Another Bailout for Unions & Spendthrift States
How Civil Servants Become Predatory Interests
Ben Boychuk, LA Times
How do you solve a problem like Robert Rizzo?In the short run, there will be a push for greater transparency, pay caps and restrictions on pension benefits. These things may quell the immediate outrage over revelations that the city manager of working-class Bell and other top officials earned fat, six-figure incomes. But the truth is, the eye-popping salaries, platinum pensions and lavish perks accorded Rizzo and his colleagues are merely symptoms, not the disease.Nor is the disease confined to one small municipality in southeast Los Angeles County. Yes, Rizzo's salary and those…
The Radical Gay Rights Ruling
Jonathan Rauch, New York Daily News
Last week, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker declared that California's ban on same-sex marriage – and, by implication, any state's ban – violates the U.S. Constitution. The case is on its way to appeal, where it may be overturned. Already, though, gay men and women across the country are celebrating unreservedly. I only wish I could join them.That feels strange to say. After all, as a gay man, a leading proponent of gay marriage and half of a same-sex marriage myself (my partner and I got married in the District of Columbia in June), I find so much to celebrate. How could I not?
The Economy Needs More Stimulus
Robert Solow, The Daily Beast
In a market economy, stuff gets produced, capacity grows, and people are employed when businesses see a decent chance to make strong sales and good profits. Right now, they see no such thing. Our economy is limping along, growing slowly—too slowly to make up much of the ground lost in the long, grinding recession. The members of the Federal Reserve Board expect that the unemployment rate will still be above 7 percent in 2012. (It was 4.6 percent in 2006 and 2007.) We are wasting productive capacity, eroding skills, and damaging families.To coin a phrase, we need to get our economy…
