The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. INTERNET

Delegates to a United Nations conference on Internet governance complain of “too much” English language content online.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews in The Wall Street Journal on why we shouldn’t let UN bureaucrats take control over net governance:

“Regulators across the globe have long lobbied for greater control over Internet commerce and content. A French court has attempted to force Yahoo! to block the sale of offensive Nazi materials to French citizens. An Australian court has ruled that the online edition of Barron’s, could be subjected to Aussie libel laws—which, following the British example, is much more intolerant of free speech than our own law. Chinese officials—with examples too numerous for this space—continue to seek to censor Internet search engines.”

2. ECONOMICS

A new report contradicts the British government’s economic estimates of the costs of fighting climate change.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on the flaws of the UK review on the economics of global warming:

“The report’s estimates for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are laughably rosy, while the assumptions about the impacts of global warming are ridiculously overblown. The Stern Review may look professionally done, but it doesn’t pass the laugh test.”

3. ENVIRONMENT

A new study in the journal Science predicts a collapse of seafood stocks due to over-fishing by the middle of the century.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Michael DeAlessi on the need for private property rights in fisheries:

“In the absence of any private rights to marine resources, there is little if any incentive to conserve resources and fisheries suffer. When any fish left in the sea are likely to simply wind up in someone else’s net, conservation measures are frequently ignored and difficult to enforce.”