Today, in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, sparking World War I. Also today, in 1919, the parties involved in World War I signed the final formal peace treaty, ending hostilities. Bookends.

Does affordable housing require rent control?  No.  Not even in Manhattan.  And in fact, it is no coincidence that the cities with the most rent control (NYC and San Francisco) also have the highest rent.  There is no incentive on the account of the landlords and tenants to build more housing or improve worn out units.

Does race account for differences in income?  Is the “fatherless family” amongst African Americans a legacy of slavery?  Is household income a good indicator of the state of our economy?  No, no, and no.

Uncommon Knowledge all-star Thomas Sowell returns to talk about his latest edition of Economic Facts and Fallacies, and continues his legacy as refreshingly straightforward and clear on economic issues.

To learn more about income equality, race and economics, and the reasons for Thomas Sowell’s persistent pessimism, watch the full interview below.

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Last week, the union extremists controlling the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board conducted a coordinated attack on America’s job creators. The first punch, a 160-page rule-making proposal by the Department of Labor was issued on Monday for public comments. However, it was quickly drowned out by the second punch: Tuesday’s NLRB rule-making proposal to modify election procedures, which are intended to fast track union elections giving unions greater ability to unionize employees.

It is important to note that both rule-making proposals are intended to work together and, like an axe in an executioner’s hand, they are intended to make an employer’s resistance to unionization futile.

On the one hand, the NLRB’s proposal to ’streamline’ union elections is meant to make it easier for unions to unionize employers in the least amount of time with the least amount of resistance, while giving union organizers access to employee telephone numbers and e-mail addresses and drastically curtailing employers’ ability to appeal NLRB decisions.

However, on the other hand, in an effort to broaden the definition of “union busting,” it is the Department of Labor’s proposal to redefine the term ‘persuader’ that will force many unsuspecting businesses, associations, and “consultants” (i.e., lawyers, human resource consultants, PR firms, and others, as well as seminar attendees and providers) to report their fee arrangements to the federal government—or face jail time and/or fines for failing to do so. (more…)

Sunday was an historic day in the state of Wisconsin.

Governor Scott K. Walker put pen to paper and signed his first two-year budget. It erases a defict of more than $3 billion dollars, ushers in significant education reforms and freezes local property taxes…all without raising taxes. When you add in the chaotic atmosphere in Madison and the tumultuous nature of politics in the Badger State, what Walker has accomplished in such a short time is quite remarkable.

From the MacIver News Service:

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to talk about the latest consumer spending and savings numbers that came out this morning. Then Congressman Sean Duffy discusses debt ceiling negotiations, Democrat calls for tax hikes, and Obama’s overreach on Libya.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Consumers Pulling Back on Spending as Inflation Builds
Obama Tries to Salvage Debt Talks as Party Leaders Bicker Over Meaning of ‘Tax Hike’
Debt Ceiling Negotiations Break Down Over Taxes
Medicare dominates Duffy’s town hall chat
Lawmakers send Obama message of discontent on Libya
Congressman Sean Duffy

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In the wake of the Rep. Anthony Weiner scandal that ultimately forced the disgraced New York Congressman out of office (at least for the time being), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) is now the subject of a congressional ethics investigation for a sexual scandal of his own. You will recall that Judicial Watch on March 7, 2011, sued Hastings on behalf of congressional employee Winsome Packer for “unwelcome sexual advances” and “unwelcome touching”.

The Wall Street Journal broke the story this past Wednesday:

A congressional ethics panel is investigating allegations that Florida Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings sexually harassed a member of his staff, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation of Mr. Hastings is being conducted by the Office of Congressional Ethics, the House’s independent ethics investigative arm, and it is at a preliminary stage.

It began at least a month ago after Judicial Watch, a conservative group, filed a lawsuit as the legal counsel for Winsome Packer, a staffer on a commission Mr. Hastings headed. She alleged that she had been sexually harassed by the congressman and that he retaliated when she tried to report it.

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) will not issue any punishments or reprimands for Hastings. That’s not its role. Instead, the OCE is an independent body that reviews ethics complaints and makes recommendations to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (or the House Ethics Committee). It can take up to 89 days for the OCE to review the charges and make its recommendation.

