The Costs of Regulation, Chrysler’s Bankruptcy and Teamsters on Strike
A new report from CEI finds that the annual cost of federal regulation is more than $1.1 trillion.
A federal judge halts Chrysler’s planned bankruptcy deal.
Teamsters threaten to strike against the embattled Minneapolis Star-Tribune over the state of their pension fund.
For more news, listen to the LibertyWeek podcast here.
1. BUSINESS
A new report from CEI finds that the annual cost of federal regulation is more than $1.1 trillion.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the costs and benefits:
“The costs of federal regulations too often exceed the benefits, yet these same regulations receive little official scrutiny from Congress. Rolling back regulations would constitute the deregulatory stimulus that the U.S. economy needs.”
2. LEGAL
A federal judge halts Chrysler’s planned bankruptcy deal.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau on the court’s decision:
“The bankruptcy judges…need to look beyond the individual circumstances of Chrysler and GM to weigh how the treatment of creditor contracts in these cases will affect American credit markets in the future. If courts cave to politicians’ whims and give secured creditors and bondholders less than they would receive under traditional bankruptcy precedents, our credit markets will suffer further damage as lenders and investors will be less willing to put their capital at risk in companies whose contracts could be abrogated at politicians’ demand.”
3. LABOR
Teamsters threaten to strike against the embattled Minneapolis Star-Tribune over the state of their pension fund.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on who union employees should really be mad at:
“It’s no wonder the Teamsters are desperate. The pension plan in questions, the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund, has been in critical financial condition for a long time, and cannot afford to lose any payments. Rank-and-file union members should be asking how the fund got so underfunded in the first place. Union chiefs have been using pension funds as political weapons to advance agendas that add nothing to shareholder value.”
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