Libertarian: Biden Stands With UAW 1%
While “the White House is framing” President Biden’s walking a United Auto Workers picket line “as the ultimate show of solidarity from the pro-union president,” it’s actually a “stand for the 1 percent,” writes Reason’s Eric Boehm. While “71 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of labor unions,” just 11% “of nonunion workers said they were ‘extremely interested’ in getting organized,” per a 2022 Gallup poll. And: “There are roughly seven times as many unionized workers in the public sector as there are in manufacturing jobs.” Americans have “effectively romanticized the idea of what a labor union is,” and “politicians with abysmal approval ratings” keep “falling over one another to be associated with those romantic notions.”
Fed monitor: $100 Billion in Cash Losses
The Federal Reserve is on track to lose $110 billion this year, notes Paul Kupiec at The Hill: Its “system-wide cash operating losses now surpass $100 billion” and “will continue accumulating at about $2.5 billion per week as long as interest rates remain at current levels.” Why? Thanks to past “quantitative easing,” it “owns a little under $8 trillion in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities” that pay an average 2% interest, while it’s paid for those assets in part by borrowing “$5 trillion-plus from banks and money market funds” on which it’s now paying more than 5% interest. The losses and debt don’t go on the federal government’s books, but the fact remains: “The Fed is quietly losing a fortune and committing taxpayers to repay billions.” Surely this merits “an informed public debate.”
Eye on ’24: Youngkin’s Recipe for Success
Va. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “strategy could prove to be a helpful election blueprint for the Republican Party across the nation,” argues The Spectator’s Amber Athey. In state legislative races, it’s focused on major issues (“education, the economy and crime”) and fielding “high-quality candidates who can compete in toss-up districts” as well as an “early voting push” so good it’s “magical.” And Democrats who can’t “handle the fact that Youngkin won” seem “to be sleepwalking their way through the current election cycle.” Yes, “if Youngkin is successful it will increase the calls for him to run for president,” so “a cynic might point” to his approach “as proof that he’s building a résumé.” But “the less skeptical would argue that he just cares about his home state.”
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Menendez watch: A Schumer-Santos Axis
“East of the Hudson River, the immediate aftermath of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s second criminal indictment has produced some very unusual bipartisan alignments,” snarks Bob Hennelly at City & State NY. “Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Republican Rep. George Santos were quick to offer support for the embattled senator to stay in office.” Schumer declared Menendez “has a right to due process and a fair trial.” Santos told MSNBC that the Jersey senator is “innocent till proven guilty” and the “media has to stop acting like everybody is guilty before they are judged by juries.” In Jersey, it’s a different matter as “Democrats face an upcoming election in November where every Assembly and state Senate seat is up” and want to avoid an election “shocker.”
Ukraine beat: Progress vs. Corruption
“As Ukraine fights a war, it’s also battling corruption,” reports The Wall Street Journal’s Jillian Kay Melchior. “Scandals involving nonlethal military supplies have plagued” its defense ministry since January, but “public outrage” prompted replacement of the defense minister and a vow of significant personnel changes. The scandals “haven’t involved American aid,” but the public now reacts aggressively to any corruption. Last year, “Ukraine ranked 116th among 180 countries” in one corruption index, “up from 144th in 2013” — progress seen as “a miracle.” “Frustration with corruption in part fueled Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14,” and the country’s hopes of joining the EU “are spurring more change.” One corruption fighter says it would be “suicide for any politician not to implement these reforms.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
