What are Trade Unions Smoking?
Trade unions are in such deep decline that only seven percent of all U.S. private sector workers are now union members. That leaves ninety three percent of our workforce who are not eligible, interested or have rejected union membership. So unions are desperate to get more workers on the union rolls. How desperate? Word comes from The Wall Street Journal that the Teamsters Union is trying to organize the forty employees of one of California’s largest marijuana growers. You read this right. Marjyn Investments, based in Oakland, which grows pot for medical uses, has allowed its employees to reach out to the Teamsters to form a union shop. The feeling from the company is that it will legitimize its business. Meanwhile, employees will get a raise in salary, health benefits and a pension.... Read More
Living the LBJ Legacy
Several weeks ago I had suggested President Obama thought that he was patterning himself after Lincoln. But after doing some more thinking, I realized that the President’s channeling of former presidents does not stop with Lincoln. Now he thinks he’s LBJ. Not since LBJ in 1965 has any president attempted to pass so much of its agenda in one Congress. LBJ called his plan The Great Society, during which major spending programs addressed education, health care (Medicaid and Medicare) , urban problems, and transportation. Every social program under the sun got money thrown at it, as if that was the answer. And the result was out of control spending and a greatly weakened presidency. Now President Obama is racking up unprecedented deficits by trying to initiative in a matter of... Read More
Neal Asbury to be Keynote Speaker at the South Florida Manufacturers Association 50th Anniversary Meeting
Neal Asbury will be the dinner keynote speaker at the South Florida Manufacturers Association 50th Anniversary Meeting on September 27th, 2010. This year’s meeting is entitled “Made in the USA and Here to Stay” and it is sponsored by Florida Power and Light. The meeting will focus on preparing for the expansion of “Top Line” that follows several years of cost cutting. It will provide manufacturers with the building blocks to weather the recovery process and turn “actionable items into increased market share.” The annual event which commemorates the South Florida Manufacturers Association’s 50th anniversary will be held at the Coral Springs Marriott Hotel, Golf Club & Convention Center in Coral Springs, Florida. SFMA’s meeting will be divided into two sessions. The first... Read More
What Happened to President Obama?
As I listened to the speech that President Obama delivered in Cleveland on Wednesday, a sudden shiver went down my spine. I had the eerie feeling that the President didn’t seem himself. In fact, I was startled to discern that aliens had abducted the President and replaced him with a look-alike. My suspicions were aroused when I heard this cloned look-alike announce that small businesses needed tax relief since the private sector creates most of the jobs. It was stunning. The original President Obama never said such things. And then I started searching the skies for more UFOs when this Presidential look-alike proclaimed that it was time to shrink the federal government. It froze my blood. After racking up trillions in debt through out of control spending on stimulus and social programs,... Read More
When Unions Punish Mexican Truckers, They Punish Americans
When Unions Punish Mexican Truckers They Punish Every American. As I have maintained countless times, NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) is by far the most beneficial trade legislation Congress has ever passed. Today, Mexico imports more U.S. made products than China and Japan combined. In fact, a guest on my radio show “Truth for America,” former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, noted that during 2008, the U.S. exported $115 billion to Mexico (up 13 percent). All in all, thirty percent of all U.S. trade goes to our two NAFTA partners. You would think this country would do everything it could to nourish this relationship. But with the tacit approval of the Obama administration, the Teamsters Union has manufactured unsubstantiated data that Mexican truckers transporting... Read More
Is China Going Green…Or Just Going Under?
China likes to make noise that they are adopting “Green” standards that will take the target off their backs from environmental groups who see China as the world’s leading polluter. Just recently they announced they are closing down 2,000 steel mills and other industrial sites that are polluting the skies. Green initiative or propaganda? You choose. The latest report out of China, as detailed in news reports, is that during the first half of 2010, China’s air quality actually deteriorated. In fact, for the first time in five years, acid rain is now making life miserable in more than 200 of its 440 cities. I’ve seen this first hand during many visits to China and I can tell you it is a nightmare. A yellow mist hangs over its cities making it nearly impossible to breathe.... Read More
Neal Asbury speaking at the Global Summit II on November 9th 2010
The Global Summit II is entitled “Humanity Uniting for a Sustainable Future”. It’s focus is on creating global partnerships and local program support systems to unite powerful grass-roots stakeholders and co-create a sustainable future. The Global Summit is a biannual event, and this year it will be held at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, California. Council topics range from ecological and agricultural subjects like Bio-diversity, Climate Change, and Food Security to the economic subjects of Scarcity, Conflict, Reconciling Local Living Economies and our Global Currency System, and Oil and Bio-Regional Trade. Additional council topics include Free Speech, Free Press, and Self-Governance. Participants across a multitude of disciplines share the same objectives for the Global Summit.... Read More
John Negroponte Endorses Conscientious Equity
“Neal Asbury’s work is very important to understanding America’s role in global trade.” – John D. Negroponte “Conscientious Equity is written from the hands-on perspective of an American businessman who has been in the trenches of owning and operating his own business in the Philippines. This is a valuable contribution to our discussion about how to get economies, including our own, going again.”–John D. Negroponte, Yale University, Former United States Deputy Secretary of State “An original thinker . . . and a visionary entrepreneur, Neal Asbury offers a clear and realistic assessment of the challenges facing firms and policymakers regarding international trade today, as well as creative solutions that could allow the United States to retain its competitive... Read More
Neal Asbury Featured on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart
My objection to the New York City Mosque is not a legal objection. We all know those that wish to build the Mosque are within their legal and constitutional rights. My problem stems from the simple concept of what is right and decent. The proposed Mosque is a couple blocks away from where a terrible and heinous war was begun on our soil. A war we did not invite or wish to fight. It is a war that is still raging. July was the deadliest month for Americans losses in Afghanistan since the war began. On June 7th is surpassed Vietnam as our longest war. We must never give aid and comfort to our enemies especially when Americans are now dying every day to defend us. The question for me is not if you are for or against the Mosque, our extremist enemies will see this as an important victory. This is... Read More
United States Not Even in the Top 10
The new issue of Newsweek conducted an international poll that ranked countries in a variety of areas like quality of life, healthcare and economic dynamism. But then they came to education. The United States is not in the Top 10. We are Number 12. This does not bode well for nurturing a new generation of students that can move into the high tech jobs that will maintain this country’s economic power. Finland ranked first, South Korea is second and Canada is third. Estonia was 7th. Estonia? We let Estonia beat us? But if it’s any consolation, China was not in the Top 10 either. Not yet. But consider this. China graduated 10,000 Ph. D Engineers last year. This spring the U.S. will graduate about 8,000 Ph.D. Engineers, an estimated two-thirds of whom are not U.S. citizens. This nation... Read More
