President Obama, meet Larry Summers, Director of the White House National Economic Council

Greg Mankiw juxtaposes Larry Summers' opinion as to the detrimental effects of unionization on employment with President Obama's view of unionization as part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Summers concludes that "Another cause of long-term unemployment is unionization. High union wages that exceed the competitive market rate are likely to cause job losses in the unionized sector of the economy."

At a time when unemployment threatens to increase and deepen the recession facing this country, one would think that the administration would defer any implementation of policies that lead to greater unionization. Some economists suggest that President Roosevelt's policies that encouraged unionization may have delayed recovery from the depression in the 1930s.

Yet President Obama signed three executive orders that "expanded workers rights and reversed Bush administration orders that were seen as anti-union." President Obama, phone Mr. Summers and get his opinion about increased unionization's impact on employment.