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From the Associated Press:

Rod Blagojevich, who rode his talkative everyman image to two terms as Illinois governor before scandal made him a national punch line, was convicted Monday of a wide range of corruption charges, including the incendiary allegation that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s Senate seat.

The verdict was a bitter defeat for Blagojevich, who had spent 2 1/2 years professing his innocence on reality TV shows and later on the witness stand. His defense team had insisted that hours of FBI wiretap recordings were just the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud. He faces up to 300 years in prison, although sentencing guidelines are sure to reduce his time behind bars.

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You can sign up in advance to see the film July 4th, here.

From the official website:

When you stream “Lt. Dan Band: For The Common Good” – one out of every four dollars will be donated to The Gary Sinise Foundation which honors our nations defenders by supporting the USO, Operation International Children, Snowball Express, and other such charities and efforts that support the military, first responders and their families. Thank you for helping us give back to those willing to give all!

Good man. Good band. Great cause.

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Humane Society Lawyers Fight Culture of Cruelty, Government Bureaucracy

Soon after reading the words above, which appeared as the headline of an article published in November 2007 on the University of Virginia School of Law website, I discovered something ironic about Sarah L. Conant.

According to HumaneWatch, Conant is a 2006 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville.

According to a 2006 article published on the law school website, Conant’s favorite law school experience was founding the Virginia Animal Law Society, a nonprofit student organization affiliated with the radical animal rights organization, Animal Legal Defense Fund.

According to the same article, her post-graduation plans included serving as a Litigation Fellow for The Humane Society of the United States, Animal Protection Litigation Section, in Washington, D.C.

Now, let’s return to the headline of the 2007 article mentioned atop this post and expose the irony.

Today, Conant is an animal rights activist lawyer-turned government bureaucrat who, as a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service employee with a very long title — Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services — is threatening John and Judy Dollarhite with fines of up to $3.9 million in fines for the “crime” of selling more than $500 worth of bunnies during a single calendar year without a USDA license. In short, Conant is now the government bureaucrat against whom she once claimed to fight.

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Connecticut’s public sector unions have voted to reject a $1.6 billion concession package that was previously agreed to by both their union leaders and Governor Dannel Malloy, the first Democratic governor the state has had in 20 years. Just one year ago, as union leaders worked tirelessly on Mr. Malloy’s campaign, one union president, Catherine Osten, issued a statement calling his candidacy a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to elect a governor who will be a true partner.” The governor nurtured the relationship between himself and the unions, while he criticized other governors who were confronting the continued demands of union leaders in order to balance their state budgets.

The concession package, that seemed to pale in comparison to the concession plans agreed to by unions in other liberal states, guaranteed no layoffs for four years and no furloughs. Wages would have been frozen for two years, then followed by three annual 3 percent raises. Though cost-of-living increases for pensions would have been eliminated, the retirement age would have been raised by only two years, and not until after 2022. Changes in health benefits included mandatory annual physician visits and mail-order prescription plans, a detail that seemed to hurt local pharmacies more than union members.

As a result of the rejection of the agreement by the unions, Governor Malloy says he will now have to lay off 7,500 state employees in order to balance the state budget. In addition to the direct loss of jobs, in a state in which the unemployment rate is already at 9.1%, citizens will undoubtedly be dealing with the closing of state offices, elimination of services, and cuts to municipal aid.

The governor’s Democrat-controlled legislature already passed a budget, in advance of the unions’ vote on the concessions plan, that included the highest tax increase in the history of the state, scheduled to go into effect on July 1st. Also initiated in the budget was an earned income tax credit of about $1700 for those who do not pay taxes.

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Houston clearly has a problem.

Following a comprehensive, two-year-long investigation, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in September 2009 against the City of Houston, the Houston Police Department and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt on behalf of Houston Police Sergeant Joslyn M. Johnson. Sergeant Johnson is the widow of former Houston Police officer Rodney J. Johnson, killed in the line of duty by an illegal alien five years ago, on September 21, 2006.

