Blog
Public Employees’ Compensation Races past Private Sector Workers’
As union membership in government has outpaced that in the private sector, so has compensation. As the Washington Examiner reports: Compensation for…
Blog
Barron’s on the Dire State of Public Employee Pensions
The current issue of Barron’s highlights the crushing burden that employee pensions are putting on state and local governments around the nation. The situation…
Blog
FDIC Threatens Public Pensions
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is trying to get public pension funds to help prop up failed banks by buying into them, reports…
Blog
Obama Names SEIU’s Stern to Deficit Commission
President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations to…
Blog
Myths about Labor Myths
Sunday’s Washington Post features a supposed myth-debunking piece about organized labor that is so misleading that it’s hard to know where to begin driving…
Blog
Not-so-Happy Stimulus Anniversary
The Obama administration and its allies are trying their hardest to put a happy face on the first anniversary of the the gargantuan $787-billion stimulus…
Blog
O’Neill on the Sorry Heritage of “Overpopulation”
At Spiked Online, Brendan O’Neil dissects the absurdity of neo-Malthusians who seek to portray themselves as intellectual mavericks, by presenting “overpopulation” as the environmental…
Blog
Will Obama Recess-Appoint Becker?
With the nomination of former SEIU associate general counsel Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) most likely dead in the Senate, the…
Blog
The Audi Super Bowl Ad’s Very Fitting Music
I fully agree with Marlo’s take on the Audi “Green Police” Super Bowl ad. It well parodies environmental zealots’ authoritarian instincts, while at the…
Blog
Driving the Bus all the Way to the Bank
Investment bankers and lawyers, move aside. If you want a truly high-powered salary, try driving a bus. Last year, the Madison, Wisconsin’s highest paid city…
Blog
Government Unions up, Private Sector Unions down but not out
The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of the crucial shift in union membership that reached a tipping point last week: More union members…
Blog
The Nation Confirms Craig Becker’s Radicalism
Former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) associate general counsel Craig Becker, who has been nominated to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by President Obama,…
Blog
Fighting for Freedom of Music in Cuba
At Freemuse.org, Kristina Funkeson reviews the documentary film Cuba Rebelion!, which chronicles the underground music scene that has been thriving in Cuba in recent…
Blog
The High Cost of Project Labor Agreements
At Biggovernment.com, Mandy/Liberty Chick provides a comprehensive overview of project labor agreements (PLAs), which impose onerous conditions on contractors who wish to bid on government…
Blog
The Money behind an Anti-Tea Party Hatchet Job
My colleague Lee Doren uncovers the money behind an online hatchet job on the tea party protests: I just came across a new website…
Blog
“Here’s a way of paying for things that’s not going to cost you anything.”
Public employee unions, as I’ve noted previously, make up a permanent lobby for bigger government. Now they have a major victory. Oregonians who went…
Blog
SEIU and the Shareholder Resolution Weapon
At Biggovernment.com, blogger Mandy/Liberty Chick has a good, concise account of the rise of shareholder resolutions as a favorite tool of organized labor. By…
Blog
SEIU Suffers a Major Loss in California
The powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has taken a major hit from a rival union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which is…
Blog
More Union Members now Work for Governments than for Businesses
For the first time in U.S. history, the majority of the country’s union members work for government, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. For…
Blog
SOTU: Irish Entrepreneurs Put Politics to Productive Use
The Washington Examiner’s David Freddoso reports that Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, is taking bets on President Obama’s State of the Union speech…
Blog
Steve Forbes: How Capitalism Will Save Us
Steve Forbes gave a very good talk today, on the topic of his new book (co-authored with Elizabeth Ames), How Capitalism Will Save Us:…
Blog
“Homer doughnut. Bacon doughnut. Paradise.”
