Heritage Employment Report: June Job Market Continues Downward Slide
Congress's latest amendments to the federal False Claims Act destroy the FCA's prior balance that protected federal taxpayer funds while providing some restraints against abusive and profiteering litigation. This enriches individual plaintiffs and trial lawyers at the expense of the American taxpayer.
Obama Jobs Deficit Swells Again by Nearly Half a Million
Today's release of the nation's employment figures by the Department of Labor show that the nation is still waiting for even a few of President Obama's 3.5 million jobs saved or created, or his 600,000 jobs saved or created, or even his 150,000 jobs saved or created.
Organized Labor Concedes: Employer Violations Rare in Secret Ballot Elections
The union movement's own data analysis shows that employer intimidation rarely occurs. Employers win union elections by educating workers about the downsides of unionizing. Kate Bronfenbrenner has found that employers are not primarily to blame for low unionizing rates. She finds that unions could offset the effects of employer campaigns by using more effective tactics, but that union organizers do not choose to do so.
General Motors Bankruptcy and Nationalization: Exit Strategy Needed
Congratulations: If you are a U.S. taxpayer, you will soon be a part owner of a car company. Under the latest reorganization plan for General Motors, Uncle Sam would take ownership of 72.5 percent of the troubled automaker while providing an additional $30 billion in funds to the company.
Killing the Entrepreneurial Spirit: Government Is Not a Good Investor
President Barack Obama calls his stimulus bill and proposed budget an "investment" plan, implicitly recognizing that investment--rather than simply spending--creates economic growth. But this plan is based on the faulty assumption that only government is able and responsible enough to invest at this time.
What Unions Do: How Labor Unions Affect Jobs and the Economy
Unions function as labor cartels, restricting the number of workers in a company or industry to drive up the remaining workers' wages. They also retard economic growth and delay recovery from recession. Over time, unions destroy jobs in the companies they organize and have the same effect on business investment as does a 33 percentage point corporate income tax increase.
Financial Systemic Risk Regulators: Congress Is Asking the Wrong Questions
Congress may be about to create a new financial regulator without fully understanding exactly what problem it is supposed to solve or how the new regulator is supposed to accomplish its mission.
Five Reasons the EPA Should Not Attempt to Deal with Global Warming
On April 17, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an endangerment finding, saying that global warming poses a serious threat to public health and safety. Thus, almost anything that emits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. This is the first official action taken by the federal government to regulate carbon dioxide.
Should Unions Prevent Your Next Raise?
Suggest imposing wage caps on a few hundred highly paid executives, and you get plenty of attention. Highlight the federal law that imposes wage caps on over 8 million mostly middle-class workers, and you'll probably be ignored.
Nationalized Cheerios?
Regular superheroes save us from villains. Liberal superheroes save us from ourselves.
Reward Workers With Better Laws
Over the past generation, the labor market has changed profoundly. Computers have automated many manual and repetitive tasks. The share of American workers employed as operators, fabricators and laborers or in precision production craft and repair occupations has fallen by 10 percent.
'Economic policy insanity': Obama's approach threatens to prolong recession, weaken recovery
Last week the government reported 539,000 jobs were lost in April. As a sign of the times this was considered good news. Some are crediting government, including President Obama's just implemented policies, for the good news. Spring is in the air.
Give union workers merit boost
Not if you're one of 8 million union members working under a collective bargaining agreement. These agreements structure pay for all workers. They set a negotiated "floor" for wages, assuring that each worker is legally protected against from being paid less than the negotiated rate.
FCC.gov: What a WASTE
The Heritage Foundation is proud to announce that the FCC is the recipient of the First Annual Wanton Abuse of State-funded Technological Elucidation (WASTE) Award. Yes, the name is clunky but so is their website. If you don’t believe it, see for yourself. The website’s search function leaves much to be desired. Also, as Cynthia Read More...
Cheerios: Available at a Pharmacy Near You?
Should Cheerios be regulated as a drug? That’s what the FDA suggested last month in a letter to the breakfast cereal’s maker, General Mills. The issue originated with a claim on cereal boxes that says Cheerios will “lower your cholesterol 4% in six weeks.” The FDA said in a letter to General Read More...
California: The National Petri Dish
Supposedly, trends start in California and then spread to the rest of the country, a notion that seems to be confirmed by the latest economic news. In May, California’s unemployment rate hit 11.5 percent—the highest it has been since 1941. This morning we learn that unemployment for the entire country hit 9.5 percent in June—the Read More...
Unemployment Spike Defies ‘Stimulus’ Claims
In January, President Obama pressed for an $800 billion economic “stimulus” package to turn the economy around. Though the bill largely consisted of increased spending on traditional liberal priorities, the President claimed that it would “create or save” 3.5 million jobs. The President’s economic advisors predicted that unemployment would rise to 9 percent by 2010 Read More...
