Blog
CEI Podcast for January 16, 2014: FCC Loses Net Neutrality Court Case
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia argues that while the case looks like a victory on the surface, it still gives the FCC plenty…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
38 new regulations, from job descriptions to Cape Sable thoroughworts.
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CEI Podcast for January 9, 2013: Reining in Sue and Settle with the REDO Act
A bill called the REDO Act, which comes up for a House vote today, would limit a practice called sue and settle. Sue and settle…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
66 new regulations, from school lunches to furnace fans.
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CEI Podcast for January 2, 2014: Rethinking Unemployment Insurance
With unemployment still painfully high more than five years after the financial crisis, Senior Fellow in Labor Policy Aloysius Hogan thinks that re-extending unemployment insurance…
Blog
Two Cheers for Tapered Quantitative Easing
Over at the Washington Times, I encourage the Fed to taper back the rest of the QE program, and point out that the Fed may…
Washington Times
Stop the money presses!
Leading up to Janet Yellen’s Jan. 6 confirmation vote, the Federal Reserve recently announced that it will taper back its bond-buying program, known as quantitative…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
74 new regulations, from non-toxic ammunition to shrimp electronic logbooks.
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CEI Podcast for December 26, 2013: The Year in Review
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
71 new regulations, from charitable donations to video programming for the blind.
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CEI Podcast for December 18, 2013: The FDA Goes after 23andMe
The Food and Drug Administration recently banned 23andMe, a genetic testing service, from marketing its product to consumers. CEI Executive Director and Senior Fellow Gregory…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
56 new regulations, from toddler beds to eagle permits.
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CEI Podcast for December 12, 2013: The Affordable Care Act’s Marriage Penalties
The Affordable Care Act's subsides and tax credits are structured in such a way as to cause thousands of dollars worth of penalties for many…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
95 new regulations, from mad cow disease to falconry federalism.
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CEI Podcast for December 5, 2013: Ending Corporate Welfare
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new regulations, from red porgies to homopolymers.
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CEI Podcast for November 27, 2013: Toxic Turkey Day?
Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini debunks scare stories about chemicals in your family's Thanksgiving dinner, from BPA in canned foods to naturally occurring pesticides in potatoes.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
60 new regulations, from salamanders to beans from Jordan.
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CEI Podcast for November 22, 2013: Daniel Hannan on Inventing Freedom
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
66 new regulations, from corporate mergers to dried bacteria.
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CEI Podcast for November 12, 2013: CEI’s I, Pencil Film Wins Award
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from toy guns to tires.
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CEI Podcast for November 7, 2013: A Prohibitive Excise Tax
A new CEI study finds that the most expensive ingredient in beer isn’t grain, hops, or equipment: it’s taxes. Study co-author and Fellow in Consumer…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
92 new regulations, from student loan paperwork to government employee travel allowances.
Blog
Towards a More Transparent Fed
Iain Murray and I have a piece in today's American Spectator breaking down the new paper we co-wrote with John Berlau.
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CEI Podcast for October 30, 2013: Bringing Transparency to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
George Mason University law professor and Mercatus Center senior scholar Todd Zywicki discusses his paper, "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Savior or Menace?"…
Blog
Questions for Janet Yellen
Even if it is nominally independent, the Federal Reserve is arguably the government’s most important agency. It has control over the price system, the most…
Study
Questions for Federal Reserve Nominee Janet Yellen
Full Document Available in PDF Janet Yellen is President Obama’s choice to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve Chair. Yellen is…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from energy-efficient urinals to interstate turtle requirements.
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CEI Podcast for October 24, 2013: The Social Cost of Carbon
Like anything else, carbon emissions have both costs and benefits. Marlo Lewis, a Senior Fellow in CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, discusses a new…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Shutdown edition: 3 new regulations. Two Coast Guard safety zones and a catch limit for herring.
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CEI Podcast for October 17, 2013: Supreme Court to Review EPA Carbon Emission Regulation Lawsuit
CEI is a co-petitioner in the case.
Blog
The Shutdown Is Over: What Now for Regulation?
The next day or two will also be slow ones for the Federal Register. But then there will be a flood of new rules as…
Blog
How Is the Shutdown Affecting Regulation?
