The Keating Files

For about 20 years, Ray Keating wrote a weekly column - a short time with the New York City Tribune, more than 11 years with Newsday, another seven years with Long Island Business News, plus another year-and-a-half with RealClearMarkets.com. As an economist, Keating also pens an assortment of analyses each week. With the Keating Files, he decided to expand his efforts with regular commentary touching on a broad range of issues, written by himself and an assortment of talented contributors and columnists. So, here goes...

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

I’ve Been Granted 7 Pop Culture Wishes

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – June 16, 2020

Everybody seems to have a list of things they’d like to see happen on the entertainment front. A pop culture wish list, if you will. And if you don’t, well, you should if you’re any fun at all.

And my wish list isn’t about things that I wish never happened – well, not really. These are things that I wish for, and if people would just listen, each could happen. So, let’s go, pay attention entertainment executives.

First, Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson need to get together and cut an album. Think about having one of the musical geniuses behind the Beatles and the creative force of the Beach Boys – the two greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time (yes, I wrote it!) – get together to make an album during their later years. Make it happen!

Second, and this verges on wishing-it-never-happened, but in reality is a fix-it wish: Bring William Shatner back for one more turn as Captain James T. Kirk. Shatner, Kirk and Star Trek fans deserved a heck of a lot more than that ridiculous death in Star Trek: Generations. If you can bring Patrick Stewart back as Captain Picard for a full season (and apparently two more) of Picard, then get Shatner back in the captain’s chair for something ... anything! And so what if he can’t get into a good fistfight or land the sexy alien woman any more (Is that PC? Will someone get upset?) – after all, the dude is 89 (and looks great) – he can still speak in commanding Shatner-esque fashion on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Third, the Nerd Herder in me wishes – no, he demands – that Chuck return. For those who don’t know what Chuck was or is, my response is: What the hell is wrong with you? Chuck ran on NBC from 2007 to 2012. It was an hour-long comedy about an underachieving tech guy, played by Zachary Levi, who works at the Buy More (think Best Buy), but suddenly gets government secrets implanted in his head. What follows is a delightful five seasons of nerds, spies, silly bad guys, nerd humor, romance, and action, along with wonderful and weird characters who are irresistible. Along the way, the show was kept alive by fan campaigns. To many of those fans, though, the two-hour finale came up short. There’s been lots of talk about a Chuck movie, with Levi making clear he’s in favor of it.

Now, follow this: HBO Max now ranks among streaming options seeking content, and it’s owned by AT&T. In turn, AT&T also owns Warner Brothers Studio, which controls Chuck (I think). Therefore, it’s time for the return of Chuck courtesy of HBO Max streaming, and I say it should be either a series of movies or, preferably, a few eight-episode seasons.

Incidentally, I wrote a book titled“Chuck” vs. the Business World: Business Tips on TV, which offers all kinds of career and business tips based on the show.

Fourth, I might regret this wish: But even with Steven Spielberg dropping out, the movie getting pushed back time and again due to assorted delays, and Harrison Ford getting up there in years, I still wish to see another Indiana Jones movie. Let’s hope that director James Mangold and Harrison Ford can pull off some Indy magic one more time.

Fifth, after this next James Bond movie is released, it is presumed to be the last one for Daniel Craig. He has been the best Bond thus far, so who could succeed him in the role? It obviously should be Henry Cavill. Don’t argue.

Sixth, in the next season of Magnum P.I., the original Magnum, Tom Selleck, needs to guest star in a two-part episode playing a detective from the mainland – preferably, Detroit – who was an old friend of the new Magnum’s (Jay Hernandez) father. Give me a call, CBS, I can pen a fun script.

Seventh, I wish that Warner Brothers would give the green light for Zack Snyder to finish his version of the Justice League movie, so we can... What? Oh, that’s happening? It’s supposed to be coming to HBO Max in 2021. Well, great. Mission accomplished. Wish fulfilled. I guess I’ll stop there then.

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“Picard Comes Up Short”

See recent...

“The Ills of Labor Unions, Part II: Public Schools and Policing”

“The Ills of Labor Unions, Part I: Baseball”

“Review of Behind Enemy Lines”

See notable...

“God Bless, Boris Johnson: PM to Offer British Citizenship to 40 Percent of Hong Kong Residents”

“PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #13: A Conversation About the History Channel’s “Grant” Documentary”

“PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #12: Gaining Insights on Becoming an Entrepreneur from Chris Ullman”

“History Channel’s “Grant” Documentary: A Long Overdue Masterpiece”

“The Tyranny of Disagreement”

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Ray Keating is a columnist, economist, podcaster and entrepreneur. You can order his new book Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York from Amazon or signed books at RayKeatingOnline.com. His other recent nonfiction book is Free Trade Rocks! 10 Points on International Trade Everyone Should Know. Keating also is a novelist. His latest novels are The Traitor: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel, which is the 12^th book in the series, and the second edition of Root of All Evil? A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel with a new Author Introduction. The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?

