Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Housing abundance and affordability with Luca Gattoni-Celli
In this week’s episode we cover J.D. Vance and the strength of the US dollar, how to track extreme weather events,…
Blog
Are Trump’s drone tariffs flying blind?
President Trump’s new Section 232 tariffs on drones and drone components are being justified as responses to national security vulnerabilities. In its…
News Release
New report calls for awareness of regulations’ adverse effects on Americans
Federal regulations claim they exist to protect the public. But what happens when those regulations achieve the opposite by blocking cheaper, safer, and more…
Study
The Protection Paradox
The everyday American expects certain basic services from her government. She expects her roads to be maintained, her mail to be delivered, and her…
Blog
Vance wants to break the dollar’s global reserve currency status: Why American consumers would pay
A recently resurfaced video of Vice President J.D. Vance has brought renewed attention to his argument that the US dollar’s status as the…
News Release
Disney sues FCC over alleged ‘retaliatory campaign’ against ABC: CEI analysis
Today, Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in response to the…
Blog
Why a supersonic cross-country flight could be closer than you think
What if a cross-country flight took less time than your favorite movie? That future may be closer than it sounds. The Federal Aviation Administration…
Blog
The Regulatory Plan needs a regulatory plan
As the Trump administration’s early emphasis on the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has tapered off, so too has its emphasis…
Blog
Federal court strikes down another bad appliance regulation – this time for stoves
Last June, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court decision upholding a bad Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency regulation targeting residential furnaces and sent…
Blog
Third-party reviewers expand permitting capacity without expanding government
Housing permitting reform has become one of the few housing policies to attract support across the political spectrum. States as politically diverse as…
Blog
The week in regulations: Fresh produce guidance and naval weapon storage
Inflation remained above target for a 64th consecutive month. President Trump signed an executive order to revise vaccine recommendations. Agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
One lesson protectionists forgot: Trade interventions backfire
It’s not just tariffs that backfire in trade policy. The government has a long history of similar failures. Between 1934 and 1941, the Treasury…
Letters
CEI joins coalition commending waiver extension for the Jones Act
Dear Secretary Mullin, Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Wright, and Secretary Rollins: The undersigned individuals write to commend President Donald Trump’s decision to…
National Review
Endangered Species Act reform restores property rights and common sense species conservation
For decades, the federal government’s misinterpretation of a single word (“harm”) in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has had severe effects on…
Comment
CEI comments on enabling supersonic flight
Dear Administrator Bedford and Staff, The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) respectfully submits these comments in response to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Notice…
Letters
CEI joins coalition to support the FIRM Act
We, the undersigned organizations, write in support of Senator Tim Scott’s Financial Integrity and Regulation Management (FIRM) Act.
News Release
Inflation increases slightly in July, Americans still paying higher prices: CEI analysis
July’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report shows inflation increased 0.1 percent across all sectors, in line with economists’ predictions. With new proposed tariffs…
Letters
CEI joins coalition against FCC interference in affiliation agreements
Dear Chairman Carr: We, the undersigned organizations, write in continued support of your work to reduce government regulation and interference in America’s thriving…
Blog
What Trump’s vaccine executive order actually does
Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal health agencies to revise childhood vaccine recommendations, reducing the number of vaccines recommended for…
Blog
The trucker shortage debate: Government recruiting more truckers won’t solve trucking challenges
When I wrote my recent piece on why Trump’s Freedom Haulers initiative won’t fix the issues facing the trucking industry that Trump exacerbated…
Blog
The week in regulations: Professional fireworks and farmer training
The 2026 Federal Register topped 50,000 pages and is on track to exceed 85,000 pages for the year. The economy lost 23,000 jobs, yet…
Blog
Section 338-tariff uncertainty highlights the knowledge problem
Last month, the Trump administration invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to impose new 50 percent tariffs against Canada. A…
News Release
Jobs numbers drop in July, May and June’s numbers revised downward: CEI analysis
The new jobs report brings bad news to the labor market, with a net loss of 23,000 jobs for July and a downward…
News Release
FDA succeeds in approving new flu vaccine: CEI comment
The FDA has approved a flu vaccine made with mRNA technology, the same technology used for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, the company announced on…
Letters
CEI joins Coalition in opposition to the Renewable Fuel Standard
Dear Chairman Boozman and Ranking Member Klobuchar: The undersigned organizations write to oppose Section 12501 of the Agricultural Act of 2026. This provision…
Blog
Class is in session: Are educators ready for AI?