Thus says Morgan Spurlock in The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special. When I first heard that Spurlock, whose most renowned contribution to film is a leftish…
Blog
The Audacity of Doom
At Bigjournalism.com, Woody Hochswender puts global warming alarmism in the context of a long tradition of doomsaying — which wasn’t invented by Al Gore…
Blog
Spiked Online on Art, Commerce, and Rebellion
Blog
Massie on the Politics of Snow
Blog
Richard Epstein: “Deregulation Now”
In his Forbes.com column, University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein offers a simple proposal for reviving the economy: “Deregulation Now.” His proposals are…
Blog
Public Sector Unions’ Heavy Burden on Taxpayers
As the old saying goes, when you start getting flak, you must be over the target. That seems like a good reason for the hysterical…
Blog
Say No to EFCA in 2010
Given the amount of palm-greasing that was required to get reluctant moderate Democratic senators to vote to end debate on Obamacare, it's unlikely that those…
Blog
The Economist on Government Employee Unions
The current issue of The Economist leads off its United States section with a story on public sector unions that breaks down the issue very…
Blog
Legal Challenge to Michigan Union Power Grab
With the Detroit auto industry floundering, the United Auto Workers is turning its attention to…day care provider. And to do so, the UAW partnering with…
Blog
Government Employee Pensions’ Threat to New Jersey’s Fiscal Health
New Jersey residents pay the highest state and local taxes in the nation, notes the New Jersey Taxpayers’ Association (NJTA). And what do they get…
Blog
“Cultlike” Union Organizing Tactics?
The row between the UNITE-HERE hospitality and textile union and Workers United — which broke away from UNITE-HERE earlier this year and joined the powerful…
Blog
Obama Administration Hits Brakes on Project Labor Agreement
The Obama administration this week called off bidding on what would have been a union-friendly federal construction project bidding process, in response to a contractor complaint over…
Blog
SEIU’s California Scheming V
The bitter ongoing fight between the national leadership of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the former leadership of a SEIU Oakland, California, health…
Blog
Virginia May Privatize ABC Stores; It’s about Time
In a time when the federal government’s involvement in the economy appears to only grow, it’s encouraging to see at least one industry where the trend…
Blog
If at First You Don’t Succeed, Change the Rules.
From attempting to manipulate the definition of “supervisor” to changing the way in which workers are organized, the above seems to be a…
Blog
My Power Company Wants to Sell Me Climate Indulgences
I pay my power bill online, so whenever I get something from Dominion Virginia Power over snail mail it catches my attention. Usually, it’s some…
Blog
Eliot Spitzer Wants your Pension
Today, Slate features a rant by disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer that includes distortions and falsehoods so blatant that they wouldn’t merit…
Blog
How Much Harm Do Teacher Unions Do?
Plenty, according to the new film, The Cartel. The film purports to show “educational system like we’ve never seen it before. Behind every dropout…
Blog
More on Public Sector Unions
Slate blogger Mickey Kaus explains how public sector unions are driving state and local governments to the brink of bankruptcy (via Nick Gillespie at…
Blog
The Wages of Government Unions
The Economist‘s current Lexington column highlights the growing public resentment at the widening disparity between compensation and job security in the private and public…
Blog
2002 Economics Nobel Prize Winner Vernon Smith on 2009 Winner Elinor Ostrom
In honor of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, it’s worth recalling a mention of Ostrom’s…
Blog
Now Crist Goes after Utilities
Not content with exposing Florida to financial catastrophe by taking on responsibility for insuring coastal properties, Florida Governor Charlie Crist (R) continues his assault…
Blog
Big Labor’s Big Prize in Health Care “Reform”
In his Wall Street Journal column today, Holman Jenkins highlights one of the prizes at stake for organized labor in the current health care…
Blog
Rowdy Unionists Shout Down Opponents
Yesterday in Harrisburg, rowdy unionists disrupted a rally held by two Pennsylvania state legislators to promote legislation to end project labor agreements (PLAs), which…
Blog
New Study on How Government Employee Unions Squeeze Public Budgets
As in other states, government employee unions oppose cuts that would affect their members. All unions do this, but public sector unions are different.
Blog
DC Councilman Graham’s Chief of Staff Indicted on Bribery Charges Related to Taxi Legislation
Graham's chief of staff, Ted Loza, has been indicted on bribery charges relating to the taxicab legislation.
Blog
Selling the Rope, as Lenin Predicted
Blog
Gypsy Cabs Coming soon to DC?
If you’ve ever been to Brooklyn, you’ve almost certainly seen firsthand the shortage of taxis that has been created by New York City’s licensing restrictions,…
Blog
Slate’s William Saletan vs. the Food Cops
Slate’s William Saletan has had it with the growing overreach of the food police, a reaction which he acknowledges puts him in unusual company.