Also, tune in to Ray Keating’s podcasts – the PRESS CLUB C Podcastand the Free Enterprise in Three Minutes Podcast

Monday, June 15, 2020

The Ills of Labor Unions, Part II: Public Schools and Policing

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – June 15, 2020

I wrote weekly newspaper columns for nearly 20 years (for Newsday and then Long Island Business News) specifically covering Long Island politics, policy and economics. And one way to drive home the point of how completely out of whack the costs of government were (and still are) was to ask the following...

Question: What’s a Long Island power couple?

Answer: A cop married to a public school teacher.

In many parts of the country, that might seem bizarre. But consider that, according to a Newsday report last year, for example, the average annual pay for a Nassau County police officer was $104,000, while in Suffolk County, it’s $138,000. (Long Island’s two counties are Nassau and Suffolk.) Just a few years earlier, the average was $145,000 in Nassau, but the recent decline apparently has to do with older, higher-paid cops retiring.

As for public school teachers, the norm is for the median teacher pay in school districts on Long Island to top $100,000 per year (and keep in mind that teachers have summers off, so a true annualized pay estimate is much higher). According to the Empire Center’s SeeThroughNY.net, the median teacher pay in Nassau County public schools ranges from $93,534 to $148,888. In Suffolk, the range goes from $72,026 to $136,733.

Remember, “median” is the middle point, so that half the teachers make more than that amount.

So, if a police officer and a public school teacher living and working on Long Island get married, and just stick around in their respective jobs, it’s well within reason that they’d be raking in a cool quarter-of-a-million dollars annually, courtesy of the taxpayers.

Such luxurious compensation is about powerful government labor unions and elected officials who care little about how taxpayer money is spent. And everyone involved in doling out and accepting these big bucks sells it to the public as being about educating the children and providing public safety. But it’s not – in either case.

Make no mistake, labor unions only care about their members. So, during this time of racial strife, if we take a serious look at issues that matter – education and law enforcement – then it’s time to deal with governmental abuses and incompetence, and the roles played by public sector unions in representing police and teachers.

For the police unions, it’s not about serving and protecting the community. Instead, it’s about maximizing pay, including pensions, minimizing the work done by members, and protecting members against disciplinary actions.

On the pension front, the Empire Center noted last year: “Fully three-quarters of the 242 Nassau County and Suffolk County police department officers retiring last year, as well as two-thirds of the 39 newly retired Yonkers city police officers, were eligible for annual pensions of more than $100,000, the data show. The pension amounts do not include added severance payments for accumulated sick or vacation time.” One Nassau County retired cop walked away with an annual pension of $221,086.

Regarding police discipline in New York, consider the following as reported by Ken Girardin, also of the Empire Center:

On June 13, 2019, the Senate unanimously passed a bill (S5803) that would make the final determination of disciplinary penalties a subject of collective bargaining...

The bill—which failed to pass in the Assembly and didn’t emerge from committee in this year’s pandemic-truncated session—was the most recent in a long line of attempts by police and fire unions to nullify a unanimous 2006 state Court of Appeals decision affirming the New York City police commissioner’s ultimate power over disciplinary matters in the NYPD...

Between 2006 and 2010, proposals to make all stages of police discipline a mandatory subject of collective bargaining were passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature, only to be vetoed by Governors Pataki, Spitzer and Paterson. When the same measure reached Governor Cuomo’s desk in 2014, he took the more passive approach of leaving it unsigned and allowing it to die via a pocket-veto. The bill passed the Senate in 2018 by a 62-0 vote, but died in the Assembly that year.

And guess what? Police unions lead the charge against reforms that would make real improvements, such as use of body and patrol car cameras; ramping up ongoing training requirements significantly; removing special protections that other citizens don’t have; instituting merit pay rather than compensation being tied to seniority; seriously researching if having police officers live in the local communities in which they work would improve policing; and implementing far more selective hiring practices, such as getting at why someone wants to be a cop (is it a calling to help and protect the community, or something else?).