From the early internet to modern artificial intelligence (AI), technological change causes panic. News outlets often amplify fears surrounding AI. Teachers and…
Blog
Forecasts, not puppet strings: The myth that prediction markets rig reality (Part II)
Prediction markets have become an increasingly prominent tool for forecasting elections, economic indicators, geopolitical developments, and other uncertain events. Their growing popularity has also…
Comment
CEI comments on Rescission of Climate-Related Disclosure Rules
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is pleased to comment on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal to rescind its climate disclosure rule. Since 1984,…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The Independence Index with Marc Wheat
In this week’s episode we cover the effect of tariffs on car prices, trends in electricity supply and demand, and the…
Blog
Revenue over reason: A case for home distilling
Want to distill spirits at home? Congress says you can’t. This ban from the Reconstruction era was not instated for health or…
Blog
FSC v. Paxton after one year: Age verification moves down the stack
This past June marked the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s FSC v. Paxton decision. The Court held that states may require age…
Letters
CEI joins coalition against federal intrusion of bank licensing
Dear Chairman Warsh: Left-wing advocacy groups are urging federal regulators to block the bank license applications of fintech lenders…
Blog
Freedom Haulers won’t fix the truck driver shortage that Trump helped worsen
With more than two million truck driving jobs and a growing demand to replace departing workers, the industry requires a steady supply of…
Blog
Protectionism in North America? Not again
Well before its ratification in 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was scorned by its critics as a dangerous, unfair deal. CEI,…
Blog
The epistemological mismatch of KOSA’s constructive knowledge standard
The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a markup on Wednesday for several online child safety bills, including the Kids Online Safety Act (…
Blog
The week in regulations: Peach diversion programs and nuclear packages
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates the same, and an increase may be on the way. Economic growth remained below average, and inflation remained…
Blog
Trump administration decision highlights disastrous Part D redesign
The Trump administration recently announced the end of a demonstration project that was pulled together by the Biden administration as the Inflation Reduction…
Blog
Fauci’s lasting legacy will be the damage he did to science and government
Anthony Fauci isn’t faring well in the court of public opinion. His recently divulged “diary” and subsequent July 29 appearance before the Senate Homeland…
Blog
When driverless vehicles are attacked, look for the union label
Self-driving cars are coming to major cities, and one group in particular is not happy about this: unions. An effort to bring self-driving vehicles…
Op-Eds
The Democracy They Warned Us About
The Democratic Socialists of America, an insurgency within the Democratic Party, is having a moment, and it is showing us something worth noticing: This…
Blog
The self-defeating trade policy affecting memory chips
Affordability is a major concern for many Americans. Whether you’re checking out at the grocery store, filling up at the gas station, or paying…
News Release
Fed decides to maintain interest rates during July FOMC meeting: CEI analysis
Today, the Federal Reserve announced it will maintain interest rates, signaling a continued commitment to the fight against inflation. The Fed is remaining…
News Release
CEI releases a broad-based permitting reform blueprint to remove unnecessary and unreasonable obstacles for projects across the economy.
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, having worked closely with many outside experts, released a new report, detailing a series of comprehensive recommendations for environmental…
Study
Permitting Reform for a Freer and More Prosperous Nation
Contents Special Advisors The Importance of Permitting Reform Part 1: 11 Principles for Permitting Reform Part 2: Statute-by-Statute Analysis for Permitting…
Blog
The AI Jobs apocalypse gets postponed, as CEI predicted
The prophesies of doom that artificial intelligence would destroy jobs have been put on hold recently. Businesses, including the ones that use AI technology,…
Blog
Forecasts, not puppet strings: The myth that prediction markets rig reality (Part I)
Prediction markets have become an increasingly prominent tool for forecasting elections, economic indicators, geopolitical events, and other uncertain outcomes. As their popularity has grown,…
Comment
CEI Comments on Massachusetts act prohibiting card interchange fees
Blog
TSA Gold+ is worth its weight as a major step toward airport security privatization
For more than two decades, debate over airport security has largely centered on whether the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should continue conducting passenger screening…
Blog
The forced labor fig leaf
The cardinal rule of President Trump’s trade policy is that he just likes tariffs. Any intellectual justification is just rationalizing his gut feelings.
Blog
The week in regulations: Carbon nanotubes and colored sausage casings
President Trump enacted new tariffs against more than 60 countries. Some of the Canada tariffs invoke a never-used statute from the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff…
Blog
One lesson socialists forgot: Price controls never work
Socialists in both parties may feel they are offering fresh solutions to today’s problems, whether it is government-run grocery stores from Democrats or…
National Review
Won’t Anyone Think of the Parents?
