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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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“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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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:…
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“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…
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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…
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Spiked Online on Art, Commerce, and Rebellion
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Massie on the Politics of Snow
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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“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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.
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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.
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Selling the Rope, as Lenin Predicted
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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,…
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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.