Meanwhile, the teacher unions not only stand at the forefront of boosting compensation for public school teachers (again, based on seniority detached from performance), but also in actively opposing changes that would help students. In fact, teacher and other education unions have stood against all real solutions to our education problems. While the public education system talks about working to improve, students’ lives continue to suffer year after year in terms of failing schools, and poor education translating into fewer opportunities and lower earnings, on average, over lifetimes.

Real changes in education policies that would start to immediately make improvements in the lives of students – such as school choice via vouchers, tax credits, and homeschooling – are always opposed by teachers unions. Students and families can’t afford to wait for public schools to eventually get around to improving. And factory-like, government schools filled with too many poor and mediocre teachers are recipes for failure. Students and families need options to get out.

On its list of misleading reasons for opposing school choice, the National Education Association (NEA) has the nerve to declare, “Vouchers provide less accountability for public resources than public schools.” In reality, few entities are less accountable than government, including public schools, along with the teachers and their unions. Accountability comes when consumers – not politicians or unions – are in control.

Substantive reforms in both policing and public education likely will require bringing union representation of public sector workers to an end. Public sector unions were long opposed across the political spectrum, even by pro-union Democrats, such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But by the 1960s, the move to unionize government employees was pushing ahead. Today, the largest labor union in the U.S. is the NEA, and unions provide enormous campaign dollars and volunteers to politicians – mainly, Democrats. Therefore, the interests of elected officials wind up being aligned with those of public sector workers, and not in a constructive way. But instead in a way whereby politics supports union efforts to benefit union members to the detriment of those who government is supposed to serve.

No one should be surprised that government labor unions stand as major obstacles to positive reforms in policing and education. But that doesn’t mean these union roadblocks must persist.

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“PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #14: Labor Unions Cause Problems in Baseball, Education and Policing”

See recent...

“Review of Behind Enemy Lines”

“Free Enterprise in Three Minutes with Ray Keating – Episode #65: Uncertainty vs. Risk, Part I”

“God Bless, Boris Johnson: PM to Offer British Citizenship to 40 Percent of Hong Kong Residents”

“PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #13: A Conversation About the History Channel’s “Grant” Documentary”

“PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #12: Gaining Insights on Becoming an Entrepreneur from Chris Ullman”

“History Channel’s “Grant” Documentary: A Long Overdue Masterpiece”

See notable...

“The Tyranny of Disagreement”

__________

Also, tune in to Ray Keating’s podcasts – the PRESS CLUB C Podcast and the Free Enterprise in Three Minutes Podcast

Friday, June 12, 2020

Free Enterprise in Three Minutes with Ray Keating – Episode #66: Uncertainty vs. Risk, Part II

Ray notes that while individuals and businesses can face uncertainty in the market, they also can be confronted by government-generated uncertainty. Tune in right now!

Listen to Part I.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

The Ills of Labor Unions, Part I: Baseball

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – June 10, 2020

Confession is good for the soul. So, here goes: This free market economist was once a card-carry member of the Teamsters Union. Wow, I feel better getting that off my chest.

Anyway, some might ask: What’s the problem with labor unions? Plenty, and assorted current events – including squabbling over a plan to bring back baseball – expose the ills of labor unions.

First, it’s important to understand the basic economics of labor unions. That is, labor unions overwhelmingly are about seeking to maximize the compensation of union members and to monopolize employment in an industry or business under a union, while also pushing to minimize the work being performed by those union members. Hmmm, and how does that work out? Of course, it’s a recipe for reduced competitiveness, lost business, lower profits, less investment in unionized businesses, and lost opportunities and jobs for union members over the long run.

Indeed, keep in mind that labor union membership in the early 1950s stood at about 33 percent of employed U.S. workers, and that tumbled to 10.3 percent in 2019. Even more striking has been the decline into irrelevance for unions in the private sector, with private sector union membership falling from 21.2 percent in 1979 to 6.2 percent in 2019.

As investment moves away from unionized businesses, productivity is reduced, which means less earnings for workers and lost profits for owners. Labor unions operate under the mistaken Marxist assumption that workers and business owners are at odds. But in reality, workers and owners rise and fall together.

For example, investments made by owners in facilities, tools, technology and other innovations enhance productivity, which boosts both workers earnings and business profits. In addition, when owners and workers are focused on providing excellent products and customer service, both owners and workers benefit.

This is all Economic 101 and Business 101. But labor unions specialize in ignoring such basic lessons.

On the baseball front, Major League Baseball’s team owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association are working at odds – rather than together – to bring baseball back this season.

Golly, what a surprise. Baseball’s owners and the union have been less than friendly over the years. So, with NASCAR back, the PGA Tour restarting this weekend, the NBA moving ahead with its plan to complete its season in Walt Disney World starting in late July, and the NHL trying to get back on the ice, baseball owners and players publicly bicker.

