RealClear Radio Hour: Dodd-Frank Star Chamber & Fighting Forced Unionism

In this week’s episode of RealClear Radio Hour, we tackle the onerous financial regulations crippling Main Street banks and businesses and the constitutional challenge to forced union dues.

I’m joined first by Kyle Hauptman, Executive Director of Main Street Growth Project and member of the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies, who recounts his time at Lehman Brothers during the 2008 bankruptcy. He discusses how federal regulators’ overzealous response significantly impacted local community banks, which played no role in the financial crisis. Hauptman argues Dodd-Frank created a tepid recovery, forestalling new small businesses—the biggest job creators—from launching.

In the second half of the show, Rebecca Friedrichs, a California third grade teacher and lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, and Terry Pell, her attorney and president of the Center for Individual Rights, discuss their recent challenge to forced union dues. Friedrichs and Pell argue that closed shop laws and compelled agency fees violate the First Amendment rights of teachers in 23 states, who are forced to subsidize unions’ controversial political activities. 

You can hear the discussion by listening to the full show as-aired on iTunes, or you can check out the podcasts hosted on YouTube and SoundCloud. Make sure to check back next week for another episode of RealClear Radio Hour.

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