Blog
Detroit, D.C.
Today’s Wall Street Journal further drives home the difficult position in which the United Auto Workers, Chrysler, and General Motors are likely to find themselves…
Blog
Washington Swallows Detroit, Gives UAW a Piece
The United Auto Workers’ (UAW) loud complaining that they’re being asked to bear a disproportionate share of the costs of restructuring the Big Three begs…
Blog
Fix Social Security; Unleash Capital
In RealClearMarkets.com, Fred Smith and I explain how the seemingly forgotten — but still important — goal of Social Security reform can help unleash capital,…
Blog
Specter Switches, Says He’ll Still Oppose Card Check, Then What?
There’s nothing worse for an economy than uncertainty. Today, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has thrown large swathes of America’s struggling economy into a guessing game,…
Blog
Farewell Union Transparency
Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis repeals vital reporting regulations which allowed union members to know how their hard earned dues money was being spent…
Blog
North Korea Adopts Floral Basket-Based Economy
Isolated from the rest of the world, Kim Jong Il’s bankrupt North Korean regime appears to have stumbled upon a new gimmick to stay afloat:…
Blog
Unions Disunited — and Fighting
The civil war between the two factions that until recently made up the union UNITE-HERE heated up further this week. Yesterday, the leadership…
Blog
Whither Hemispheric Trade?
In his post-Summit of the Americas remarks in Trinidad and Tobago today, President Obama stated his administration’s commitment to improving relations with countries around the…
Blog
Tea Parties and the Wisdom of Mobs
Blog
“A good time to start liquidating”
How damaging would the so-called Employee Free Choice Act be to businesses? Enough to force some healthy companies into bankruptcy. Specificaly, EFCA’s binding arbitration provision…
Blog
Liability Gone Haywire Down Under
An 82-year-old Australian grandmother says she is prepared to go to jail rather than pay a A$1-million (US$731,000) bill to clean up toxic chemicals…
Blog
Phil Spector Found Guilty
Blog
LOST to Pirates
The celebrations and congratulations over the U.S. Navy’s rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips are well deserved and proper all around. Yet even after the…
Blog
The Growing Chorus against Foreign Aid
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O’Grady takes on the Obama administration’s approach to foreign aid, which, she argues, amounts merely to maintaining…
Blog
Lincoln To Vote No on Card Check
Arkansas Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln announced today that she will oppose the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, also known as teh “card check” bill.
Blog
UNITE-HERE Civil War Sets Up AFL-CIO vs. SEIU Confrontation
Like the Cold War-era Third World civil wars in which the superpowers would fight each other by proxy, the increasingly bitter row within UNITE-HERE…
Blog
Postmodern Union-on-Union Fight
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is being denounced by a group of its own employees for doing, well, nothing wrong or illegal, but something…
Blog
With news coverage like this…
…does organized labor need a PR operation? In today’s Politico, Jeanne Cummings repeats — without qualification — the half-truth that supporters of the so-called…
Blog
Economic Illiteracy’s Here Again
Blog
The Socialism that Dare not Speak its Name
“Socialism” is dead, according to Matthew Dallek, writing in the Politico. I put the term in quotes, because what Dallek defines as socialism is…
Blog
States Revolt against Card Check
State legislators are unhappy about the prospect of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) being imposed on their constituents’Â businesses. That was a central…
Blog
Eugene Scalia on Card Check
With passage of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) growing more in doubt, organized labor and its Congressional allies are resorting to pushing the…
Blog
Going Ballistic on Card Check
Today’s Wall Street Journal, in an editorial, notes organized labor’s latest hardball tactic in its effort to help enact the so-called Employee Free…
Blog
Enemies of Sound Money
Blog
Buffett Opposes Card Check, but Don’t Forget Binding Arbitration
Rumors of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) being introduced in the current Congress have come and gone — and will come again. Yet…
Blog
George McGovern on Card Check
Former Democratic Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern continues to speak out against the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which he has described as an…
Blog
New Study Shows Job Loss Data under Card Check
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…
Blog
“Sanity is not statistical”
Blog
DC on the School Reform Front Lines, Again
Today’s Washington Post features an editorial that strongly criticizes Congressional Democrats’ rush to kill the District of Columbia’s school voucher program, which enjoys bipartisan…
Blog
Dambisa Moyo: Zambian Author Takes on Foreign Aid
The celebrity parade calling for more foreign aid to poor countries has become so ubiquitous — and accepted — these days that critiques of it…
Blog
SOTU Watch: New Labor Secretary
The Senate confirmed Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor this afternoon. It will be worth watching whether President Obama acknowledges her confirmation…
Blog
SOTU Watch: Card Check
In President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight, one thing to watch for is mention of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) —…
Blog
Carney Takes on Stimulus on Liddy, Osorio Takes on Card Check
Today, I was on the G. Gordon Liddy Show, to discuss the current prospects of the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which, as…
Blog
To Know Card Check is to Hate it
A recent survey of 1,000 likely voters, conducted in January by the consultancy McLaughlin & Associates, finds an overwhelling majority opposed to the so-called…
Blog
The Juche Weather Idea
North Korea’s official propaganda organ, the Korea Central News Agency, reveals the real cause of global warming: The snow in the area of Jong…
Blog
UNITE-HERE to Disunite?
