Free Republic

On the last Tuesday in September, an important deadline loomed for the men and women who would be president. The Federal Election Commission requires those running for office to report how much their campaigns have raised each quarter, and the last-minute fundraising appeals that ensue often reach a dramatic pitch as politicians seek to raise a figure that proves they have staying power. Starting at about 9:30 p.m. that evening, online donations through Sen. Bernie Sanders’s website, store and the ActBlue fundraising site reached the phenomenal clip of about two contributions per second. They stayed at that high and steady...

Listed below are the top 10 contributions from 62901 during the 2008 cycle. MAKHDOOM, ZAHOOR Obama, Barack (D) SELF EMPLOYED/PHYSICIAN $4,000 06/30/08 MAKHDOOM, ZAHOOR Obama, Barack (D) SELF EMPLOYED/PHYSICIAN $2,300 06/30/08 MAHKDOOM, SUMERA Obama, Barack (D) $2,000 06/30/08 MAHKDOOM, SUMERA Obama, Barack (D) $1,500 06/30/08 MAKHDOOM, ZAHOOR Obama, Barack (D) SELF EMPLOYED/PHYSICIAN $1,300 03/30/08

Edvard Munch's 1895 pastel "The Scream" hits the auction block in New York on Wednesday. No official estimate for its monetary value is printed in Sotheby's catalog, but officials have not been shy about disclosing that they expect at least $80 million for the picture, still in the original frame annotated by the artist. When one of the world's most recognizable images is paired with the highest price any auction house has ever tagged on a work of art, the temptation for snark is nearly irresistible. As in: $80 million? No wonder the guy's screaming.

If you were a member of the Wall Street aristocracy, one of those hedge fund hot shots who makes half a billion dollars a year, which horse would you bet on in the race for the White House? Senator John McCain seems like the natural choice for the rich who are voting their wallets. After all, Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, might help the wealthy keep more of their supersize incomes by making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, the two Democratic contenders, talk about getting tough on the rich. But at...

Feeding art-world anticipation of one of the biggest auction seasons in history, the entertainment mogul David Geffen has sold in private transactions two postwar paintings by Jasper Johns and Willem de Kooning for a total of $143.5 million. The buyers, Kenneth C. Griffin and Steven A. Cohen, are among today’s most successful hedge fund billionaires and are both building high-profile art collections. Mr. Griffin, managing director and chief executive of the Chicago-based Citadel Investment Group, and his wife, Anne, bought “False Start,” a seminal 1959 work by Mr. Johns, for $80 million. Mr. Cohen, the founder and manager of SAC...

The richest man in Illinois does not often give speeches. But on a warm spring day two years ago, Kenneth C. Griffin, the billionaire founder of one of the world's largest hedge funds, rose before a black-tie dinner of the Economic Club of Chicago to deliver an urgent plea to the city's elite. They had stood silently, Mr. Griffin told them, as politicians spent too much and drove businesses and jobs from the state. They had refused to help those who would take on the reigning powers in the Illinois Capitol. "It is time for us to do something," he...