Short answer: not much. Over at the Daily Caller, I go over some data from this shutdown, as well as the two Gingrich-Clinton showdowns.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Shutdown edition: 6 new regulations, from Basel III to bridge repair.
Daily Caller
How the shutdown is impacting regulation
For the seventeenth time since current budgeting rules were adopted in 1976, the federal government is shut down. Seventeen years of relative peace have devolved…
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CEI Podcast for October 10, 2013: CEI Files FOIA Requests Over Park Closures
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
113 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to viticultural areas.
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CEI Podcast for October 3, 2013: The Federal Shutdown
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Regulatory Transparency Is Decidedly Lacking
The Office of Management and Budget reviewed a grand total of 47 regulations last year, or a little more than 1 percent of the total.
Washington Times
The real cost of federal regulations
When the news broke that the National Security Agency has been monitoring Americans’ communications, the Obama administration was reluctant to discuss if it…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from bird hunting to fluted kidneyshells.
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CEI Podcast for September 26, 2013: “The Cupboard Is Bare”
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The Regulatory Improvement Commission
Senators Angus King (I-Me.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are introducing a bill that would create just such a commission. Over at The American Spectator, Wayne…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
76 new regulations, from pet stores to food containers.
The American Spectator
The Regulatory Improvement Commission
There are regulations for everything from restaurant menus to walk-in freezers’ energy efficiency. Almost no one denies that the nation’s economy is saddled with some…
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CEI Podcast for September 20, 2013: The EPA’s Latest Attempt to Ban Coal
A proposed rule issued today by the EPA would effectively ban new coal-fired power plants from being built. According to William Yeatman, Assistant Director of…
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CEI Podcast for September 19, 2013: A Controversial FERC Nominee
Ron Binz is President Obama's choice to head FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. William Yeatman, in a new report, shows why Binz's disregard for…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
61 new regulations, from banned avocados to sweet corn insurance.
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CEI Podcast for September 11, 2013: Ronald Coase, 1910-2013
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
58 new regulations, from foreign tax credits to growing dates in Riverside County, California.
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CEI Podcast for September 5, 2013: A New Energy Drink Scare?
Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton puts a scary new study about energy drinks and children into its proper, non-scary context.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
81 new regulations, from “shared responsibility payments” to Segelflugzeugbau sailplanes.
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CEI Podcast for August 29, 2013: Consequences of Net Neutrality
Have a listen here. In 2010, the FCC issued regulations to implement net neutrality. The resulting legal challenge is about to hit the D.C.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from hunting migratory birds to grading avocados.
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CEI Podcast for August 22, 2013: Germany Legalizes Bitcoin
Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray discusses Germany's decision to legalize Bitcoin, a controversial digital currency. With the euro's future up in the air, competing…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
71 new regulations, from D-Day reenactments to bio-fuel usage.
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CEI Podcast for August 15, 2013: Justice Department Blocks Airline Merger
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner thinks the charges are overblown, and has ideas of his own for increasing competition.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
83 new regulations, from sweet cherries to air.
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CEI Podcast for August 8, 2013: CEI Appeals Dismissal of Dodd-Frank Lawsuit
CEI general counsel Sam Kazman discusses plans to appeal the case.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
82 new regulations, dairy import licenses to information sharing.
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CEI Podcast for August 1, 2013: Is Washington the Next Detroit?
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Regulation of the Day Update: Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
The USDA is temporarily suspending its magician's rabbit-license regulations "in order that we may undertake a review of their requirements."…
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CEI Podcast for July 31, 2013: REINS Act Hits the House Floor
Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews talks about the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which is expected to pass the…
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REINS Act to Hit House Floor Tomorrow
The bill would add some oversight to a regulatory process that has far too little of it.
Forbes
Congress Confronts ‘Laws Gone Wild’
How extensive is federal regulation? The “hidden tax” now tops $1.8 trillion annually, an immense drain on innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity and living standards. Federal…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from turtle-killing to felon financiers.
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Ronald Coase on Blackboard Economics
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CEI Podcast For July 25, 2013: The UAW And Chattanooga
The United Auto Workers union is campaigning to organize a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Senior Fellow Matt Patterson talks about his recent trip to…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
68 new regulations, from Topeka shiners to room air conditioners.
