Union Busting -- Now With Bullets

Via Ezra Klein, an eye-opening chart from EPI about the business climate in Colombia. Clearly, you've got some rule of law issues that could be problematic for your firm. But on the plus side, Colombia's the kind of place where you can hire someone to just go murder any pesky union organizers or other malcontents who are trying to disrupt the sweet, sweet flexibility of your local labor market.

Given Burson-Marsteller's significant union busting practice, I'm actually a bit surprised that Mark Penn was such an advocate of the Colombia free trade deal. After all, if more companies start deciding to take Colombia-style shortcuts then B-M could be out a good deal of work. Worse, with a trade deal in place, B-M could actually see its clients looking to outsource their work to Colombian paramilitaries. Or maybe Penn was looking to add a sniper brigade to his firm's work.