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Competition and Wal-Mart: Good for America
–By Paul A. London
In a new interview with americansforwalmart.org, author Paul London discusses the importance of strong competition in driving America’s economic success and prosperity. London, who was deputy undersecretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration from 1994 to 1997, voices his concern that attacks on Wal-Mart could reduce competition and injure America’s chances for continued economic growth. He is the author of The Competition Solution: The Bipartisan Secret behind American Prosperity. April 19, 2006 (Click here to read interview)
It’s Wal-Mart’s Business, Not the Legislature’s
–Bruce Ramsey
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002820187_rams22.html?syndication=rss
Seattle Times columnist Bruce Ramsey shares some illuminating facts and a good dose of common sense about the Maryland-style Wal-Mart tax bill up for consideration in Washington State. Good fundamental point: "The bill is a project of the national labor movement, which sees Wal-Mart as a competitive threat to union retailers." February 22, 2006
Retail Rumble
–The Wall Street Journal
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007974
In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal discusses the basic unfairness of the benefit mandates aimed at Wal-Mart. Also suggests that the bills, in targeting one company, will likely not withstand legal challenges in the long run. Meanwhile, it is a shame Wal-Mart and the retail industry should have to spend time and money battling fundamentally unfair laws. February 16, 2006
An Analysis of the Dynamics of Health Insurance Coverage and
Implications for Employer-Mandated Insurance
–Robert W. Fairlie and Rebecca A. London
http://www.epionline.org/study_detail.cfm?sid=93&group=hc
AID=/20060124/OPIN01/601240315/1032&nav_category=
Fairlie and London of the University of California, Santa Cruz, explode the notion that employer mandates like Maryland’s Wal-Mart tax might actually help people without health coverage. Upshot: mandates don’t boost the number of privately insured people.
Predatory Unionism
–Thomas J. DiLorenzo
http://www.libertyhaven.com/politicsandcurrentevents/
unionsandotherorganizations/predaunion.html
DiLorenzo discusses the labor lobby’s efforts to reduce competition by trashing a non-union retailer – in 1996. Instead of Wal-Mart, labor lobbyists were then going after union-free Food Lion. The unions’ basic approach hasn’t change: "Use whatever means necessary [to] drive up the costs and prices of nonunion firms or to drive them into bankruptcy." January 1996
Wal-Mart Grudge Match
–The Bulletin (Bend, Oregon)
http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060124/OPIN01/601240315/1032&nav_category=
Dismissing the Maryland bill as a "dumb idea," this editorial states flatly that the "government has no business telling businesses how they should allocate payroll." Arguing that Oregon should resist taking a similar path, The Bulletin notes that 90 percent of those currently qualifying for state help with health care in Oregon are either disabled, pregnant, elderly or children. January 24, 2006
The Union Conspiracy Against Wal-Mart Workers
– By Thomas DiLorenzo
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/366694/
editorial_the_war_on_walmart/index.html?source=r_health
Loyola College Economics Professor Thomas DiLorenzo says unions are looking out for themselves, not Wal-Mart’s employees. Big Labor’s attacks, he explains, are designed "either to unionize the non-union stores so that they will become just as expensive and inefficient as the unionized ones, or at least impose costs on the non-union companies that will achieve essentially the same outcome." January 23, 2006
The War on Wal-Mart
–Chicago Tribune
http://www.mises.org/story/2016
Editorial in the Chicago Tribune slams Maryland’s new anti-Wal-Mart law, pointing out what should be obvious: "If you work for Wal-Mart, there is a small chance you qualify for Medicaid. If you’re out of work, there is a very, very good chance." January 23, 2006
Shoplifting as Governance
–By George Will
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801873.htmll
Peerless Washington Post columnist George Will doesnít mince words ripping the special Maryland tax on Wal-Mart as "something not easily distinguished from theft." Summing up, he writes, "Organized labor, having mightily tried and miserably failed to unionize even one of Wal-Mart’s 3,250 American stores, has turned to organizing state legislators." January 18, 2006
The Wal-Mart Model
–By Michael Barone
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michael/barone010306.php3
Veteran political analyst and US News & World Report contributor Michael Barone puts the success of Wal-Mart in the larger context of economic growth and prosperity, concluding that "nimble firms like Wal-Mart [have] enabled the American economy to thrive."January 2, 2006
Why I’m Fighting for Wal-Mart
–By Luke Boggs
This piece by the executive director of americansforwalmart.org appeared in DSN Retailing Today, a retail trade magazine. Luke Boggs explains the genesis of americansforwalmart.org and cautions other retailers against thinking that Wal-Mart’s critics are their friends. December 19, 2005 (Click here for full article)
Unions Wage Vicious, Misguided War on Wal-Mart
–By Kevin Hassett
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=aCJurSBQqfLM
Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, pulls no punches in ripping the "vicous" attacks on Wal-Mart by what he rightly calls "high-tech goons." December 19, 2005
Quit Picking on Wal-Mart
–By Russell Shaw
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russell-shaw/quit-picking-on-walmart_b_12230.html
Author and technology expert Russell Shaw tells his fellow liberals to stop picking on Wal-Mart, which he concludes is "a positive economic and social force not deserving of blanket condemnation." December 13, 2005
Fear and Laothing Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Progress
–By Rich Lowry
http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200512060818.asp
National Review Editor Rich Lowry puts the attacks on Wal-Mart in a historical context, noting that retail progress has been greeted by similar criticism in the past. December 6, 2005
Wal-Mart Hardly Enemy of Poor
http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/articles/2039797.html
Editorial in the Daily Breeze says Wal-Mart is a great friend to people of modest means, contrary claims notwithstanding. December 2005.