What’s the beef? Naturally, the MLBPA is trying to squeeze every last cent out of an abbreviated season for its members in the face of grim financial circumstances.

The owners also are at fault for not being able to see early on in this pandemic shutdown that they might be playing without fans this season, and the resulting financial hit. But after the owners woke up to this harsh economic reality, the MLBPA has exhibited no interest in giving a damn, unwilling to revisit a March agreement for fully prorated salaries. Proposals go back and forth – with CBS Sports reporting that the MLBPA tossed out the latest plan for an 89-game season and expanded playoffs – but strife reigns.

Meanwhile, baseball fans suffer, and so does the baseball brand and its goodwill – and that, of course, is bad for baseball and the players. This coronavirus pandemic presented an opportunity for the MLBPA to put aside its archaic union thinking, and do what’s right for fans, for the game, for the business of baseball, and for the long-run well-being of its members. But, no.

It’s a strange thing that one can make the case that the strongest private sector union left in America is the MLBPA – a union representing wealthy athletes that play baseball for a living. Well, if anyone needs a union it would be men playing a children’s game for lots of money – right?

By the way, MLB can implement a season of its own choosing, and there have been rumblings about less than 50 games. That wouldn’t be a big hit with fans – though many would take anything – and the owners would risk further angering the vaunted MLBPA with the current collective bargaining agreement expiring in December 2021.

Team owners and players still have an opportunity to recognize that their fates are tied together. They could step forward in unity to bring back baseball at a time when the country needs it, and by doing so, while taking a short-term financial hit, improve the brand of baseball for the benefit of the game, its customers (the fans), the owners, and the players. It would be smart business, but labor unions have nothing to do with smart business.

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See recent...

“Review of Behind Enemy Lines”

“Free Enterprise in Three Minutes with Ray Keating – Episode #65: Uncertainty vs. Risk, Part I”

“God Bless, Boris Johnson: PM to Offer British Citizenship to 40 Percent of Hong Kong Residents”

“PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #13: A Conversation About the History Channel’s “Grant” Documentary”

“PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #12: Gaining Insights on Becoming an Entrepreneur from Chris Ullman”

“History Channel’s “Grant” Documentary: A Long Overdue Masterpiece”

See notable...

“The Tyranny of Disagreement”

__________

Also, tune in to Ray Keating’s podcasts – the PRESS CLUB C Podcast and the Free Enterprise in Three Minutes Podcast

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #14: Labor Unions Cause Problems in Baseball, Education and Policing

As an economist and political commentator, Ray Keating has long been sick and tired of labor unions – especially government unions – and the ills they generate. Perhaps now lots of other people are as well. Problems in baseball, and more serious troubles regarding education and policing can be tracked to, in part, the actions of labor unions. Keating applies some Economics 101 and Politics 101 to explain why unions, well, suck. Tune in now!

Monday, June 8, 2020

Review of Behind Enemy Lines

by Self-Publishing Review, ★★★★

The Keating Files – June 8, 2020

The journalistic side of Ray Keating’s writing comes to the fore in Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left Wing New York. Boasting a traditional conservative voice that is measured, self-aware, confident, and persuasive, Keating’s arguments are original and thought-provoking, while many of the ideas explored in this book are surprisingly nuanced.

As a journalist, fiction writer, and general observer of life, Keating has written more than 8,000 columns and pieces over the past thirty years, remaining steadily in the lane of idyllic conservatism – family, God, and country matter above most else. Having read many of Keating’s Pastor Grant novels, the conservative bent to much of this book’s arguments is unsurprising. His iconic protagonist is a gun-toting, Constitution-defending, God-fearing vigilante hero, an appealing figure for a steadfast conservative operating in a bastion of liberal progressivism like New York.

Ranging from lauding praise on Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to questioning Obama’s ultimate motives and decision-making ability, these opinion pieces are anything but impartial, but they are also well-structured and level-headed. Criticisms of taxpayers picking up the NASA tab, scathing reviews of governmental function (regardless of party leadership), and discussions of the quiet titan of Christianity within American politics are just a few of the subjects touched on in this unexpectedly riveting collection.

Keating’s journalistic style is similarly fearless to his fiction writing, unafraid to dabble in any realm and apply his firmly held beliefs into peaceful debate with those who would disagree. Unlike so much other conservative writing in recent years, especially pro-Trump partiality, Keating has a frank and honest voice that appears to be morally uncompromised. He makes it clear that while his economic, social, and geopolitical opinions may fall on the conservative spectrum, his principles are still very much in place...

