I hate Washington, DC. Despite the few friends that I have who live and work around DC, I’ve found my view of that city growing from a genuine dislike to a visceral hatred. Perhaps I’m an idealist but, to me, DC is the home of snake-oil salesmen, prostitutes, and power-hungry pikers. It’s worse than a den of iniquity. It is iniquity. Freedom, to much of | Read More »
If you’re anything like me, until today, you probably had very little idea what the Government Printing Office is all about. And, because there are more important things in life than keeping track of every little-known governmental agency and the administration’s various political appointees, you might have missed the White House press release letting us know that President Obama just made a whole bunch of | Read More »
Back in November, Baltimore’s City Paper ran a rather lengthy story about the corruption of Baltimore’s Local 333 of the International Longshoremen’s Association. It was a good piece, filled with colorful examples (like the one below) of the characters who load and unload containers from ships in Baltimore’s port. Of these 379 members, 219—almost a quarter of the union membership—have been convicted. By removing from | Read More »
First, came the Japanese—Datsun, Toyota and Honda. Then, came the Germans—Mercedes and BMW. Then others came as well. Each foreign competitor having taken more and more of the UAW’s slice of the pie. Somewhere along the way, it finally dawned on the UAW’s leaders that foreign imports were cleaning their clock—and, worst of all, setting up their own UAW-free shops right in the union’s own | Read More »
It is hard to imagine a more diverse pair of places that have been overrun by the infestation of public-sector pension problems than Prichard, Alabama and the withering Garden State of New Jersey. One might expect the problems in the Garbage Garden State of New Jersey, which is home to such luminaries as Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, and (the fictitious | Read More »
Over the past few weeks, as happens every year, I’ve been asked, “what do you want for Christmas?” And, as happens every year, I really can’t think of anything. It’s not that there are not materials things out there that would be nice to have—there are. But, I really don’t want them. Then it struck me. Last night, as we put the presents under the | Read More »
In light of the NLRB’s attacks on business this week, this this little piece is striking, as it is the epitome of why the economy still sucks unemployment remains high. The U.S. Department of Labor, which has become akin to the Ministry of Workers’ Councils, regularly issues a newsletter via e-mail and posts it on the Ministry’s website. This week, among other items touted, was | Read More »
[See footnote below with regard to the GM/Toyota NUMMI plant in Fremont, California.] Because they’ve done so well with General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, the union known as United Auto Workers (or Union of Ailing Workplaces) wants to help spread some union love to its competitors working in foreign-owned U.S. factories. According to reports, the UAW’s President Bob King has determined that the UAW will | Read More »
As hard as it is to believe, there are unions that would rather see people unemployed than have them work at a company that the union doesn’t like. The Teamsters is apparently one of those unions. In Visalia, California, a company would like to build 500,000 square-foot medical products distribution center in an industrial park. The company had reached an agreement with the City to | Read More »
On Tuesday, President Obama’s union-controlled National Labor Relations Board helped to increase the President’s anti-business bonafides by issuing a rather shocking press release that has the business community all abuzz. The NLRB, the agency that governs private-sector, union-employer relations would like all employers, large and small, under its jurisdiction to post notices for employees that inform them of their rights to unionize. Following the 60-day public | Read More »
Former West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin has only been Senator since November 2nd. However, he’s causing a stir among some of his staunchest supporters. When union bosses can’t keep their anger contained behind closed doors, you know that they are more than a little peeved that Joe Manchin skipped out on the DADT and DREAM Act votes over the weekend. Now, they’ve come out and openly | Read More »
Having spent the weekend sharing some of the news about the union-pension Ponzi scheme and the attempt to keep the truth from the American people, it is only fitting that the Guardian UK should run this story today: More than 100 American cities could go bust next year as the debt crisis that has taken down banks and countries threatens next to spark a municipal | Read More »
If you’re going to be required to pay for something, common sense would say that you should have the right to know how much it costs, right? After all, no one likes surprises—especially if those surprises cost trillions and you, your children and your children’s children are likely going to have to pay for it for decades to come. Yet, there are those who seem | Read More »
You’ve been hearing for quite a while now that public-sector unions are a threat to the economic survival of the United States. With an estimated unfunded liability of up to $3 trillion (and perhaps much more), public-sector pensions are a noose around the neck of America’s taxpayers and it is threatening to strangle the nation. More specifically, you’ve been hearing that the expensive wage and benefits packages | Read More »
The State of Michigan has seen better days. Once a symbol of the industrial might of the United States, Michigan’s boom days are considered long since past. Having been controlled by unions since shortly after World War II, Michigan rode the wave of the post-war boom before beginning a long and steady spiral downward as the Big Three began shedding jobs, and high unemployment helped | Read More »
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