Featured Video Archive

Civil asset forfeiture is one of the greatest threats to private property rights in our nation today. Law enforcement can take your property without even charging you with a crime.  … more

License to Work: A National Study of Burdens from Occupational Licensing is the first national study to measure how burdensome occupational licensing laws are for lower-income workers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Michigan has one of the most burdensome licensing requirements. Our state forces people to take classes and pay money to the state for things like painting, floor sanding, cutting hair and low-level carpentry. Few other states require that. … more

Why do some employers favor a raise in the minimum wage? Profit per employee plays a major role. … more

The Senate's "Gang of Eight" proposed immigration reform plan will likely take a look at how to make it easier for high-skilled immigrants to gain legal status in the United States. Reason Foundation senior analyst Shikha Dalmia gives five reasons why low-skilled immigrants are good for the economy too: … more

"One of the things that happens when you force this kind of high-density development is you destroy the very urban neighborhoods that retain the middle class," says Joel Kotkin. "The neighborhoods have to fight this kind of guerilla-style." … more

Teachers in the Roscommon Public Schools district in Michigan have broken with the Michigan Education Association, the largest union in the state, to form an independent union that is less expensive and more responsive to their collective bargaining needs. … more

Margaret Thatcher, one of the greatest of the United Kingdom's Prime Ministers (and the only woman), died Monday. She was among the wave of leaders across the world who helped save their countries from socialist and Keynesian economics and made the world a substantially better place for all people, the rich and the poor.

Here is how she went out in the House of Commons - it is undoubtedly how she would want to be remembered … more

The Mackinac Center's Senior Investigative Reporter Anne Schieber interviews Michiganders, union and non-union, on their feelings regarding the right-to-work legislation which went into effect March 28, 2013. … more

Entrepreneur vs. LA's city government: Who will prevail? Watch Reason TV's video above to find out. … more

If the U.S. government cut all government services except Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and payments on the debt, federal spending would still outpace revenues. Prof. Antony Davies argues that there are not specific cuts that will enable government to balance the budget. He says, "Nothing less than a redesign will solve this problem." That redesign should begin by determining what the proper role of government is. … more

The founder of Union Conservatives, Terry Bowman is a Michigan UAW member and is now working on protecting the state's new Freedom-to-Work law. He discusses the challenges ahead and how his organization plans to meet them. … more

Three teachers from Michigan's Taylor School District say their union sold them out by approving a decade-long agreement to continue taking money from them. Michigan became a right-to-work state in December 2012. The law bans the practice of requiring employees to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. The law takes effect on March 28, 2013. Trying to go around the law, the Taylor Federation of Teachers Local 1085 approved a deal prior to March 28 to lock these teachers into a dues purgatory for the next 10 years. Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz, and Nancy Rhatigan reached out to the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation for help. They do not want to buy what the union is selling. … more

Rick Wadel, owner of Wadel Stabilization, Inc., has been in business in Michigan since 1978. He opens up to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy about his struggles under Michigan's economy in the past few years, as well as his hopes and ambitions for his five children. … more

Elkhart, Indiana was in a bad spot in 2009 - they held the dubious honor of highest unemployment rate in the country at 20.3 percent. But now, due to favorable-to-business government policies in Indiana, Elhart is growing faster than most counties in the country at 5.6 percent growth. … more

Michigan businessman and entrepreneur Dick DeVos joins Heritage to discuss unions and the right-to-work movement spreading in the Midwest. … more

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder visited Washington to talk about the state's new right-to-work law and how his policies have led to an economic turnaround. … more

The Mackinac Center's Director of Labor Policy, Vinnie Vernuccio, on Fox Business' "Willis Report" discussing MEA contract extensions. … more

National School Choice Week is an annual event designed to draw attention to - and advocate for - educational options for K-12 students. During the week, over 200 groups are hosting thousands of events across the country, exploring everything from charter schools and voucher programs to online curricula. … more

Hundreds of students and their parents helped kick off National School Choice Week 2013, January 26, at Union Station in Los Angeles, Calif. The week long celebration includes a 14 stop, cross-country tour starting at Union Station and ending in New York City's Penn Station. … more

Tight security locked out dozens of anti-right-to-work protesters from the State Capitol as Governor Snyder was delivering his "State of the State" address. Protesters tried to disrupt the speech by banging and chanting outside the building. … more

United Van Lines has been monitoring outmigration data for 36 years. Michigan ranks 6th highest among states with number of people moving out of the state, which is actually an improvement from #1 since 2010. It all comes down to one word: Opportunity. … more

All actions have unanticipated side effects, but government acting through regulation or legislation is particularly adept at creating disastrous unintended consequences.

Great Moments in Unintended Consequences takes a look at three instances of epic government facepalm: Osborne Reef, Corn Ethanol Subsidies, and a particular clause in ObamaCare that is already doing more harm than good. … more

A film from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, adapted from the 1958 essay by Leonard E. Read. For more about I, Pencil, visit http://www.ipencilmovie.org … more