Blog
New Frontier? Hardly
Today in the Washington Examiner, James Jay Carafano of The Heritage Foundation makes a strange case for what he describes as the opening of…
Blog
Solis Tells AFL-CIO: “I am proud and humbled to be your humble servant…”
The AFL-CIO, at its recent convention in Pittsburgh, had much to celebrate, including the fact that a Labor Secretary showed up to pay tribute to…
Blog
Prohibition’s Hangover Still with Us
Interesting lectures are a great thing. Good cocktails are a very good thing. But when the two are combined into a single presentation, the effect…
Blog
Project Labor Agreements’ Dire Effects on Minority Contractors
Today, DC Progress, a public policy organization that focuses on the District of Columbia, hosted a panel on the issue of underemployment. DC Progress…
Blog
Happy Labor Day!
In a new poll, Gallup finds public support for organized labor at its lowest level since it began taking the survey. Gallup finds organized…
Blog
Marion Barry Unplugged and Uncensored
Blog
The EU’s Silly Ban of the 100-Watt Bulb
Starting this week, it will be illegal to make or import 100-watt light bulbs in the European Union. And for what? New Scientist reporter…
Blog
Elaine Chao: Union transparency “more important than Beck;” EFCA “terrible”
Today, at the Heritage Foundation blogger briefing, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao described the union transparency requirements introduced during the Bush administration as “more important…
Blog
Cash for Clunkers Sputters to an End
The Transportation Department announced today that it will wind down the Cash for Clunkers program, which the Obama administration promoted as a way to both…
Blog
Former ACORN Las Vegas Director to Testify against Organization
The former director of the Las Vegas chapter of the far-left advocacy group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has agreed to…
Blog
Hurricane Activity Increase Due to Better Monitoring
The potential threat from more frequent and stronger hurricanes is a favorite scare scenario of climate alarmists. They point to disasters like Hurricane Katrina as…
Blog
Tim Carney on State-Level Insurance Protectionism
In one regulated area of the economy after another, it’s exasperating to hear journalists and pundits claim that, “The market has failed,” when in fact…
Blog
RIP Les Paul, Legendary Guitarist & Inventor
Blog
Democratic Senator Blasts Union Boss
It’s not every day that a Democratic Senator blasts a labor union, which is why the recent mini-controversy surrounding the nomination of United Transportation Union…
Blog
“Markets fail. Use markets.”
Blog
A Poster too Important to Leave to the Market
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is giving away copies of a poster (pictured right) of Barack Obama, which it describes as “an original…
Blog
Carney on Cash for Clunkers
Former CEI Warren Brookes Fellow Tim Carney, highlights the high cost of the Cash for Clunkers program, which I wrote about here…
Blog
Cash for Clunkers’ Real Cost
As Frederic Bastiat succinctly noted long ago, when determining the effects of a specific action, it is necessary to consider not only “what is…
Blog
Freedom Anniversary: The Acquittal of John Peter Zenger
Blog
California’s Biofuels Policy: Yes, No, or Both
The Los Angeles Times‘ Judith Lewis relates an amusing example of how government can undermine its own harebrained schemes. It was a fine June…
Blog
The Wall Street Journal on the Union Pension Debacle
Two weekend Wall Street Journal editorials sum up well the ticking time-bomb of underfunded union pension funds. First, the dire state of many union…
Blog
UAW Gives Taxpayers the (Gettel)finger
Considering the enormous amounts of cash that the federal government has hurled at the auto industry since the start of the financial crisis, recipients…
Blog
The People’s Phone
Venezuela’s increasingly ridiculous strongman, Hugo Chavez, would be funny if not for the misery and repression he continues to impose upon his own citizens. From…
Blog
An Important, yet Little Noticed Civil Liberties Case
A friend currently in law school complained to me recently about the lack of public attention and media coverage that has been accorded to the…
Blog
The Washington Post’s Conflicted Take on Honduras and the OAS
That the Organization of American States has squandered whatever credibility it had should be obvious to all by now — and it’s not just right…
Blog
Miami Is Corrupt and Weird
Blog
NRO on EFCA’s Binding Arbitration Provision
Today’s National Review Online editorial looks at the so-called Employee Free Choice Act’s arbitration provision, which would subject newly unionized companies to having a…
Blog
Union Pension Fund Bailout Taking on a New Form
Senate Democrats and organized labor leaders are reportedly near a deal on removing the card-check provision from the s0-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That…
Blog
George Will on the UPS/Teamsters Campaign against FedEx
Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron,” describes a world in which the utopian dream of equality has been achieved beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings: “Nobody was…
Blog
Harsanyi on Holdren
Today, Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi shines a light on Obama “science czar” John Holdren’s disturbing past pronouncements — which Marc Scribner wrote…
Blog
TV Review of the Year: “so bad it will make you regret being born with eyes”
Blog
Reason’s Shikha Dalmia on EFCA’s Binding Arbitration Provision
With Al Franken joining the Senate, public attention is again turning to the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In the weekend Wall Street Journal,…
Blog
“It would be hard to devise a surer formula for economic catastrophe.”
