Free Republic

The structural problem is that government has too many mouths to feed. It’s possible to quantify that problem. The result is a metric that I call the Deadweight Ratio. It tells you how many beneficiaries of government spending there are for every private sector job. The Deadweight Ratio suggests that Connecticut and New Jersey are, despite well publicized budget deficits, in better shape than most states. It also says that California and New York are going to be sickly credits for a long time to come. Every state has one set of people contributing to the coffer—namely, private sector workers—and...

The 1980s and 1990s were the Belle Époque - the beautiful age - of commercial development, a time when getting project approval could be as simple as shaking the right hand or making the right campaign donation. And Americans were all for it, ready to embrace the next mall or Home Depot or Starbucks Coffee outlet that gave them easy access to consumer products. Mike Saint was there for it and remembers when making proposed developments reality was simple. No more. "At a conference in 2004, I heard a developer say 'Up until 1999, anything I wanted to do was...

MEXICO CITY - Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Nomar Garciaparra will play for Mexico at the World Baseball Classic in March. Garciaparra, a native of Whittier, California, qualifies because of his Mexican parents, Mexican baseball league president Alejandro Hute said in a newspaper interview Saturday. Garciaparra, 32, played for the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs before signing with Los Angeles.

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- After an 18-month bacchanal buying Manolo Blahnik, Gucci and Prada, Karyn Bosnak found herself unemployed and more than $20,000 in credit card debt.</p> <p>When the 29-year-old spotted a sign in a supermarket with an odd request -- "Wanted: $7,000 To Pay Off Debt" -- it made perfect sense. The television producer launched a similar appeal to a much larger audience: the World Wide Web.</p>