In an effort to address a perceived youth mental health crisis, online kids’ safety regulation is on the march in Congress and around the globe.
Blog
Demystifying the DCC: Where circuit courts draw the line on energy protectionism
The Dormant Commerce Clause (DCC) is a headache for students and professionals alike. The doctrine’s applicability is notoriously nuanced. In recent decades, however, its…
Blog
State Directed Payments redistribute money across states and supercharged growth
Differences in states’ use of SDPs cause an interstate redistribution of taxes as well. Because states are setting different levels of SDPs, spending varies…
Blog
How State Directed Payments turned Medicaid into an interstate transfer scheme
Medicaid’s financing rules have long allowed states to expand spending while shifting much of the cost to federal taxpayers. One of the most important…
Blog
Medicaid financing gimmickry – before and after the One Big Beautiful Bill
Medicaid was created in 1965 as a joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income individuals which targeted families with dependent children, the elderly, and…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Founder’s Fire with Arthur Herman
In this week’s episode we cover Social Security reform, what’s fueling state migration, and whether using prediction markets could impact…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Questioning the AI jobs doomsday with Sean Higgins
In this week’s episode we cover making home appliances great again, fighting price controls on health care, research on AI-fueled…
Blog
Wisconsin threatens to strip the vote from prediction market participants
Many actions today are termed “threats to democracy,” and this is often an exaggeration. But the term fits to a tee the Wisconsin Elections…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter with Taxpayers Protection Alliance to reject the App Store Freedom Act (ASFA)
Dear Chairman Bilirakis, Ranking Member Schakowsky, and Members of the Subcommittee, We, the undersigned coalition of public policy groups, think tanks, and nonprofits,…
Blog
Section 338: Trump’s latest tariff tool could send trade policy uncertainty soaring
Just when businesses thought they had enough tariff uncertainty to manage, another chapter emerges. By turning a nearly century-old provision of trade law into…
News Release
Trump pivot to Section 338 for tariffs poses problems for economy, separation of powers
Citing Section 338 of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, President Donald Trump on July 20 announced steep 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods,…
Blog
The exemptions in Trump’s latest Brazil tariffs reveal contradictions at the heart of pro-tariff trade policy
Last week, the Trump administration imposed a new 25 percent Section 301 tariff on many imports from Brazil. The administration argued that the…
Blog
Getting in the way: The demise of early termination at the antitrust agencies
Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division released their Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Annual Report for…
Blog
Evaluating DOGE nearly halfway through Trump’s second term
One week after his victory in the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump announced that he would create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)…
Blog
Don’t expect the administrative state to disarm itself
Last week, I read two articles in the summer 2026 edition of the Cato Institute’s Regulation magazine: “Defanging the FCC” by Paul Matzko…
Blog
The week in regulations: Razorback suckers and conflict of interest requirements
Congress is considering honoring the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) by passing a counterproductive Russia sanctions and tariffs bill. Inflation numbers for June…
Blog
The economic case for third-party litigation financing
The US is often described as overly litigious, and it’s true that there need to be better methods to disincentivize frivolous lawsuits.
Blog
RCP8.5: Dead and buried
On April 29, American Enterprise Institute scholar and Substack author Roger Pielke, Jr. announced that RCP8.5, the high-end emission scenario that dominated…
News Release
Trump trade threats over Canada wildfires should trigger clawback of trade power by Congress
On social media today, President Trump threatened to impose extra tariffs on Canada, citing the government’s “willful negligence” in quelling massive wildfires currently causing…
Blog
Sanctioning Russia Act: Tariffs won’t change Putin’s mind
When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) passed away last week, he left behind a bill called the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026. Congress is…
Blog
Moment of truth: Reassessing Obamacare enrollment predictions
In 2025, several organizations predicted Obamacare enrollment in a world without the ACA’s expanded subsidies. That world became reality this year. Some groups’ predictions…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Ethical consumers and sustainable capitalism with Kimberlee Josephson
In this week’s episode we cover the latest inflations numbers, reforming $1 trillion worth of federal grantmaking, and a new…
Blog
A new Endangered Species Act final rule removes improper interpretation of “harm”
On July 14, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published an important final rule in the…
Daily Wire
The EPA Needs a Power Check
Not long ago, if people predicted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would issue rules to help kill off gas-powered cars or reliable electricity sources…
Blog
The Regulatory Costberg is melting — or is it? An update on Trump’s “one-in, ten-out” initiative
In the first Trump administration, the longstanding Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Agenda) was instrumental in assessing…
Blog
The ROAD to Housing Act’s Moving to Work expansion still misses the bigger housing issue
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is Congress’s most sweeping housing legislation in years. As I previously covered, the legislation deserves…
Letters
CEI joins coalition in support of Keith Sonderling as Secretary of Labor
Dear Chairman Cassidy: We write in strong support of the nomination of Keith Sonderling to serve as Secretary of Labor and respectfully urge…
News Release
Coalition of over 40 organizations supports the End EPA Abuse Act
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute sent a coalition letter to Congress in support of legislation that would put a stop to the most egregious…
The Daily Economy
Rereading the Declaration in an Age of Polarization
Blog
Can Trump proposed rule pull the plug on bad appliance regulations?
