Free Republic

When Matt Raboin founded his hard cider company in Wisconsin eight years ago, he wanted to buy American. But he soon found out that his needs as a small, upstart cidery couldn’t be met by any existing American bottle makers because his orders were too small. Forced to look overseas, Raboin, like many American small business owners and consumers, found the best bang for his buck in China. Now, his vulnerable business model has been disrupted nearly overnight by President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, which escalated at a dizzying rate, giving business owners little time to adapt. While...

The Treasury Department announced March 2 that it will no longer enforce the Corporate Transparency Act or the associated Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements. Furthermore, the agency announced that, “Not only will it not enforce any penalties or fines associated with the beneficial ownership information reporting rule under the existing regulatory deadlines, but it will further not enforce any penalties or fines against U.S. citizens or domestic reporting companies or their beneficial owners after the forthcoming rule changes take effect either.” The Treasury Department said it will further be issuing a proposed rule that will narrow the scope of the...

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, has reportedly gained access to all systems of the Small Business Administration (SBA), according to PBS on Monday. An email sent to SBA employees revealed that DOGE official Edward Coristine requested access to HR, contract, and payment systems during a call with staff. Employees were told the access was approved but were not informed by whom, and the request required immediate action for Coristine and Donald Park, advisers to DOGE. The SBA, an independent US government agency, supports small businesses and entrepreneurs by providing resources, loans, and disaster recovery...

KEY POINTS * The Corporate Transparency Act of 2021 requires many businesses to report beneficial ownership information by Jan. 1, 2025, in an effort to curb crime through shell companies. * About 32.6 million businesses are subject to the new BOI reporting, according to federal estimates. * Individuals who “willfully” violate the requirement may be subject to fines of $10,000 or more and possible jail time. * A federal court in Texas temporarily halted enforcement. Small businesses and their owners could face penalties of $10,000 or more if they don't comply with a new U.S. Treasury Department reporting requirement by...

Meet historical fascism’s true heirs.In the famous anecdote usually attributed to Bertrand Russel, a scientist lecturing on the earth’s position in the solar system is corrected an old lady who says the earth is actually supported by a giant turtle. When the scientist asked what supports the turtle, she triumphally answered, “It’s turtles all the way down!”Since the Twenties and the rise of Italian Fascism and German Nazism––which eventually become the main referent of the word––the term has become an all-purpose question-begging epithet so promiscuously abused in the Thirties that, as George Orwell said in 1944, “The word Fascism has...

By year-end, Americans will be required to hand over data on their small businesses to the federal government’s law enforcement database... The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is an aggressive domestic program to federally register millions of unsuspecting small business owners under the guise of an “anti-money laundering initiative.” By the end of this year, Americans will be required to hand over their small businesses’ private data — such as owners’ names and home addresses — to the federal government’s law enforcement database, operated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), housed under the Department of the Treasury. Such small businesses...

A former Minnesota bar owner who now commutes two hours a day to sling suds in neighboring Wisconsin said Gov. Tim Walz’s restrictive pandemic-era lockdowns in the state “decimated” local businesses — and caused financial ruin for those who stood up for their livelihoods. “I think he’s an evil man who overstepped his role as the governor. He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us,” Lisa Zarza. ... She said when shelter-in-place and business closures first went into effect in March, 2020, “I did everything I was supposed to do. I wore my mask, I social distanced....

Last fall, Townhall reported that an overwhelming majority of small business employers gave Biden a “C” grade or lower when it comes to President Joe Biden’s efforts to help small businesses, according to the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF). At the time, the Small Business IQ recorded at 52.5, on a scale of 0 to 100, was the lowest recorded from respondents since the JCNF launched the poll in May of 2021. New polling numbers from the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF) and shared exclusively with Townhall found that ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the majority of small business...

As if Joe Biden’s America weren’t a bad enough environment for small business owners, it’s fixing to get even worse—not only do they have to consider a looming recession, inflation driving up overhead, smash and grabs (oftentimes with little to no recourse), a consumer with less to spend, sky-high insurance rates, and increasing taxation, now they get to wonder if copper thieves will strip their A/C units and put their small, family-owned enterprise out of business during their busiest month of the year. Because, that’s exactly what happened to the owners of a local ice cream shop in Louisville, Kentucky....

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...

