers are losing inventory and customers due to retail theft. “Retail shrink” is closely connected...

Small businesses are citing the highest levels of uncertainty since the COVID-19 pandemic, a concerning economic indicator. The National Federation of Independent Businesses released the survey of small businesses, which found that small business uncertainty spiked last month. NFIB keeps an “Uncertainty Index” which spiked 9 percentage points last month, hitting the highest level since November of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and businesses were shutting down across the country. “The small business sector is responsible for the production of over 40% of GDP and employment, a crucial portion of the economy,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said...

James Biden on Monday attended Hunter Biden’s gun trial in Wilmington, Delaware. James Biden is President Joe Biden’s younger brother and family business associate. Both Hunter and James Biden were criminally referred to the Justice Department last week for allegedly lying to Congress about the family business. James Biden’s companies received at least 20 wires totaling $1,398,999 through Hunter’s entities, according to the 2020 Senate Report by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson.

John Catsimatidis, Grant Cardone react to Trump being found guilty on all 34 counts in hush money trial Prominent business executives have warned that more New York enterprises and their leaders may fall victim to "no rule of law" in the wake of Donald Trump’s guilty verdict. "If they can do this to a business person like Donald Trump, they could do it to anybody in New York and a lot of businesses. A lot of people are concerned that there is no rule of law," billionaire CEO John Catsimatidis said Friday on "Mornings with Maria." "If they can do...

Prominent business executives have warned that more New York enterprises and their leaders may fall victim to "no rule of law" in the wake of Donald Trump’s guilty verdict. "If they can do this to a business person like Donald Trump, they could do it to anybody in New York and a lot of businesses. A lot of people are concerned that there is no rule of law," billionaire CEO John Catsimatidis said Friday on "Mornings with Maria." ... Cardone recently pulled his business out of the Empire State and cautioned that Trump’s legal troubles — including a previous $355...

Most Americans agree that former President Donald Trump’s business records trial is a “political sham,” the Trump campaign said at the start of jury deliberations, which began Wednesday. “According to the appended memo based on our internal surveys conducted by Tony Fabrizio, well over 50 percent of Americans have consistently stated the trial is a political sham,” the Trump campaign’s Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a memo released Wednesday. “A vast majority of Republicans and independents believe that the prosecution has failed to make their case that Donald Trump did anything wrong. They see the corrupt Judge and...

Starting your career with a business major is a strategic move in today's dynamic job market. This qualification opens doors to many lucrative and impactful opportunities. And you'll find some of the highest-paying business jobs right here on Monster.Trends indicate a positive outlook for business careers. The job market is robust, with a wide range of sectors such as finance, consulting, human resources, and marketing seeking business-savvy professionals. This demand is fueled by an ongoing need for graduates with strategic thinking, financial acumen, and innovative problem-solving skills.You can carve out a highly rewarding career in these lucrative sectors with the...

On May 19, 2024, United States District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk issued a temporary restraining order against the Biden administration, forbidding them from enforcing the parts of the ATF “final rule” having to do with a re-definition of “engaged in the business” as part of federal firearms law. From the order: CONCLUSION Defendants are TEMPORARILY RESTRAINED from enforcing the regulations — “Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms” — published at 89 Fed. Reg. 28968 (April 19, 2024) (to be codified at 27 C.F.R. pt. 478) against Plaintiffs Texas, Jeffery Tormey, the Gun Owners of America,...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that offering condolences to Iran for the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on Sunday was the “normal course of business.” The State Department issued a statement of condolences without mentioning Raisi’s brutal legacy, including the executions of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s, and prosecuting pro-democracy activists more recently. Raisi was also seen as a hardliner, and suppressed protests by women, including Mahsa Amini, resulting in what Breitbart News’ Frances Martel called “some of the most violent repression of dissidents caught on...

According to Kenneth Schrupp at The Center Square, a new analysis from the U.S. News and World Report agency found that California ranked “dead last” among the 50 states when it comes time to “opportunity.” In other news water is still wet.What could have possibly indicated that California wasn’t the friendliest location for anyone wanting to build a life of prosperity and freedom?Was it the state’s nearly seventy-billion-dollar deficit?Was it the mass exodus that has seen hundreds of thousands of people flee the state for friendlier locales, a trend which has resulted in a net negative for legal population and...

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer claimed that a business operated by Hunter Biden made monthly payments to President Joe Biden, backed by a subpoenaed bank record showing funds flowing from Owaso PC to Joe Biden. The committee alleges that Hunter Biden’s business account received payments from Chinese-state-linked companies and other foreign entities, implicating Joe Biden in his son’s business activities. The panel also released an email expressing concerns over money from China going to Hunter Biden, raising questions about the Biden family’s business dealings. Comer called for accountability, accusing the Bidens of corruption. “Hunter Biden is...

The Port Authority announced on Monday a historic milestone in the ongoing $19 billion transformation of JFK International Airport, where a record $2.3 billion in contracts have been awarded to Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE). The JFK redevelopment also demonstrates a significant focus on working with local contractors, awarding more than $950 million in contracts to Queens-based businesses to date. “When we embarked on this historic, $19 billion public-private effort to transform JFK into a world-class international gateway, we pledged that the economic opportunities generated at the airport would flow fairly to the neighborhoods surrounding the airport,” Port Authority...

The Biden administration has saddled the U.S. economy with more than $1 trillion worth of final rules and regulations thus far in 2024, according to analysis conducted by the American Action Forum (AAF).The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final emissions regulations for light- and medium-duty vehicles, which some have characterized as an electric vehicle (EV) mandate, pushed the costs of the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda over the $1 trillion threshold for 2024, alone, according to AAF’s analysis. Across all agencies and regulatory actions last week, the federal government published regulations imposing $103 billion worth of total costs and 11.6 million annual...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) received a stunning rebuke Wednesday on what should have been a slam-dunk resolution to oppose antisemitism followed by a rare procedural defeat on legislation to clarify mining regulations. The events, hours after Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced they would force a vote to expel Johnson, do little to show Johnson has a firm hand on the wheel. The Antisemitism Awareness Act, introduced by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Jared Moskowitz (R-FL), would mandate that when the Department of Education enforces federal anti-discrimination laws it uses a definition of antisemitism put forward...