UNITE-HERE, the 450,000-member textile and hospitality union, is embroiled in a “civil war,” according to its president, who is now openly considering breaking up the…
Blog
Stimulating Comment
Comment from a friend watching Obama’s Indiana town hall promoting the stimulus: “Some chump just told Obama to mail a check to the people who…
Blog
Today’s Gift to Big Labor
Even as the nomination of Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary remains stalled due to tax and potential ethics rules troubles, organized labor got a…
Blog
More Questions about Solis
Today’s Washington Examiner proposes some questions which Senators should ask Obama Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis. Solis is treasurer and a member of the…
Blog
For Obama, No Solace in Solis
This afternoon, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee abruptly canceled a session to consider the nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) for Labor…
Blog
All Pregame all the Time
Blog
Unions Stall on EFCA, Advance Elsewhere
The Democratic Congress’s failure to pounce instantly to pass the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also known as the “card check” bill, presents a…
Blog
SEIU Split in California?
Ousted officials from a Bay Area local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced yesterday that they were forming a new union, and…
Blog
That Was Fast: Stimulus Passes House
The House of Representatives has just passed the $800-billion stimulus package which President Obama hopes to make a centerpiece of his administration’s early economic…
Blog
Billy Powell, RIP
Blog
Is the TARP Unconstitutional?
Also at Heritage today, FreedomWorks chief economist Wayne Brough described his organization’s legal analysis of the constitutionality of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. “There…
Blog
DeMint’s Smaller-Government Stimulus
This week, Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), in response to President Obama’s stimulus plan, announced his own alternative stimulus package, which David Weigel, at the Washington…
Blog
Stay Put, Now Go
Today, Spiked Online features two worthwhile pieces on two different ways in which environmental correctness can be deployed to disguise class snobbery — against two…
Blog
Apparent Hold on Solis Nomination
The confirmation of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Labor Secretary has run into an unexpected delay, as an unidentified Republican senator appears to have…
Blog
Robbing Driving Peter to Pay Train-Riding Paul
Facing a budget shortfall, officials of South Florida’s Tri-Rail commuter train are seeking help from the state — or rather, from drivers who rent cars…
Blog
Whither Union Transparency?
As Barack Obama is sworn in as the nation’s 44th President today, Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) will likely be the next Secretary of Labor. As…
Blog
Fat and Boring Is No Way to Go through Life, Son
Blog
A State-Level Counter to Card Check
As disappointing as the 2005 Kelo v. New London ruling was for supporters of strong property rights, the ensuing months saw a healthy — and…
Blog
Bus Drivers Drive as Politicians Dither (and Spend)
Blog
SEIU’s California Scheming IV — and Illinois, too
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) finalized a contentious merger of several California locals into a statewide “superlocal.” Sal Rosselli, the head of one of the…
Blog
Soderbergh: Historically Illiterate or Willfully Ignorant?
In a new interview, Steven Soderbergh, the incredibly overrated Hollywood director whose new paean to the disgusting Che Guevara is getting a lot…
Blog
Tightening Energy Rationing by Strategy
Many energy companies have embraced cap and trade schemes as a means to minimize the cost of reducing their carbon emissions, something that they feel…
Blog
Stimulating Rent Seeking
President-elect Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package (on which Doug Bandow commented recently) isn’t even in Congress yet, and the the rent-seeking has already started.