Another California small business and its workers have seemingly suffered at the hands of the state’s newly enacted $20 minimum wage. ... When making their way to work Monday morning, Navarro and her team learned upon arrival that the restaurant owner had made the decision to close its doors for good. The owner, Loren Wright, told local Fox affiliate KMPH that this was the “last thing” they wanted to do, but knew by Friday night the business likely wouldn’t be able to absorb the wage hike and didn’t “want to ruin their Easter Sunday.” The new California statewide legislation went...

WASHINGTON — Small businesses in Fayette County affected by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore are eligible to apply for U.S. Small Business Administration low-interest loans. Fayette is one of eight Pennsylvania counties where small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses, and private nonprofit organizations now are eligible for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which carry interest rates of 4% (3.25% for private nonprofit organizations) and have terms of as long as 30 years. Businesses can borrow up to $2 million to pay operating expenses if their revenues dropped due to the disaster. Businesses in Maryland;...

A constitutional battle is shaping up over whether the U.S. government can force the owners and top employees of small businesses to send their addresses and photo IDs to federal financial crime investigators. The Biden administration has appealed a decision by a federal judge in Alabama, who ruled this month the Corporate Transparency Act exceeded the powers granted to Congress by the Constitution. The government says the information collected from small businesses will ferret out shell companies and help law and intelligence officers foil human smugglers, drug traffickers and terrorists. The appeal has a good chance because courts rarely strike...

91% of small business owners are concerned that "educational institutions are fostering unrealistic expectations among students regarding post-graduation and professional life." An alarming number of small business owners are concerned that American colleges and universities are creating far-fetched expectations for graduates as they transition into the workforce, according to a new survey. The Freedom Economy Index, a project of Red Balloon and PublicSquare, surveyed over 70,000 small business owners and found that 91% of respondents are concerned that “educational institutions are fostering unrealistic expectations among students regarding post-graduation and professional life.” Small business owners who responded to the survey reported...

Have you heard of the Corporate Transparency Act? Most of the estimated 32 million small business owners, including sole proprietors, whom the new law affects have not. It was just recently put on my radar by a handful of people — quite a shock for a measure that takes effect at the start of the new year! A new reporting rule under the law means that businesses will need to file information with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (a bureau within the U.S. Department of Treasury), including personal information about the people who are associated with the business, or risk...

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics are a kind of social credit system designed to coerce businesses—and, by extension, individuals and all of society—to transform their practices.Through a carrot-and-stick approach, investors and banks (and soon governments) use ESG to push businesses to change how they function, regardless of what the employees and customers of those businesses want. In many cases, however, corporate executives are all too willing to go along, because they want access to the cheap capital offered by investors and financial institutions.The widespread adoption of ESG metrics, which is also commonly called “stakeholder capitalism”—is meant to radically alter...

Small businesses across the United States are experiencing a surge in bankruptcies, surpassing levels not seen since 2020. According to a UBS note reviewed by The Epoch Times, conditions could become worse as the knock-on effects from the recent banking crises begin to manifest.A person holds a sign advertising a sale at Century 21, a retail outlet that announced it was filing for bankruptcy and closing its stores due to the economic impact of the COVID pandemic, in New York City, on Sept. 26, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/File/Reuters)The note from UBS Evidence Lab shows private bankruptcy filings in 2023 have exceeded...

Now that it's April, we can say a spate of banks collapsed last month, but the repercussions of the crisis continue to unfold as if it all happened yesterday. The chatter now centers around a looming credit crunch — but the troubling part is that red flags were flying well before we heard a peep from Silicon Valley Bank. Before March, the number of small- and mid-sized businesses filing for bankruptcy was already on the rise, meaning the bank turmoil only exacerbates an existing trend. UBS strategists wrote in a note last week that those companies have been facing pressure...

Federal spending jumped from $4.45 trillion in 2019 to $6.21 trillion in 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That is a 40 percent increase in four years. The pandemic supercharged the federal budget, and spending and deficits are expected to continue rising unless policymakers pursue major reforms.What is all the new spending since 2019? The answer is surprising, as shown in the two tables below. The main drivers of the recent increases have not been the largest three programs—Social Security, Medicare, and defense—but rather rapid growth in numerous other programs.Table 1 shows CBO spending for 2019 and baseline estimates...

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois will become one of three states to require employers to offer paid time off for any reason after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law on Monday that will take effect next year. Starting Jan. 1, Illinois employers must offer workers paid time off based on hours worked, with no need to explain the reason for their absence as long as they provide notice in accordance with reasonable employer standards. Just Maine and Nevada mandate earned paid time time off and allot employees the freedom to decide how to use it, but Illinois’ law is further reaching,...