America’s Youth Should Broaden Its Post High School Education Options

I came across a fascinating article in The Wall Street Journal recently that reported that due to Germany’s aggressive promotion of vocational schools and skills training, the German unemployment rate for young people is below 8 percent. Contrast that to a new report that one in four Americans aged 24 to 54 aren’t working. That’s an unemployment rate of 25 percent. For our teenagers it is even much higher. That’s a tragedy.... Read More

Ignoring Vocational Schools Ignores a More Prosperous Future

I came across a fascinating article in The Wall Street Journal recently that reported that due to Germany’s aggressive promotion of vocational schools and skills training, the German unemployment rate for young people is below 8 percent. Contrast that to a new report that one in four Americans aged 24 to 54 aren’t working. That’s an unemployment rate of 25 percent. For our teenagers it is even much higher. That’s a tragedy.... Read More

Disrespecting Business Success Goes Global

I thought that America under the Obama administration was the only government that actually tries to prevent businesses from making money. Through an onerous tax system, oppressive regulations, an ill-conceived energy policy and a lack of banking options, American entrepreneurs are castigated for succeeding and making a profit. The exceptions, of course, are companies that give big donations to Obama’s Democratic Party. But China has mastered... Read More

In Defense of the Ex-Im Bank

The good news is that it looks like the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank will be reauthorized for the short term. The bad news is that it is widely misunderstood, to the detriment of small businesses and entrepreneurs. To complicate things the Ex-Im Bank is a misnomer. It has nothing to do with imports and is not a bank. It provides loan guarantees to private banking institutions on behalf of American exporters. It also provides credit insurance. Everything... Read More

Sacrificing Immigration Reform on the Altar of Cynical Politics

In February 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama said this about immigration: “Number one, it is important that we fix the legal immigration system, because right now we’ve got a backlog that means years for people to apply legally. And what’s worse is we keep on increasing the fees, so that if you’ve got a hard-working immigrant family, they’ve got to hire a lawyer; they’ve got to pay thousands of dollars in... Read More

Burger King’s Acquisition Should Be Celebrated, Not Castigated

In 1974, Burger King introduced a jingle that encouraged diners to “Have It Your Way.” Ironically, the Obama administration has usurped the jingle and altered it to “Have It Our Way” to describe their approach to business — pay our taxes, conform to our regulations and support our causes or will we castigate you. Burger King has the audacity to expand their market share by acquiring Canada-based Tim Hortons, a causal... Read More

Obama Needs to Lift Crude Oil Export Ban This Year

University of Texas’ annual energy poll found that 58 percent of Americans incorrectly thought that America’s major source of foreign oil is Saudi Arabia and another 15 percent say it’s Iraq. The truth, of course, is that America’s biggest oil suppliers is Canada, which provides 28 percent of U.S. oil imports. If you add in Mexico and Venezuela, that number goes up to 50 percent. How much oil do we actually get from the... Read More

American Citizens Are Relegated to the Back of the Line for Jobs

When it comes to President Barack Obama, I have always maintained his race has never been a factor in the rejection of his policies. The color of one’s skin shouldn’t matter in this country. Yet, as our first black president, it appears he has turned his back on America’s black labor force. The black unemployment rate stands at more than 20 percent, and has been at that level for a long time. The unemployment rate for black youth is astronomical.... Read More

Our Broken Immigration Program Stems From a Broken Trade Policy

The flood of refugees into the United States is not only a sign of a failed immigration policy, but of a trade policy that ignores the underlying reason for this humanitarian crisis. Robert Zoellick, who served as president of the World Bank, U.S. trade representative and deputy secretary of state, recently wrote an Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal in which he maintained that if President Obama had been paying closer attention to Central America,... Read More

America’s Corrupted H-1B Visa Program Is Killing American Jobs

There was a time when I was a big proponent of the H-1B visa program, which is a temporary non-immigrant employment visa for highly educated foreign professionals in “specialty occupations” that require at least a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. The visa lasts for three years with the option to renew for an additional three years for a total of six years. H-1B visa holders can be sponsored for permanent visas by their... Read More