$75 Billion for Bad Mortgages, Card Check in Congress and Lowering Global Warming Expectations
The White House unveils the details of its $75 billion mortgage “rescue” spending package.
Democrats in Congress push for changes in labor organizing rules.
President Obama’s top global warming negotiator begins lowering expectations for U.S.
action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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1. BUSINESS
The White House unveils the details of its $75 billion mortgage “rescue” spending package.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs Director John Berlau on Obama’s futile attempts at foreclosure avoidance:
“There are many reasons for foreclosures, from borrowers getting into a house than they couldn’t afford to a job loss or other factors that cause loss of a family’s income. Whatever the cause of the homeowners’ troubles, the focus should not be primarily on keeping people in their homes, but on opportunities to improve their economic situation. If the government wants to spend $75 billion to help troubled homeowners, it would be better off giving a tax holiday to families subject to foreclosure, rather than attempts to stop the foreclosure from occurring that often have unintended consequences.”
2. LABOR
Democrats in Congress push for changes in labor organizing rules.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the effects such changes will have on unemployment:
“This week, Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar, an economist with the Law and Economics Consulting Group, published a new study in which she analyzes the likely economic effects of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) if it were to be enacted, especially on employment…The summary of Layne-Farrar’s findings includes the prediction that ‘If EFCA were to increase the percentage of private sector union membership by between 5 and 10 percentage points, as some have suggested…unemployment would increase by 2.3 to 5.4 million in the following year and the unemployment rate would increase by 1.5 to 3.5 percentage points in the following year.’” [emphasis added]
3. ENVIRONMENT
President Obama’s top global warming negotiator begins lowering expectations for U.S. action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman points out his prescience:
“A month ago, I coined the term ‘envoy of disappointment’ to described Todd Stern, who had been chosen to become the State Department’s roving ambassador on climate change, a new position created by the Obama administration. The label reflected the reality that the U.S. will remain unwilling to put its economy at a competitive disadvantage by signing an international treaty to fight the supposed threat of climate change, no matter what kind of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ Obama brings to Washington. Recent evidence suggests I was right. Obama is a scant 5 weeks into his Presidency, and already the backtracking on climate change has begun.”
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