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Who would have expected labor unions to hold up development of environmentally positive projects? Well, as IBD Editorials report, that's exactly what's happening in California.
The New York Times [no link], for all its problems, can still do good reporting, one example being its coverage of unions using environmental regulations in California to try to pressure developers into signing "agreements pledging to use union labor."
"If they refuse," reports Todd Woody, "they say they can count on union groups to demand costly environmental
In other words, damn the environment - we want union labor only on these projects.
Since the economic viability of 'green tech' projects is already questionable in most cases, the difference between union labor rates and free market rates may be the deciding factor between projects being profitable (or even being built!) or not.
The difference in unions using greenmail and blackmail, says Sherk, is that in greenmail "unions use government bureaucrats instead of armed thugs to intimidate businesses." And "it happens repeatedly."
Companies that are victims of greenmail should stand up to union shakedowns. While refusing to unionize won't allow companies to avoid the snarl of environmental rules, it will improve their chances to operate their businesses at lower costs and provide investors with better returns.
Oh, glad you 'splained it to us.
Recently President Obama has blamed much of what lead to the economic meltdown to "greed" by various parties: Investors, bankers, mortgage companies, insurance companies, overpaid executives, etc. The media and the public lap this up, since we all disapprove of "greed". But what is greed and how bad is it? Of course, no one ever points into the mirror and accuses himself of being greedy - it's always the other guy. And what does those greedy persons do that is so bad? Aren't we supposed to be making as much money as possible - didn't Vice President Biden recently point out that it is patriotic to pay taxes? But the public clamours for laws that control what some might label as greed, and the legislative class (and the executive class as well, if Obama is a good example) are willing to pass all the expected regulations.
George F. Will, in his column of May 17th, gives a wonderful overview of just how greed works in an unregulated market.
Using a study of ticket sales for a college football game, Will points out that "greedy" ticket sellers will over-price their tickets, expecting to maximize their profits:
A greedy seller -- one who priced his tickets too high -- was less likely than other sellers were to sell them two weeks before the game. Hence he had to resort to much deeper discounts than others did as game day, and the potential worthlessness of his assets, drew near. The larger the number of seats available in the secondary market, and the more transparent that market is, thanks to the Internet, the more likely it is that greed will be punished.
To give the greedy their due, they perform a service: By overpricing, they preserve an eve-of-game supply of tickets for persons willing to pay a premium for last-minute impulse purchases.
But when government interrupts this punishment by the marketplace, prices are lower, the chance for reward is lower and there are fewer participants overall. (Of course, regulation that makes re-sale of tickets illegal means there will be no participants - at least not in the open marketplace.) This may mean that events would not sell out, that sales of programs and food would be lessened and that such events scale back over time. It is hard to predict the outcome of specific laws, but history shows that government intervention makes markets less efficient and less transparent.
Reporting today in the Orange County (California) Register, columnist Jan Norman discloses that the Better Business Bureau (BBB) gives higher rating scores to businesses that are members of the BBB than to those that are not members.
Despite the BBB website claiming that "not being a BBB member (which it calls “not accredited”) does not disparage the company in any way", the recently updated scoring system does award 4 points for membership in the organization. That means the only way a company can get the top A rating is if they are members.
The grading system is based on 16 or 17 different factors, such as how long the company has been in business, whether it responds to and resolves complaints, how serious the complaints are and whether advertising raises “concerns.” Cox said the current grading system has been tested and modified since the original one developed by the BBB of the Southland, which serve Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
For many consumers, BBB rating is the mark of excellence used to choose companies to do business with. Isn't this new approach a little (or not so little!) misleading?
Anyone watching these early days of the Obama Administration has to wonder what the message is. Candidate Obama promised to exit Iraq immediately - President Obama is calling for a phased withdrawal with thousands of troops remaining in Iraq. Candidate Obama discussed attacking Pakistan - President Obama has added 21,000 US personnel to Afghanistan. Candidate Obama called for an end to earmarks - President Obama signs legislation with more earmarks than anything prior. Candidate Obama called for the closing of the detention facility at Gitmo - President Obama signed an executive order, but cannot find any facility to move the prisoners to.
Now President Obama says he doesn't want to run General Motors - but forces the CEO of GM to resign
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The Dow Jones 30 Industrails Average, one of the premier benchmarks of stock market performance, has fallen below the 7,000 point mark for the first time since 1997, the New York Times reports.
Businesses and investors alike generally prefer stability to surprises, and that's what they have been getting from the Obama administration for weeks. There were promises of no lobbyists and high ethics, followed by exceptions and withdrawal of nominees due to ethical lapses. There were promises of transparency and public discussion of legislation, followed by 1,000 page bills passed by one-party force, no hearings, no public discussion and not even public disclosure of the content until after the bill had passed. There were promises of no pork projects or earmarks, followed by legislation jam packed full of both. And with record borrowing and record spending already in the pipeline, the government has in effect nationalized the auto industry, a huge insurance company (AIG) and at least one major bank (Citigroup
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Fox News is reporting that
American International Group (AIG: 0.4299, -0.0721, -14.36%) and the federal government will announce a major restructuring of the insurance giant’s government bailout Monday morning that will commit the Treasury Department to invest up to $30 billion in new equity in the company if it needs it, a person familiar with the negotiations told FOX Business.
AIG has gone from being the largest insurance company in the world to the largest sink hole. At what point does the taxpayers' responsibility to "bail out" a company whose management is completely in the dark end
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Who do you trust? I don't mean about politics or life - who do you trust with your personal information? Who should have access to your bank records, tax filings, retirement savings, etc.?
People will put "private" information into many different categories: What to share with family, what to share with friends, what to share with no one, and what to share with professionals in the course of conducting business. In this last group might be medical information (test results, symptoms, personal practices, etc.), legal history, criminal history and financial history
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A newly formed group of high-tech companies is joining forces against malicious code, such as the Downadup worm currently spreading on the Internet.
Additionally, Microsoft has offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction
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In a surprising show of strength, the results of January's retail sales statistics shows an overall increase of 1 percent, the largest increase in 14 months.
The various "experts" were surprised, but some of this was predictable: Many people who received gift cards for the holidays used them in January. The revenue gets booked in January, even though the cash changed hands in December. Also, many retailers had various sales (some like Circuit City had close-out sales) and these lowered prices also attracted buyers
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The media reports are loaded with headlines screaming about Exxon Mobil's $45.2 BILLION in profits for calendar 2008. But, as reported here before, that is not the entire story.
In calendar 2008, Exxon Mobil paid a total of $116.3 BILLION in taxes. In other words, for every dollar in profits they paid almost three dollars in tax. That's roughly a 70% tax rate. But the politicians will yell about "obscene" profits and call for a windfall profits tax
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Comment by Opher Banarie
on Is This a Good Economy to go Job Hunting?
I didn't know about this until I heard it on the Money Girl podcast:
Good luck!