Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Game of Thrones finale aired last night, though the show’s less-plausible Washington spinoff appears set to continue indefinitely, and with a rather larger budget.
Blog
CEI Petitions EPA to Correct 2009 Endangerment Finding
The Competitive Enterprise Institute on May 13th filed a request for correction under the Information Quality Act (IQA) that asks the Environmental Protection Agency to stop using or…
Blog
Another Day, Another Blocked Pipeline into New York
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on May 15th rejected a natural gas pipeline that would have brought supplies into the state via New York…
Daily Caller
LIEBERMAN: Trump May Adopt An Obama-Era Climate Policy
Believe it or not, the Trump administration is seriously considering entering into a global environmental treaty that was a key part of the Obama…
News Release
US Trade Deal with Canada and Mexico on Steel, Aluminum Tariffs Praised by CEI Expert
Competitive Enterprise Institute Vice President Iain Murray praised news of today's deal to lift US tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico:…
Blog
Trump Mostly Removes Steel, Aluminum Tariffs against Mexico, Canada: Barriers Still Higher than in 2017
The Trump administration is mostly lifting its steel aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico, effective 48 hours from today’s announcement. But metal tariffs will remain higher…
Blog
VIDEO: Cheers to Food Truck Freedom
Congratulations to mobile food vendors Benny Diaz and Brian Peffer—and their attorneys at the Institute for Justice—for scoring a victory for freedom of food commerce…
Blog
Credit Card Interest Cap Would Create Consumer Credit Bread Lines
Last Thursday Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) teamed up to introduce a bill that only two democratic socialists could have dreamed up.
Blog
Alice Rivlin, 1931-2019
Some economists do more than teach classes and write books. Alice Rivlin, who passed away this week, was proof. She was the first director of…
Blog
New York Times Runs Stealth Anti-Vaping Ad as Op-ed
Readers of The New York Times deserve better than advertising masquerading as righteous opinion writing. While reporters at Times get credit for exploring and exposing…
Blog
Good and Bad of Government’s Debt Collection Proposal
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a much-anticipated proposal to revamp the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a forty-two year old…
Blog
White House Uses Discredited Complaints Tactic against Social Media Companies
My colleague Wayne Crews has already slammed the White House for a first step towards government regulation of online speech in its “tech bias” complaints…
Citation
Government Regulation of Speech Will Not Protect Conservatives
Yesterday, the White House launched a landing page (http://wh.gov/techbias) claiming social media platforms “should advance freedom of speech” and asking Americans who believe that their…
Comment
CEI Comments on CFPB Payday Loan Rule
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I am pleased to provide the following comment…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing Revival of Expired Tax Extenders
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy, and Leader Schumer, Over 16 months ago, a package of temporary business tax breaks known as “tax extenders”…
Blog
Boeing Pushes 100 Percent Tariffs on Airbus
Boeing, fresh off a victory in restoring the Export-Import Bank’s full lending authority, is floating the idea of a 100 percent tariff on Airbus aircraft…
Blog
Regulators Find Uber Drivers to Be Independent Contractors
Determining the proper legal worker classification for an individual has become an arduous task. A major reason for the difficulty is a patchwork of federal…
Blog
Australian Government Tempts Mortgage Crisis
It seems that Australia’s political parties are suffering from collective amnesia. After spending the earlier half of the year criticizing banks for abrogating their responsible…
Blog
Can Trump Save Your Air Conditioner from the Deep State?
It happens every spring—on the first hot day, homeowners switch on their air conditioners that have sat idle since September, cross their fingers, and pray…
Blog
Trade War State of Play: China, USMCA
If President Trump’s trade war has a single takeaway, it is this: Raising tariffs is an ineffective bargaining strategy. When the U.S. raises its tariffs,…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet Winter 2019
News Release
CEI Invokes New Data Quality Guidelines in Challenge to EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today petitionedthe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop utilizing its 2009 Endangerment Finding until it subjects it to the high-level peer…
Legal Brief
CEI Submits Request for Correction Under the Information Quality Act
Information Quality Act Correction Request Regarding EPA’s 2009 GHG Endangerment Finding …
Forbes
What If the Administrative State Cannot Be Reformed?