This particular illegal alien, Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez, had been previously deported and had numerous run-ins with the Houston Police Department. But because of Houston’s illegal alien sanctuary policy, he was allowed to roam the streets until he shot and killed Officer Johnson during a routine traffic stop. Sergeant Johnson argues Houston’s sanctuary policy not only killed her husband but also compromises her ability to enforce the law and uphold her oath as a police officer.

Well, now Judicial Watch has uncovered yet another massive scandal related to Houston’s illegal alien sanctuary policy.

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Dear Mr. President,

The Keynesian school of thought on the economy is that of the potential instability of the private sector and the undependability of the market driven self-adjustment factor. Keynes during his day said that in times of depression (or deep recessions) the government should focus entirely on spending by  injecting the national economy with lots of cash. So the task was simple: spend more on goods and services thereby shifting aggregate demand in the other direction and presto we are out of the recession.

However, Keynes put forth these thoughts during the Great Depression. In which inflation was not a threat, prices were falling, and unemployment was reaching 25 percent. Since the goal was to get the national economy back to full employment, the only model used for analysis was the aggregate demand curve in relation to real GDP gaps. There was no need to study aggregate supply and aggregate demand, prices and real job growth because he was only interested in what market participants would buy during the depression if the economy was producing at full capacity. So a new model called the Keynesian Cross was coined which basically focuses on the differences in total spending to the value of total output. It doesn’t account for true distinctions for price levels and real output, i.e., real job growth.

An increase in aggregate demand effects real output and prices but doesn’t always translate to a dollar-for-dollar improvement in real GDP. Again, and to his defense, Keynes’ ideas were during the Great Depression — falling prices, etc., — this is not the Great Depression, so when supply and demand increases so do prices. As a result we still stay short of full employment, consumer spending stays down, wages become relatively low, the economy fails to rebound and possibly falls back into recession.

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The Department of Energy (DOE) continues to tout the importance of safety at nuclear facilities, while simultaneously ignoring legitimate safety concerns in the name of saving time and money.

Last week, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board delivered a scathing report on the ‘safety culture’, or lack thereof, being perpetuated by the DOE. Within that report, which focused on how the department handled safety complaints at a nuclear waste cleanup site in Richland, Washington, were statements from several witnesses who believed that raising safety issues could be detrimental to their career. One specific situation seemed to bear this out, in which a former Engineering Manager, Walter Tamosaitis, had raised several technical safety issues in July, and was abruptly removed from the project the next day.

These findings led the House Appropriations Committee to amend a proposed 2012 DOE budget document report, stating that:

“The most recent (defense board) report describes an environment where the professional exchange of views which a safety culture relies upon is discouraged and at times punished. These revelations are both alarming and disturbing and should be interpreted by the secretary of energy as a call to action.”

In response to the Safety Board’s review, DOE officials sent a message to their employees, informing them that Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman strongly disagree with the report, citing an investigation by the Office of Health, Safety and Security (HSS) in which they claim that ‘most employees said they were comfortable with raising safety concerns’.

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Just one week ago on Sunday, June 19^th, we were reminded once again that our God given right to life, as declared in the Declaration of Independence, is meaningless without the right to self-defense.  That day, Father’s Day, a terrible tragedy took place in a Medford, New York pharmacy when an armed robber shot and murdered four innocent people.

Imagine yourself in that pharmacy.  You are facing an obvious threat from a man with a gun.  You cannot retreat because the gunman is too close.  You have no weapon, because the State of New York has made it extremely difficult to posses any sort of a weapon, and certainly not a gun.  Hence, your only means of self-defense is to plead for compassion from a soulless thug.  At that point, with your right to life materially impaired by the government restricting your right to self-defense, you simply die.

Gun law advocates are undoubtedly ready to demand more control of firearms, and argue that citizens should rely on the police.  They are missing the point.  Had those innocent victims in the Medford Pharmacy managed to call the police and had the police responded within minutes, all four would still have been killed because the robber acted within seconds.  The painful meaning of the phrase, “when seconds count, the police are minutes away” was all too clear on June 19^th.