Attention, Wal-Mart Critics
–By Michael Medved
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002654564_medved30.html?syndication=rss
Movie critic and syndicated radio host Michael Medved has seen the Robert Greenwald attack movie – and he's less than impressed. Medved explains why few Americans are likely to follow the elitist rantings of Greenwald and other out-of-touch activists. November 30, 2005
Is Wal-Mart the Villain It's Been Painted in New Film?
http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/2005/09/08/awsi1.html
Las Vegas Weekly reports that hourly Wal-Mart workers seem to have it quite a bit better than protesters hired by big labor to picket the chain. Note: contains a bit of off-color language. November 15, 2005
Picketers for Hire
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002654564_medved30.html?syndication=rss
Movie critic and syndicated radio host Michael Medved has seen the Robert Greenwald attack movie – and he's less than impressed. Medved explains why few Americans are likely to follow the elitist rantings of Greenwald and other out-of-touch activists. November 30, 2005
Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.
–By Sebastian Mallaby
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/27/AR2005112700687.html
In a Washington Post opinion column, Sebastian Mallaby points out how much Wal-Mart benefits low and middle-income Americans. Summing up, he writes, "If critics prevent the firm from opening up new branches, they will prevent ordinary families from sharing in those gains". November 28, 2005.
Is Wal-Mart a Problem?
–By John Stossel
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1105/stossel111605.php3
In a syndicated column, 20/20’s John Stossel reports how Wal-Mart benefits everyone who shops at its stores and shares the story of a one-time welfare recipient who has found success at Wal-Mart. November 16, 2005.
Three Cheers For Wal-Mart
–By Richard Vedder and Bryan O’Keefe
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.23455,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
Ohio University Distinguished Professor of Economics Richard Vedder and American Enterprise Institute Researcher Bryan O’Keefe find that Wal-Mart is good for America – and that the company’s critics are drawing from a playbook with at least 70 years of dust on it. From the New York Sun, November 11, 2005.
The War on Wal-Mart
–By William Murchison
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-4_12_05_WM.html
William Murchison can’t recall shopping at Wal-Mart himself, at least in the last decade, but he understands perfectly how Wal-Mart’s labor-funded critics are seeking to limit the free choice of American consumers. April 13, 2005.
Wal-Mart Wakes Up
–By Ryan Sager
http://www.techcentralstation.com/012105G.html
Ryan Sager of the New York Post puts an urban spin on his defense of Wal-Mart, noting that there are plenty of big-city residents eager for a break at the checkout counter courtesy of Wal-Mart. January 21, 2005.
What Do Quarterly Workforce Dynamics Tell Us About Wal-Mart? Evidence from New Stores in Pennsylvania
–By Michael J. Hicks
http://www.globalinsight.com/publicDownload/genericContent/hicks-penn.pdf
In a 2005 study, Professor Michael J. Hicks of the Air Force Institute of Technology finds that the entrance of Wal-Mart stores into a market has no impact on retail wages and a positive impact on overall employment. Wal-Marts entrance also leads to a marked reduction in retail employee turnover and a small but measurable compensation boost for new retail hires.
The Latest Liberal Crusade
–By Thomas Sowell
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/05/12/15402.html
In a 2005 piece, syndicated columnist and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Thomas Sowell fires back at Wal-Mart’s critics: "What the busybodies are saying is that third parties like themselves – who are paying nothing to anybody – should be determining how much somebody else should be paying those who work for them."
Interview with Paul A. London
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.21860,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
Paul A. London was deputy under secretary of commerce for economics and statistics in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997. In an interview promoting his 2005 book, The Competition Solution, London notes Wal-Mart’s positive impact on the economy in discussing the role of competition in driving growth and opportunity.
The Silly War Against Wal-Mart
–By Rich Lowry
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/richlowry/2004/04/08/11327.html
Rich Lowry, a syndicated columnist and the editor of National Review, weighs in with a 2004 column in support of Wal-Mart and market forces.
Is Wal-Mart Good for America?
–By Bruce Bartlett
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/brucebartlett/2004/11/19/13715.html
Bruce Bartlett is a former senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis who has held key positions at the US Treasury Department and the White House. In this 2004 opinion piece, Bartlett takes aim at a misleading PBS program attacking Wal-Mart.
Economic ‘Power’
–By Thomas Sowell
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2003/12/11/160461.html
Columnist and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Thomas Sowell explodes the fundamentally flawed ideas that Wal-Mart can exert “market power” over consumers and that the retailer has “control” of its market share in certain products. From 2003.
The Locational Impact of Wal-Mart Entrance: A Panel Study of the Retail Trade Sector in West Virginia
–By Michael J. Hicks and Kristy Wilburn
http://www.marshall.edu/cber/research/working/wp99-03-c.PDF
This 1999 academic study by Professor Michael J. Hicks of the Air Force Institute of Technology and research assistant Kristy Wilburn concludes: “There is clearly a profound net benefit to employment and wages in having a Wal-Mart in your county.”
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