Free Republic

The chemical giants DuPont and Dow Chemical Co. agreed to merge in an all-stock deal valuing the combined company at $130 billion, with plans to eventually split into three. The deal, which is likely to face intense regulatory scrutiny, allows the new company — to be called DowDuPont -- to rejig assets based on the diverging fortunes of their businesses that make agriculture chemicals and plastics. Dow and DuPont have been struggling to cope with falling demand for farm chemicals because of falling crop prices and a strong dollar, even as their plastics businesses have thrived thanks to low natural-gas...

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, GOP front runner Donald Trump is firing back at the Club for Growth. “They’re a pack of thieves,” Trump told Breitbart News as he was leaving Nashville’s Rocketown facility. He had just finished delivering a high-energy speech to an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 people. Trump was attending the annual convention of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, which describes itself as “the grassroots Republican wing of the Republican Party.” “They [the Club for Growth] came to my office looking for money. I turned them down. That’s why they’re after me,” Trump...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -- About four years ago, the Google team trying to develop cars driven by computers - not people - concluded that sooner than later, the technology would be ready for the masses. There was one big problem: No state had even considered whether driverless cars should be legal. And yet this week, Google said it wants to give Californians access to a small fleet of prototypes it will make without a steering wheel or pedals. The plan is possible because, by this time next year, driverless cars will be legal in the tech giant's home state.

(CNSNews.com) - As job growth lags in the sluggish economic recovery, the Obama White House is pointing to climate change policies as a fix: Efforts to reduce carbon pollution, far from costing jobs, will create them, a White House spokesman told reporters on Wednesday: "Retrofitting buildings and modernizing them is one way to create jobs," Josh Earnest said. "It saves companies money in terms of their energy costs, but it also creates jobs in terms of people who are installing updated lighting, modern heating and cooling systems, and other things that make buildings more efficient." Earnest noted that President Obama...

Ten years since Malta accessed the European Union, the country’s business community has been provided with the necessary platform to expand their produce and improve their opportunities, but while the majority of companies have flourished amid increasing competition, some failed to meet EU standards. In the wake of Malta’s milestone anniversary, Sunday newspaper Illum interviewed four business directors – all of whom voiced their delight at how the local business community improved since May 2004. Famalco’s Business Director Hermann Mallia, Saint James Hospital Director Maria Bugeja, Impressions Managing Director Ron Mifsud and the CEO of Malta Business Bureau Joe Tanti,...

Hungary’s governing party is tipped to win parliamentary elections Sunday, while a far-right party is expected to make further gains, according to polls. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party and its small ally, the Christian Democrats, are expected to win easily and they may even retain the two-thirds majority in the legislature gained in 2010 which allowed them to pass a new constitution, adopt unconventional economic policies, centralize power and grow the state’s influence at the expense of the private sector.Polls predict Fidesz will win around 45-50 percent of the votes, with a close race for second between a coalition...

Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway posted a record profit in 2013, jumping 31 percent over the previous year, the company said in its annual report, released on Saturday. Profit for the full year rose to $19.5 billion from $14.8 billion in 2012. Net income rose to $4.99 billion in the fourth quarter, or $3,035 per Class A share, from $4.55 billion, or $2,757 per share, a year earlier.

Top Illinois politicians say a multimillion-dollar institute bound for Chicago will be the nation’s flagship research site for digital manufacturing. Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday publicly heralded Chicago’s selection by the Defense Department as the site of one of two manufacturing institutes. …