Many Americans dislike federal home appliance regulations, perhaps nobody more so than the current White House occupant, who routinely rails against them at his…
News Release
Inflation drops some in June, does not yet indicate inflation relief is here to stay: CEI analysis
The Consumer Price Index report for June fell 0.4 percent, mostly canceling out May’s 0.5 percent increase. While this may provide some immediate…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition of over 40 Organizations Supporting End of EPA Abuse Act of 2026
Dear Member of Congress:The undersigned organizations urge you to support the End EPA Abuse Act of 2026 (H.R. 9453 and S. 4931).The…
Blog
Hopping the fence: The failures of social media bans
There is growing global momentum toward mandatory age verification and stricter internet safety regulations. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 56…
Blog
Six takeaways from the recent Obamacare announcements
Every year, health insurers participating in the Exchanges (Obamacare) must announce their planned premium increases for the following year well in advance, so federal…
Blog
The week in regulations: Plywood emissions and squid specifications
President Trump’s war with Iran heated back up. ICE agents killed at least one more person. Senate candidate Graham Platner ended his campaign after…
Blog
Time’s up: Why housing permits need a shot clock
Governments routinely impose deadlines on businesses and individuals. Miss a tax filing deadline or fail to renew a license on time, and you face…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Educating for liberty with Richard Lorenc
Our guest for this week’s episode is Richard Lorenc, formerly of the Foundation for Economic Education and Iron Light and now President…
Blog
Congress should fight piracy, not make ISPs internet police
Online piracy is a serious problem for content creators and rightsholders. Studies estimate that unauthorized streaming and downloads cost the US economy billions…
News Release
Report dispels AI jobs doomsday fears
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report examines what the AI revolution will mean for the future of labor by examining technology disruptions of the past. “Technology advances like artificial…
Blog
Why Big Tech is postponing the AI jobs doomsday
The heads of big tech have recently changed their tune regarding artificial intelligence’s effect on jobs. The emerging technology will bolster the workforce,…
Study
Don’t Panic: A Skeptic’s Guide to the AI Jobs Doomsday
As technology advances it has periodically bred the fear that progress will destroy jobs and livelihoods. History teaches that these fears are usually misplaced.
Letters
CEI leads free-market Coalition Letter applauding SEC Proposal to End Quarterly Reporting Mandate With Semiannual Option
Dear Chairman Atkins: As leaders of conservative and free-market organizations interested in reducing red tape that limits opportunities for middle-class investors and entrepreneurs,…
News Release
Energy Department seeks to stop bad appliance regulations
The Energy Department today proposed a rule that sets limits on any future appliance regulations. CEI Senior Fellow Ben Lieberman praised this…
Blog
The Rulemakers: Which federal agencies dominate Trump’s 2026 Agenda?
Over the Independence Day holiday, the Trump administration released its 2026Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda), which…
Blog
How permitting is a hidden tax on housing
Imagine being a housing developer so entangled in permits, legal challenges, and environmental reviews that it takes five decades to have a housing project…
Blog
Diary of deconstruction: White House releases 2026 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
Since 1983, the often-tardy semiannual Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Agenda) has surveyed recently completed and forthcoming rulemaking priorities across…
Blog
The week in regulations: Supersonic flight and circuit board acquisition
America turned 250 years old on July 4. The Unified Agenda, which lists all upcoming regulations, came out in the July 3 holiday weekend…
Issues & Insights
American Prosperity At 250
Americans are poised to celebrate 250 years of independence on July 4, but they seem to be pessimistic about the nation. When asked to…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: George Washington, entrepreneur with John Berlau
In this week’s episode we cover terrible advice on poverty from the United Nations, reforming the way we regulate banks, and…
