The Volokh Conspiracy - Arlen Specter Jumps Off the Fence on Card Check.

Jennifer Rubin speculates that card check is dead for now because Senator Specter will not support cloture (tip to Instapundit).

If true, that's great news for the economy and the stock market. The chances of card check passing, which had been hanging over the market for months, has been lessening in recent weeks.

On the effects of labor successes in prolonging the Great Depression, see this excellent paper by Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian. The wage increases achieved by industry cartels and unions during the Depression were staggering, and differed markedly from industries that were not effectively cartelized. By ensuring that market clearing wages were not offered, the government, the cartels, and the unions were able to keep unemplyment very high for years. The study also shows that getting more money into the hands of individual workers is not the answer to an economic downturn.

Though the authors don't explore this, only when capital gains and corporate income taxes were cut substantially in the spring of 1938 did the 1937-38 severe depression (within a severe depression) come to an end.

	[Jim Lindgren, March 24, 2009 at 6:53pm] Trackbacks Arlen Specter Jumps Off the Fence on Card Check. Jennifer Rubin speculates that card check is dead for now because Senator Specter will not support cloture (tip to Instapundit). If true, that's great news for the economy and the stock market. The chances of card check passing, which had been hanging over the market for months, has been lessening in recent weeks. On the effects of labor successes in prolonging the Great Depression, see this excellent paper by Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian. The wage increases achieved by industry cartels and unions during the Depression were staggering, and differed markedly from industries that were not effectively cartelized. By ensuring that market clearing wages were not offered, the government, the cartels, and the unions were able to keep unemplyment very high for years. The study also shows that getting more money into the hands of individual workers is not the answer to an economic downturn. Though the authors don't explore this, only when capital gains and corporate income taxes were cut substantially in the spring of 1938 did the 1937-38 severe depression (within a severe depression) come to an end.