The Economist reports that the past thirty years have been dismal for the labor movements of the world. In the United States, just 7 percent of the private sector workforce belongs to a union today, down from a third in 1979. In Britain, the decline was similarly dramatic. Across the developed world, less than one in every five workers is still a union member. There | Read More »
A federal judge in Florida ruled the president’s health care reform law unconstitutional on Monday, citing the mandate that requires Americans to buy insurance. Because the provision is key to the rest of the law, the judge declared it unconstitutional in its entirely but stopped short of ordering the Federal Government to suspend its implementation. Last year, a federal judge in Virginia similarly declared the | Read More »
In the absence of the police forces that were pulled from the streets of Cairo in the wake of civil unrest, citizens in the middle class districts of the Egyptian capital have taken matters into their own hands to protect their homes and stores from looters and rampage. Even after thirty years of oppression, the Egyptian people are perfectly capable of fending for themselves. While | Read More »
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) that was established in the spring of 2009 to explore the causes of the previous year’s financial meltdown, released its findings today. What was to blame for the crisis, they say? Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages; Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting | Read More »
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week former Republican majority leader Dick Armey and FreedomWorks‘ Matt Kibbe lay out a good number of ways to rein in government spending. They point out that since 2007, federal spending has skyrocketed. If Congress returned to spending levels from before Democrats took control of the legislature, it would save hundreds of billions a year according to combined | Read More »
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the United States Justice Department today approved a merger of Comcast, the nation’s largest cable and Internet provider, with NBC Universal which is owned mostly by General Electrics (GE). Comcast and GE announced their buyout agreement for NBC in December 2009. Comcast intends to own 51 percent of NBC while GE will retain 49 percent of its shares. Regulators | Read More »
Newly invigorated with a sense of fiscal conservatism by the rise of the Tea Party, Republican legislators in Congress will be reluctant to raise the nation’s debt ceiling this spring. But they really don’t have a choice. After billions in stimulus spending and bailing out banks and automakers, the Federal Government’s finances are in a dismal state. This fiscal year, the federal deficit is set | Read More »
Even if education standards in most of the United States continue to decline while costs skyrocket, reformers are continually cast aside as the antagonists of teachers and public schools alike. At least two governors are aggressively contending that assertion, suggesting that tenure should be abolished and merit pay introduced. In New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie, who is coping with the legacy of decades of | Read More »
In response to the suggestion of a Russian reporter that political violence is inherent to America’s democracy, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday strongly condemned the shooting that occurred in Tucson, Arizona as well as politically motivated violence in general. “That is not American,” he declared. Gibbs had praised the event in which Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely wounded in last week’s | Read More »
In his State of the State address Tuesday, Governor Mitch Daniels proclaimed that Indiana had managed to weather the recession with a combination of fiscal conservatism and pro-growth policies. “Whatever course others may choose,” he said, “here in Indiana we live within our means, we put the private sector ahead of government, the taxpayer ahead of everyone, and we will stay in the black, whatever | Read More »
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