For decades the National Rifle Association, gun rights advocates in general and especially hunters have worked hard to prevent gun laws from becoming too restrictive.  Their argument is the Second Amendment and its words proclaiming, “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  For all their fine work, these groups are also missing the point.  Guns, knives, batons and other tools of defense are only tools.  It is the right to self-defense that has been under attack all this time.

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It all seems so remote, not just in geography, but as a unique economic issue affecting only Greece and, perhaps, the rest of the EU.  But it isn’t.  The world is very interconnected.  Many Americans directly or indirectly (through their banks or money market funds) hold Greek debt instruments, which are probably never going to be repaid, or, in some cases, Americans may be invested in funds that hold debt instruments that are, in turn, insured by European banks that have sizeable exposure to a Greek default or restructuring.

A default, restructuring or further downgrading of Greek debt or of the banks that have Greek debt exposure can ricochet through American financial institutions.  European finance ministers and the European Central Bank (ECB) have been wrangling over whether or when to release the final installment of the $157 million bailout loan granted last year when certain austerity measures were imposed on Greece.  Keep in mind that this final disbursement will only carry Greece into mid‑September.  The bigger issue is a fresh bailout loan of $100+ billion Euros, almost the same as the first loan.  In other words, this, in gambling terms, is a double down bet.  Few financial analysts, if any, believe Greece is going to escape an eventual default. So what is going on here? This is Extend and Pretend writ large.

Last year’s package depended on Greece enacting major spending cuts, and cracking down on tax evaders.  Instead the public took to the streets.  Prime Minister Papandreou has based his political future on ramming through a new and more draconian austerity budget, but he has only a five seat parliamentary majority and some members of his party have been on the fence.  Greek debt is now at a staggering 150% of its GNP.

As The Wall Street Journal notes, this is not a liquidity problem but a solvency crisis and that is not a difference without a distinction. Greece isn’t merely having cash flow problems.  Greece is insolvent, i.e., it currently has no prospect of meeting its obligations.

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Today, in 1905, sailors aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin mutinied. Although the mutiny was put down, Russian naval forces would be among the more radical forces supporting the Bolshevik coup d’etat in 1917.

From the Associated Press:

The floats were there, the music and dancing, too—all the usual staples of one of the world’s oldest and largest gay pride parades. But this year, something new joined the spectacle on the streets of New York City: proposals and wedding plans.

New York’s parade turned into a carnival-like celebration of same-sex marriage Sunday as hundreds of thousands of revelers rejoiced at the state’s new law giving gay couples the same marital rights as everyone else.

“We’ve been waiting to get married in Central Park for years, and now we got here just in time for history to be made,” said Bryce Croft of Kettering, Ohio, who attended the festivities with her partner, Stephanie Croft.

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President Obama says he doesn’t like bullies. The White House has even launched a website to help kids and parents recognize the signs of bullying and advise them on how to get help.

Maybe the White House should take its own advice, as the individual mandate portion of Obamacare is nothing short of bullying American citizens into purchasing something they may or may not want or need.

Take a look at this short video from Momthink.org:

The video depicts a group of kids playing on a playground, and a big, mean bully coming in and forcing them all to buy lemonade – whether they want it or not. The idea is that the kids playing are Americans, and the lemonade stand bully is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The bully demands that the children purchase his lemonade, and when they can’t afford it, he takes their toys as payment.

The White House articulates three points that bullying involves: 1) An imbalance of power, 2) Intent to cause harm, and 3) Repetition. Let’s take a look at how these concepts apply to the individual mandate laid out in section 1501 of the health care law.

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From the Associated Press:

Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann has surged to the front of the pack in Iowa, the crucial first voting state she hopes will propel her to the Republican presidential nomination.

Bachmann, a Minnesota representative and darling of the Christian right, was virtually tied with frontrunner Mitt Romney in a survey Saturday of likely voters the party’s early Iowa caucus, boosting her much-anticipated candidacy ahead of a tour of key primary states.

She came in with 22 percent compared to Romney’s 23 percent in the survey, organized by the newspaper Des Moines Register, with the other candidates polling far behind.

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