Free Republic

WASHINGTON - When British Petroleum (BP) shut down a vital oil pipeline, the company blamed "unexpectedly severe corrosion" in transit pipes. Yet only five months ago, BP's aging pipeline created the largest-ever oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope. Federal regulators blamed the spill on "internal corrosion" and said in some areas the walls of the pipes were so corroded they were almost paper-thin. So critics and industry experts say the latest problem was hardly a surprise. "I think this was predictable and preventable," says Phil Flynn, an energy analyst with Alaron Trading Corp. In fact, allegations about BP's maintenance practices...

In California politics, Silicon Valley executives used to be considered newbies, nerds or simply multimillionaires with too much time and money on their hands. No longer. Emboldened over the past decade by some success passing ballot propositions, a handful of the valley's most influential power brokers are once again aiming to use the initiative process to put their stamp on public policy in California. Two of the boldest electoral initiatives yet to emerge from valley interests will be on November's ballot: NetFlix founder Reed Hastings and Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr are backing Proposition 88, an unprecedented statewide real...

Two California entrepreneurs are developing an IT services business plan that reads like a CIO's paradise: sharply lower IT prices coupled with easy access to software and engineering outsourcing developers just a short boat ride away. It's the "Code Boat," a plan by David Cook and Roger Green, the founders of SeaCode. Their venture calls for staffing a cruise ship three miles off the Southern California coast with customer IT specialists and then making the ship available to IT headquarters staffers through a short water taxi ride. "We're getting a good reception," said Green, a veteran software developer and executive....

The Founding Fathers of Insider Trading by Thomas J. DiLorenzoby Thomas J. DiLorenzo To this day, the U.S. government has not provided a clear legal definition of insider trading. This allows the feds to engage in periodic witch hunts against unpopular business people such as Martha Stewart, the purpose of which is to divert the public’s attention away from the government’s own failed policies and blame it all on "capitalism." But there is a particular type of insider trading – political insider trading – that has been clearly understood for generations. Because this kind of insider trading involves politicians...

Is Economics All There Is? Let me invite you to join a crusade to change the culture and stop the present trend of treating us, our country, the world, everything and everybody in it as mere economic units. I was reminded of the necessity of this when reading a news story in a local paper about the Fourth of July. It was, in fact, just about how businesses catering to visitors fared during the holiday weekend. They did well, but is that what the Fourth of July has become: just another business opportunity? Is it a "good" Fourth if the...

Make Pinocchio CEOs Pay By ROGER LOWENSTEIN This was a tough week for corporate CEOs. They had to swear under oath that the numbers they are reporting to investors are actually true. I suppose you could call it putting your mouth where other people's money is. This provision of the newly enacted corporate reform law has gotten loads of ink, as well it should. CEOs could be criminally liable for bearing false witness. We can only hope that the requirement to truth-tell does not represent a trend, else so many other institutions, such as politics and matrimony not to mention...