Blog
The Million-Dollar Bus Stop Breaks
A new cooling fan should arrive in the next two weeks. Until then, the super stop will be a bus stop like any other, unless…
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CEI Podcast for July 18, 2013: The NSA Gets Sued
In the wake of the NSA’s spying scandal, several groups are filing a lawsuit challenging the NSA’s actions as unconstitutional. Associate Director of Technology Studies…
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Regulation of the Day 232: Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
Marty Hahne has put on children's magic shows for almost 30 years. USDA regulations require both a license and a written disaster plan for his…
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The FTC’s Uneasy Relationship With Innovation
The Sherman and Clayton Acts form the backbone of U.S. antitrust policy. But another piece of legislation gives the government the power to regulate business…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, from apartment building energy usage to when truckers have lunch.
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The Apple E-Book Ruling and Antitrust Absurdity
A recent ruling against Apple over its e-book pricing policies highlights the absurdity of antitrust laws, as I point out in the Daily Caller:…
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CEI Podcast for July 11, 2013: Farm Bill Controversy
Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith breaks down the controversy surrounding this year's farm bill.
Blog
Regulation Causes Inflation
Over at the American Spectator, I show why an unintentional and unavoidable side effect of regulation is inflation:…
Washington Times
Approaching economic stall speed
Government regulations not justified on a cost-benefit basis, plus the cumulative weight of all regulations, result in a dead-weight loss to an economy. The United…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from energy efficiency standards for imports to the California Desert Grape Administrative Committee.
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CEI Podcast for July 3, 2013: The EPA’s Assault on State Sovereignty
William Yeatman discusses his new study, "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Assault on State Sovereignty."…
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CEI Podcast for July 2, 2013: The True Story of European Austerity
A new study by Warren Brookes Fellow Matthew Melchiorre finds that only 4 European countries out of 27 have actually cut taxes and spending.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from school lunches to the legal definition of “ski area.”…
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CEI Podcast for June 26, 2013: TSA Full-Body Scanner Transparency
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner discusses the TSA's lack of transparency and the scanners' ineffectiveness in deterring terrorism.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
96 new regulations, from fireworks shows near water to handling FOIA requests.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
93 new regulations, from tanning taxes to wine labels.
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CEI Podcast for June 13, 2013: Deirdre McCloskey Wins CEI’s Julian Simon Award
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
72 new regulations, from federal pecan insurance to avoiding collisions at sea.
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CEI Podcast for June 7, 2013: National Donut Day
June 7 is National Donut Day. General Counsel Sam Kazman is urging Americans to eat not one but two donuts—one for themselves, and one for…
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CEI Podcast for June 6, 2013: Making Passenger Rail Affordable
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner discusses a new CEI study arguing that regulations make passenger train cars unnecessarily expensive.
Blog
Two Decades of Regulatory Growth
Over at The American Spectator, Wayne Crews and I marvel at how much the regulatory state has grown over the last twenty years. We also…
The American Spectator
Twenty Years of Non-Stop Regulation
Twenty years ago saw the release of the first edition of Ten Thousand Commandments, an annual report that tracks the cost and scope of the…
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George Will on Ten Thousand Commandments
George Will's latest column highlights the main findings of Ten Thousand Commandments.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
61 new regulations, from Cotton taxes to endangered Hawaiian plants.
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CEI Podcast for May 30, 2013: The Politics of Caffeine
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced plans to investigate, and possibly regulate, caffeine consumption. Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton prefers separation of…
Blog
Regulatory Opacity
In today’s Investor’s Business Daily, Wayne Crews and I make the case that one of the biggest obstacles to regulatory reform is a lack of…
Investor's Business Daily
America’s Soaring Regulations Cost $1.8 Trillion A Year
Politicians from both parties routinely tout the need to roll back unnecessary regulations. But how much overregulation is there exactly? Most politicians have no idea,…
Blog
More than Taxing and Spending
The cost of government is far more than it taxes and spends. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s editorial board agrees, as they opined yesterday:…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
68 new regulations, from Potato Administrative Committees to Segelflugzeugbau sailplanes.
Blog
Regulation of the Day Update: Olive Oil Victory
I recently posted that new EU regulations would require restaurants to use factory packaged and sealed bottles of olive oil. This would put small…