WHAT ARE THE TRUE CONSEQUENCES OF THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT?

With the Obama administration in the White House and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) appears likely. But it can and should be stopped if at all possible, given the adverse impact that it will have on the workplace and the overall economy. In The Case against the Employee Free Choice Act, Richard Epstein examines this proposed legislation and explains why it is a large step backward in labor relations that will work to the detriment of employees, employers, and the public at large.

In making his case, Epstein shows how the three major components of EFCA—the card check method of union recognition, compulsory interest arbitration, and increased penalties for employer unfair labor practices—will only exaggerate the flaws of the current system and undermine the long-term set of labor practices. He presents powerful and principled reasons to explain why the decline of union membership has little to do with the supposed flaws of the current system and everything to do with globalization and technology. In addition, he demonstrates the significant constitutional challenges to both the card check and arbitration provisions....

One of the greatest challenges faced by liberal democracies is how to best regulate the interface between market choice and government behavior. In Free Markets under Siege, Richard Epstein draws on his extensive knowledge of history, law, and economics to examine this critical issue and in the process explains how to find an effective middle way between socialism and libertarianism.

With clarity, force, and wit, Epstein provides an illuminating analysis of some of the ways that special interest groups, with the help of sympathetic politicians, have been able to manipulate free markets in their favor. Focusing on two areas where government intervention has been persistent in both the United State and Western Europe—agriculture and the labor market—he makes a strong case for free trade as a way to mitigate, and perhaps eliminate altogether, the harmful effects of protecting various groups through domestic policies.

Richard Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He currently serves as interim dean of the Law School at the University of Chicago....

As far back as the Magna Carta in 1215, the right of private property was seen as a bulwark of the individual against the arbitrary power of the state. Indeed, common-law tradition holds that "property is the guardian of every other right." And yet, for most of the last seventy years, property rights had few staunch supporters in America.
This latest addition to Oxford's Inalienable Rights series provides a succinct, pointed look at property rights in America--how they came to be, how they have evolved, and why they should once again be a mainstay of the law. Richard A. Epstein, the nation's preeminent authority on the subject, examines all aspects of private property--from real estate to air rights to intellectual property. He takes the reader from the strongly protective property rights advocated by the framers of the Constitution through to the weak property rights supported by Progressive and liberal politicians of the twentieth century and finally to our own time, which has seen a renewed appreciation of property rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's landmark Kelo v. New London decision in 2005. The author's own powerful defense of property rights threads through the narrative. Using both political theory and economic analysis, Epstein argues that above all that private property is a sound social institution, and not just an excuse for selfishness and greed. Only a system of private property lets people form and raise families, organize religious and other charitable organizations, and earn a living through honest labor.
Supreme Neglect offers a compact, incisive look at this hotly contested constitutional right, championing property rights as an essential social institution....

Early in his rise to enlightenment, man invented a concept that has since been variously viewed as a vice, a crime, a business, a pleasure, a type of magic, a disease, a folly, a weakness, a form of sexual substitution, an expression of the human instinct. He invented gambling.

Recent advances in the field, particularly Parrondo's paradox, have triggered a surge of interest in the statistical and mathematical theory behind gambling. This interest was acknowledge in the motion picture, "21," inspired by the true story of the MIT students who mastered the art of card counting to reap millions from the Vegas casinos.

Richard Epstein's classic book on gambling and its mathematical analysis covers the full range of games from penny matching to blackjack, from Tic-Tac-Toe to the stock market (including Edward Thorp's warrant-hedging analysis). He even considers whether statistical inference can shed light on the study of paranormal phenomena. Epstein is witty and insightful, a pleasure to dip into and read and rewarding to study. The book is written at a fairly sophisticated mathematical level; this is not "Gambling for Dummies" or "How To Beat The Odds Without Really Trying." A background in upper-level undergraduate mathematics is helpful for understanding this work.

o Comprehensive and exciting analysis of all major casino games and variants
o Covers a wide range of interesting topics not covered in other books on the subject
o Depth and breadth of its material is unique compared to other books of this nature...