A Union Divided Against Itself: The UAW’s Conflict of Interest
In the wake of the General Motors and Chrysler’s bankruptcies, United Auto Workers finds itself in a complicated position. In some sense it has achieved a Marxist ideal: it has gained (at least some) control of its means of production. The UAW owns 55 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of GM. Consequently, however, the UAW Read More...
FCC.gov: What a WASTE
The Heritage Foundation is proud to announce that the FCC is the recipient of the First Annual Wanton Abuse of State-funded Technological Elucidation (WASTE) Award. Yes, the name is clunky but so is their website. If you don’t believe it, see for yourself. The website’s search function leaves much to be desired. Also, as Cynthia Read More...
Cheerios: Available at a Pharmacy Near You?
Should Cheerios be regulated as a drug? That’s what the FDA suggested last month in a letter to the breakfast cereal’s maker, General Mills. The issue originated with a claim on cereal boxes that says Cheerios will “lower your cholesterol 4% in six weeks.” The FDA said in a letter to General Read More...
California: The National Petri Dish
Supposedly, trends start in California and then spread to the rest of the country, a notion that seems to be confirmed by the latest economic news. In May, California’s unemployment rate hit 11.5 percent—the highest it has been since 1941. This morning we learn that unemployment for the entire country hit 9.5 percent in June—the Read More...
Unemployment Spike Defies ‘Stimulus’ Claims
In January, President Obama pressed for an $800 billion economic “stimulus” package to turn the economy around. Though the bill largely consisted of increased spending on traditional liberal priorities, the President claimed that it would “create or save” 3.5 million jobs. The President’s economic advisors predicted that unemployment would rise to 9 percent by 2010 Read More...
A Union Divided Against Itself: The UAW’s Conflict of Interest
In the wake of the General Motors and Chrysler’s bankruptcies, United Auto Workers finds itself in a complicated position. In some sense it has achieved a Marxist ideal: it has gained (at least some) control of its means of production. The UAW owns 55 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of GM. Consequently, however, the UAW Read More...
LA Times: SEIU Wants It Both Ways On Workers’ Rights
Critics of the Employee Free Choice Act have called it a misnomer – a law that would, in fact, restrict workers’ free choice. EFCA would effectively eliminate secret ballots in union elections and replace them with “card check,” in which workers publicly sign petitions to join unions. Analysts warn that depriving workers of the privacy Read More...
Russia Market Economy Short Lived?
The past week saw an extraordinary event in the Russian economy. Prime Minister Putin and other Cabinet Ministers made a surprise visit to one of Moscow’s supermarkets and personally regulated the price rates. Putin discovered that the trade margin on an array of foodstuffs in Perekryostok supermarket is significantly higher than the average. In fact, Read More...
Morning Bell: Holding the President Accountable on His Stimulus
Yesterday, the White House released new rules for counting the number of jobs created by President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan. Governors, mayors, and contractors will be required to keep track of every full-time, full-year job funded by Obama’s stimulus, but they are not required to submit their data to the federal government Read More...
Stimulus Health Mandates Already Killing Jobs
All three Democrat health care plans (the House, Kennedy-Dodd, and Baucus bills) feature an employer mandate which will make it more expensive for employers to add employees. But as the New York Times reported last week, health care provisions in the stimulus are already making it harder for employers to hire new people: As I understand Read More...
The Coming Obama Tax Explosion
According to Time, the Center for American Progress (CAP) is “the most influential independent organization in Obama’s nascent Washington.” The brainchild of former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, President Obama “effectively contracted out the management of his own government’s formation to Podesta.” So take notice when CAP senior editor Matthew Yglesias writes Read More...
What should be done about financial markets
Two things should be clear to anyone trying to figure out the financial crisis, says Heritage President Ed Feulner. One is that we need to get to the bottom of what caused it and why. The second is that we can't rely on Congress to conduct such an investigation. Learn More...
Red Tape Rising: Regulatory Trends in the Bush Years
Contrary to much popular rhetoric about massive regulatory rollbacks, the regulatory burden has grown during President George W. Bush's tenure, and the President's final year may see a regulatory surge. Policymakers should work to prevent this surge and adopt reforms to ensure that new and old rules are thoroughly vetted to ease the burden of this regulatory tax on Americans. Learn More...
- NRC and the Future of Nuclear Power 07/07/2009
- NATO and Afghanistan: Equitable Burden Sharing 07/09/2009
- Securing Identification Cards: REAL ID vs. PASS ID 07/14/2009
Heritage Experts on Enterprise and Free Markets
Media Information Line: (202) 675-1761
James L. Gattuso
Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy , Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies
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