It may not be in a debacle like California’s, but I still find it galling to see my home state of Florida go from being…
Blog
Reason’s Michael Moynihan on the SEIU Chavistas
At Reason Hit & Run, Michael C. Moynihan looks at the Service Employees Internatinoal Union’s harassing of broadcasters who air ads opposing the so-called…
Blog
Adding Insult to Auto Dealers’ Injury
If anything could make finding yourself out of business overnight any worse, it is to have to pay a penalty for it. That’s what now…
Blog
EPA Whistleblower in The Wall Street Journal
Today in her column, The Wall Street Journal‘s Kimberley Strassel explains the Obama EPA’s censoring of an internal study that questioned the scientific foundation…
Blog
Put Rocket Fuel, Not Corn in Your Tank
As the ethanol industry sees its prospects flounder, it has sought the help of an actual general to stem the public backlash against its uneconomic,…
Blog
Alexis Arguello, RIP
Three-time champion and Boxing Hall of Famer Alexis Arguello was found dead of a gunshot would this morning, at his home in Managua, Nicaragua, of…
Blog
Krugman Undermines Waxman-Markey Job Creation Claims
Today, National Public Radio held a pep rally for the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, with Paul Krugman as head cheerleader. No critic of the bill…
Blog
“Take My Voice with You”
Thus tells an Iranian woman to a journalist passing through her town, in the new film, The Stoning of Soraya M., which opens…
Blog
Green Pork and (Davis) Bacon
The alliance between organized labor and leftist environmentalists remains as strong as ever. As Carter Wood at Shopfloor.org notes, the Waxman-Markey climate change bill…
Blog
The Stoning of Soraya M.
The Stoning of Soraya M. is a difficult film to watch, but worth taking the time to do so. The film . . . depicts…
Blog
Motoring around the World on Motor City Workers’ Dime
Detroit can astound even the most seasoned political cynic, and now it’s done it again. As the Detroit Free Press reports, the trustees…
Blog
Barney Frank Asked about Executive Pay Curbs; Throws Tantrum
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) appears to be working in tandem with the Obama administration on making executive pay subject to shareholder votes. That seems…
Blog
Feinstein Withdraws Support for EFCA (for now)
California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein is withdrawing her support for the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), organized labor’s top legislative priority, reports a…
Blog
Teamsters’ Pension Fund Panic
The Teamsters union is threatening a strike that could cripple the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Reports AP: The Teamsters union is threatening a strike it says…
Blog
The AFL-CIO’s “Creative Accounting”
The AFL-CIO has obscured its poor financial condition through “creative accounting,” says Machinists union President Tom Buffenbarger, reports Associated Press. Tom Buffenbarger, president of…
Blog
Lincoln Remains Opposed to EFCA
The possibility of parts of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), specifically EFCA’s binding arbitration provision, coming back into the political arena has focused…
Blog
Klaus vs. the Eurocrats
In The American Spectator, former CEI Bastiat Scholar Doug Bandow (now at the Cato Institute) describes how “[o]nly the Irish people and Czech President…
Blog
George McGovern on Binding Arbitration
With Democrats just shy of the 60 votes they need to end a filibuster, the fate of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act remains in…