Read the rest of this review here...

Friday, June 5, 2020

Free Enterprise in Three Minutes with Ray Keating – Episode #65: Uncertainty vs. Risk, Part I

Uncertainty and risk often are used interchangeably, but they are not the same, as explained by Ray Keating in this episode. Tune in here!

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

God Bless, Boris Johnson: PM to Offer British Citizenship to 40 Percent of Hong Kong Residents

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – June 3, 2020

God bless, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In a time of crisis, he is showing bold leadership, and standing firm for his nations’ commitments and principles by offering, if necessary, British citizenship to some 40 percent of the population of Hong Kong.

The communist regime in Beijing has decided to break its pledge of allowing for Hong Kong self-governance under the “one country, two systems” agreement made with Great Britain when Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997. That agreement, included in Hong Kong’s Basic law, was to be in effect until 2047. But Beijing has decided to impose a “national security” law on Hong Kong that would stomp out dissent, free speech and the region’s autonomy.

Johnson has stepped forward where other world leaders, including President Trump in the U.S., dither, doing little or nothing, so far.

Writing in an op-ed published today in the South China Morning Post, Johnson correctly pointed out: “There is something wonderful about the fact that a small island in the Pearl River Delta rose to become a great trading city and commercial powerhouse of East Asia. Wonderful, but not accidental or fortuitous. Hong Kong succeeds because its people are free.”

And now that freedom is in peril. What is Johnson willing to do, specifically? He wrote:

Today, about 350,000 of the territory’s people hold British National Overseas passports and another 2.5 million would be eligible to apply for them. At present, these passports allow visa-free access to the United Kingdom for up to six months.

If China imposes its national security law, the British government will change our immigration rules and allow any holder of these passports from Hong Kong to come to the UK for a renewable period of 12 months and be given further immigration rights, including the right to work, which could place them on a route to citizenship.

This would amount to one of the biggest changes in our visa system in British history. If it proves necessary, the British government will take this step and take it willingly.

The Washington Post has reported, “London’s move ... would potentially grant British residency and working rights to up to 40 percent of Hong Kong’s population, raising the specter of a brain drain from the Asian financial center.”

Johnson later added:

Many people in Hong Kong fear their way of life – which China pledged to uphold – is under threat. If China proceeds to justify their fears, then Britain could not in good conscience shrug our shoulders and walk away; instead we will honour our obligations and provide an alternative...

Britain wants nothing more than for Hong Kong to succeed under “one country, two systems”. I hope that China wants the same. Let us work together to make it so.

This is leadership from the West – a free country reaching out to aid those facing communist oppression. Let’s hope and pray that China comes to behave like a civilized nation, rather than defaulting to its totalitarian ways. But given Chinese President Xi Jinping’s track record, we should not be naïve. It’s time for the United States to stand ready to help the people of Hong Kong in all ways possible, including making a similar offer as the one put forth by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

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“At a Turning Point with China?”

See notable...

“The Tyranny of Disagreement”

__________

Also, tune in to Ray Keating’s podcasts – the PRESS CLUB C Podcastand the Free Enterprise in Three Minutes Podcast

PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #13: A Conversation About the History Channel’s “Grant” Documentary

Al Hintz, amateur Civil War historian extraordinaire and all-around history buff, joins Ray to discuss the History Channel’s “Grant” documentary, and other aspects of and views on the life and times of Ulysses S. Grant. Tune in to Al and Ray having an enjoyable conversation about the man who led the Union Army during the Civil War, went on to lead the nation as president, and deserves to be recognized a great American. Tune in right now!

Check out Ray’s two recent pieces on Ulysses Grant and this documentary:

“History Channel’s ‘Grant’ Documentary: A Long Overdue Masterpiece”

“History Channel Presents Opportunity to Consider U.S. Grant’s Accomplishments, Including During His Presidency”

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

PRESS CLUB C Podcast with Ray Keating – Episode #12: Gaining Insights on Becoming an Entrepreneur from Chris Ullman

If you’re thinking about diving into the entrepreneurial waters, you need to listen to the conversation Ray has with Chris Ullman. Based on his own experience as an entrepreneur and his expertise in advising business executives, Chris offers great insights on a wide array of topics central to becoming and working as an entrepreneur. And by the way, Chris makes clear that entrepreneurship is not limited by age, as he hung out his own shingle at the age of 55. Tune in now!

Nerd Economist: Ray Keating

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Monday, June 15, 2020

Friday, June 12, 2020

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Monday, June 8, 2020

Friday, June 5, 2020

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Tuesday, June 2, 2020