Blog
Ron Asheton, RIP
Blog
Card Check Loses Support, but Threat Isn’t Over
Today in The Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel dissects the shifting political prospects for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), commonly known as the…
Blog
Green for the Greens, Lumps of Coal for Everyone Else
Mark Tapscott, in today’s Washington Examiner, explodes the propaganda from the “Reality Campaign,” a coalition of leftist environmental groups, which has all but…
Blog
The Goldwater Century
Blog
On Stalin’s Endurance
In a recent poll conducted in Russia on who is the “greatest” Russian ever, Joseph Stalin came in third (after Alexander Nevsky, who repelled…
Blog
Carney on the “Year of the Bailout”
Following Iain Murray’s farewell to 2008’s bailout-o-rama, Former CEI Brookes Fellow Tim Carney, in his Washington Examiner column, bids farewell to “The Year…
Blog
Davis-Bacon from the Pork Barrel
In today’s Wall Street Journal, the Brookings Institution’s Clifford Winston points out some critical pitfalls likely to face the infrastructure spending element of President-elect…
Blog
Are the Golf Carts Made with Union Labor?
Throughout the Detroit automakers’ bailout saga, the United Auto Workers’ leadership has claimed that the union has made enough major concessions to date, and…
Blog
A loophole wide enough to drive a GMC truck though
The Bush administration’s outline of its automaker bailout package lists some seemingly sensible changes in labor practices that GM and Chrysler need to…
Blog
Solis: Could have been worse…but not much
According to the Associated Press, President-elect Barack Obama is about to name Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor. If Rep. Solis’s voting…
Blog
The UAW’s Three-Year Emergency Response
Last night, the Detroit Big Three bailout package crashed and burned for the best of reasons. To their credit, Senate Republicans refused to abide…
Blog
SEIU/CtW Deny Blagojevich Ties; “source” names Stern
Blog
A Blagojevich-SEIU connection?
Blog
Fighting Big Government: Not Why, But How
Blog
The Richardson appointment was nice, but…
When was the last time the U.S.'s top trade official wasn't a strong advocate for free trade? It may happen in the new Obama Administration.
Blog
Legal High-Seas Hostage Taking?
Ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) would mean a loss of sovereignty and burdensome extraterritorial regulation of U.S. extractive industries. In…
Blog
EFCA’s Unambiguous Language
A recent Washington Times editorial rightly calls the bluff on organized labor’s dubious claim that millions of American workers would eagerly join unions if…
Blog
Were Lada factories this bad?
As the Senate prepares to debate the proposed $25 billion bailout bill for the Big Three Detroit automakers, it’s worth pointing out — as…
Blog
Bureaucrash’s Pete Eyre in the DC Examiner
Blog
Interesting headline
Blog
Detroit Broke City
In his CBSNews.com column today, CNet's Declan McCullagh makes a good case against bailing out the Detroit Big Three. As he rightly points out,…
Blog
Meet the real boss…
Blog
EU Lifts “Ugly” Fruit and Vegetable Ban
The European Union has rescinded its ban on some “ugly” fruits and vegetables. AP reports: The European Union bid adieu Wednesday to rules that…
Blog
Even the liberal media support the Colombia trade deal
Today's Washington Post and Los Angeles Times both endorse passage of the U.S- Colombia free trade agreement, which many Democratic politicians, pressured by…
Blog
Gypsy Hot Dog Vendors on the Horizon?
In Toronto, city officials have been waging a slow campaign against street hot dog vendors, many of whom, notes National Post columnist Kelly McParland,…
Blog
Prospects for Card Check in the Obama Administration
Blog
Yma Sumac RIP
Blog
A Whole Lot of Qualification Going on
A new RAND Corporation study that purports to show a link between teen pregnancy and viewing TV shows with strong sexual content seems just…
Blog
City Journal on card check
Blog
Neither carrots nor sticks II
Further to my earlier post on Latin America, The Wall Street Journal‘s Mary O’Grady points to a good way for the U.S. to…
Blog
Neither carrots nor sticks
Few things are as exasperating as watching two sides argue — and neither rise above being half-right, at best. Still, the resulting exchange in this…
Blog
“All the sanctimony without all the effort”
Thus sums up Buck Strickland his love of carbon offsets in last night’s new episode of “King of the Hill.” Buck, owner of Strickland…
Blog
Carney on AIG’s big government ways
Blog
Blame Canada (arts funding)
In any list of programs that could be easily cut without much disruption -- except to a small rent-seeking elite -- is arts funding. It…
Blog
Toronto buys into crap on garbage
Blog
Miller Time in Mexico…
Blog
NYT: Unions for thee, not for me
Blog
South Park’s “signs of extremist activity”
Few people have validated Saul Alinksy’s “Rule” that “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon” better than South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt…
Blog
“Pre-crime social dangerousness” II
Blog
Happy Labor Day!
Blog
“Pre-crime social dangerousness”
Blog