In a ceremony in Bogota on June 11, the position of Secretary General of UNASUR passed from Colombian Maria Emma Mejia to Venezuela’s Ali Rodriguez. An ex-Marxist guerrilla, former foreign and energy minister, and former Ambassador to Cuba, the anti-American Chavista will serve as General Secretary for the next year. …
Progress on the ability of U.S. firms to take advantage of new business opportunities when Russia joins the World Trade Organization (WTO) took a step forward yesterday when Senate leaders acknowledged that legislation to promote human rights will be a condition needed for permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to move …
Union contracts do not just set the minimum compensation that workers can earn; they also set maximum wages. Employers may not pay employees more than their union has negotiated. Unions typically base pay on seniority and job classifications—not individual effort or productivity. Workers cannot bargain individually for more. By law, …
On May 17, Robin J. Lerner, deputy assistant secretary for private sector exchange at the State Department, made a valiant attempt to correct the troubling disparity in the public diplomacy competition between the Chinese and American governments, a competition in which the Chinese are clearly pulling ahead. The issue in …
Foreign diplomats, civic organizations, and Republican and Democratic leaders came together on Tuesday to remember the victims of communism. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation hosted the ceremony to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the unveiling of the Victims of Communism Memorial, a bronze replica of the “Goddess of Democracy” …
More than 80 plaintiffs in 23 different lawsuits are now challenging the HHS mandate that will require many religious institutions to provide health insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and other contraceptive services. At the heart of these lawsuits is whether the government’s purported interest in marginally increasing access to …
The Department of Energy is awarding $54 million for energy projects that should help manufacturing companies be more energy efficient. If your immediate response is, “If these technologies are going to lower a business’s costs, why aren’t they investing their own money?” then you’re asking the right question. Bailed-out General …
Ten years ago tomorrow, the United States formally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which has defined strategic thinking for about 30 years. On Wednesday, The Heritage Foundation will host an event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the withdrawal from the treaty. The treaty banned the United States and the …
In a recent New York Times column, a professor of economics argued that the reason we’re mired in economic malaise is that we’re too productive. Ever-increasing productivity means that if our economies don’t continue to expand, we risk putting people out of work.…What, then, should happen when, for one reason …