For the past couple of years I’ve been emphasizing the usefulness of an executive order from President Donald Trump on regulatory "guidance documents" to bridge the gap…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes called for breaking up the company; CEI’s Iain Murray and Kent Lassman explain why that’s a bad idea. CEI also released…
Blog
‘Forefront of Opportunity and Abundance’—Sec. Pompeo’s Remarks to Arctic Council
On May 7th in Finland, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participated in the eleventh Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council. The meeting “ended without…
Blog
VIDEO: Report Card on Regulatory Reform
Earlier this week I had the good fortune to spend some time at the historic Mayflower hotel here in Washington, D.C. attending the Federalist Society’s 7th…
Blog
Bloomberg Reporter Justin Bachman Gets Duped by TripAdvisor Front Group
I wrote back in November 2018 of the false, scurrilous, ad hominem attacks on Competitive Enterprise Institute Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith’s appointment as consumer representative…
Blog
Breaking up and Regulating Facebook: Unfair, Un-American, Unacceptable
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, former publisher of The New Republic, argues in a long essay for The New York Times that the company should be…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition to Congress: No Electric Vehicle Tax Credit Expansion
We, the undersigned organizations, write to object to any effort to expand the current electric vehicle tax credit. While the tax credit is misguided, at…
Blog
Hearing Discusses Boosting Union Coercive Powers
Democrats in Congress are pushing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act H.R. 2474, which seeks to strip workers of long-held protections and bolster…
Blog
Pop Federal Trade Commission’s Dangerous Facebook Trial Balloon
Facebook is reportedly negotiating a settlement with a powerful regulatory agency that would impose a new corporate structure, increase liability for one or more executives,…
Blog
CEI Leads Free-Market Coalition to Dispel Passenger Facility Charge Myths
Today, CEI and seven other free-market organizations sent a letter to members of Congress aimed at dispelling myths circulating about the airport passenger facility charge…
Blog
Re-Prioritizing Regulatory Reform
The 2019 edition of Wayne Crews’ Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State is out now.
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to Congress Dispelling PFC Myths
Dear Members of Congress, We write to you today to dispel myths surrounding the airport passenger facility charge (PFC).
National Review
President Trump Should Rediscover Regulatory Reform
President Trump, who made regulatory reform a priority early in his term, claims to have reduced federal regulatory burdens by $23 billion in fiscal…
Blog
Don’t Let Facebook Team up with Big Government to Censor the Web
Facebook’s expulsion of several controversial figures from its platform last week is an example of a company managing its own private property to what it…
Blog
Trump Administration Ends Homecare Providers Dues Skim
Since 2000, state governments have diverted $1.4 billion from homecare providers and handed it to labor unions, according to the Freedom Foundation. For over a…
News Release
Federal Government Illegally Fails to Account for at Least $1.9 Trillion in Estimated Regulatory Costs
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today released the 2019 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (10KC 2019), CEI’s annual survey of…
Products
Liberate to Stimulate
Download Chapter 11 as a PDF Policy makers frequently propose spending stimulus as a way to grow economies. It rarely goes well. A regulatory…
Products
Regulation and the Federal Communications Commission
Download Chapter 10 as a PDF The Federal Communications Commission is by no means the heavyweight among regulators as gauged by the number of…
Products
Government Accountability Office Database on Regulations
Download Chapter 9 as a PDF The various federal reports and databases on regulations serve different purposes: The Federal Register shows the aggregate number…
Products
Analysis of the Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
Download Chapter 8 as a PDF The “Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” (Agenda) is where agencies outline their…
Products
Regulatory Dark Matter: Over 22,000 Public Notices Annually
Download Chapter 7 as a PDF Without actually passing a law, government can specify parameters for various industries, including health care, retirement, education, energy…
Products
Regulatory Dark Matter: Presidential Executive Orders and Memoranda
Download Chapter 6 as a PDF Executive orders, presidential memoranda, and other executive actions make up a large component of executive “lawmaking.”…
Products
Thousands of Pages in the Federal Register
Download Chapter 5 as a PDF The Federal Register is the daily repository of all proposed and final federal rules and regulations.
Products
The Unknowable Costs of Regulation and Intervention
Download Chapter 4 as a PDF The sole official reckoning citizens get on the scale and scope of regulatory costs is an annual but…
Products
Toward a Federal “Regulatory Budget”
Download Chapter 3 as a PDF When Congress spends, disclosure is necessary for voters to hold representatives accountable. Federal programs are funded either by…
Products
On the Other Hand…Trump’s Own Regulatory Impulses Threaten to Derail Successes
Download Chapter 2 as a PDF President Trump has pruned rules and costs and held down regulatory output with more enthusiasm than other presidents.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Not one, but two potential Federal Reserve Board nominees withdrew from consideration last week, and economic growth and unemployment remained in excellent health. Meanwhile, with…