NH Watchdog - Foster’s Supports Car Dealer Protectionism

Foster’s Daily Democrat has an editorial endorsing SB 126, arguing that tightening New Hampshire’s already strict limits on the franchise agreements that local car dealers sign with the manufacturer is common sense.

SB 126 has been the topic of two Foster’s Daily Democrat editorial board meetings — one last week with the representatives of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and one this week with members of the New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association. The first is said to represent about 77 percent of automakers nationally and the latter the New Hampshire retail motor vehicle industry, (auto sales dealers, tractors, off-road vehicles etc.) many of them small businesses and family owned.

During the meeting with NHADA members we heard story after story of local dealers — your friends and neighbors, the ones who support local youth programs and booster clubs — being forced out of business or being strong armed to spend hundreds of thousands, if not at times millions, of needless dollars to build or rebuild showrooms every few years.

Foster’s can normally be counted on to oppose such Nanny State foolishness, but seems to have been swayed by a parade of horribles. Local car dealers may indeed have a long list of contract obligations that they find unreasonable.[...]

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CEI Daily - Wall Street Protesters, Protectionism, and Deregulation

Wall Street Protesters

An "Occupy Wall Street" activist posted a list of demands on the internet, sparking debate among advocates and critics of the protest.

 

Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young responds.

"Like almost any list of demands, there is good and bad here. Two common themes animate the list. One is that the writer clearly hasn’t studied economics. Free trade promotes wealth and peace, and has almost zero net effect on employment in the long-run. High minimum wages price the lowest-skilled employees out of work, and hurt them. There is no free lunch. Nobody will lend money if they aren’t going to be paid back."

 

Protectionism

 

In a Washington Examiner column this week, Michael Barone calls attention to stalled free trade agreements. 

 

Labor Policy Analyst Ivan Osorio comments.

 

"In the new CEI OnPoint, 'Free Trade without Apology,' CEI Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith and former CEI Research Associate Nick DeLong document how  efforts at appeasing organized labor — in the hopes of blunting union opposition to trade deals — have been not only ineffective, but harmful. Union leaders have taken all concessions they’ve been offered only to ask for more. This has led to trade agreements becoming weighted down with provisions governing labor and environmental issues (to appease environmentalists) which have nothing to do with trade. And those provisions have only gotten longer and more onerous in each subsequent agreement."

Deregulation

CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews released a new study this week on how Congress can better calculate and disclose the costs of federal regulations.

Read more here.