“Perhaps in anticipation of taxpayer sticker shock, the Air Force also said ‘the engineering required to design, manufacture, conduct environmental testing and obtain Federal Aviation Administration certification’ were all included in the cost.”
“When they insist government employee wages would plummet in the absence of a union, they’re simply confirming the workers are already earning more than their labors are actually worth on the open market. These are the kinds of hard economic truths that will be exposed when Janus is finally heard next month and the injustices that will be righted if the court this summer votes to ban mandatory dues and fees in the public sector.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/we-may-finally-see-the-end-of-compulsory-union-dues/
“Even though the M.T.A. is paying for its capital construction with taxpayer dollars, the government does not get a seat at the table when labor conditions are determined. Instead, the task of reining in the unions falls to the construction companies — which often try to drive up costs themselves.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html
“In August 2013, men with bulldozers arrived in Tru-du-Nord, Haiti, to confiscate land for their government’s vision of growth in the region — organic bananas. There have been zero banana exports since July 6, 2016. The Haitian government has failed to maintain the property, and it is a wasteland.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/haiti-needs-capitalism-not-more-central-planning/
“Instant criminalization of millions of people. That’s a lot of new customers for those privatized immigration detention centers. The private prison industry, incidentally, donated handsomely to Trump’s campaign and inauguration.”
“The SNB raked in ENORMOUS investment profits because they printed hundreds of billions of francs, which inflated the prices of assets that they themselves were buying. And today, because of those artificial investment gains that they engineered for themselves, the SNB is now the most profitable company in the world. Oh, and just so you know the other half of the story, while the central bank is raking in record profits, total debt in Switzerland has skyrocketed.”
“Everybody needs food, but the government does not require entrepreneurs to obtain a certificate of need before opening or expanding a grocery store. Everybody needs healthcare at one time or another, but the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and 35 states require hospitals to obtain certificates of need (called CONs) before they open their doors or expand. Certificates of need tend to favor large non-profit operations, which are now blocking competition while scamming patients and taxpayers alike.”
Read more: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=9235
“Switzerland-based Viking Cruises, which wanted to build and send small cruise ships up the Mississippi River, leaving new tourism dollars for river towns in its wake, is backing off its plan. Our own federal laws are to blame. More specifically, President Grover Cleveland’s Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA). The 1886 law requires that in order to ferry passengers between ports in the United States, the ship must have been built in the United States and be owned and operated by Americans.”
Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/15/there-will-be-no-viking-longboats-cruisi
“The announcement marks President Trump’s first major trade action of 2018 and follows his campaign promise to get tough on America’s trading partners. A tariff, or tax, of 30% will be applied to imported solar panels, most of which come from China. Tariffs will begin at 20% on large residential washing machines, according to the announcement Monday from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.”
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/22/news/economy/us-tariff-washing-machines-solar-cells/index.html
“Crossfit is fighting to keep the government from regulating how Americans are taught to exercise. The health of the nation may be at stake.”