Blog
CEI Podcast For November 1, 2012: Is Google’s Search Dominance Permanent?
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia argues that Google's current dominance as an Internet search engine service is a fragile thing. Creative destruction is…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
77 new regulations, from animal drugs to phone bills.
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CEI Podcast For October 25, 2012: The Changing Climate Debate
Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell discusses his recent PBS Frontline appearance, and how the debate over global warming has shifted in…
Blog
Regulation In Theory Vs. Practice
Externalities, asymmetric information, and monopolies are useful concepts for understanding how regulators should behave. But the important thing is how they do behave.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
71 new regulations, from gas mileage to certifying seafarers.
Blog
A Rational View Of The Presidency
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CEI Podcast For October 18, 2012: The Limits of Free Speech
The best remedy for hateful speech, Senior Attorney Hans Bader argues, is not to silence it with laws and courts. It is to rebut it…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
38 new regulations, from amateur rocket operations to the definition of “night.”…
Blog
The Missing Transparency: Where’s The Unified Agenda?
When it comes to government transparency, it is essential to throw at least some sunlight on the problem. Over at the Daily Caller, Wayne Crews…
Blog
CEI Podcast For October 11, 2012: More Americans
Policy Analyst David Bier thinks the world could use more Americans. And an easy way make happen is through increasing legal immigration. America's superior economic…
Daily Caller
Missing: Regulatory transparency
Every spring and fall, as certain as the turning of the seasons, the General Services Administration’s Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) issues a new edition…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
88 new regulations, from background checks for volunteers to silky sharks .
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CEI Podcast For October 4, 2012: What’s Old Is New Again
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Good Men Don’t Become President
Fox Business
Winning the Presidential Debate with Regulation
Presidential debates are where the candidates try to show the average likely voter they know what he or she wants better than the other guy.
Blog
Regulating Outside The Rules
The federal regulatory process is a complicated thing. As with any complex body of law, there are loopholes that agencies can exploit.
Blog
Undergraduates: Enter The Douglas B. Rogers Memorial Essay Contest
Washington Times
Regulations and Rules Equal Broken Government
When President Obama and Mitt Romney are jousting about taxes during their Wednesday night debate, one or both candidates might correctly point out that the…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
71 new regulations, from prune insurance to Colombian tariffs.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
82 new regulations, from Indian casinos to bailouts for fruit tree owners.
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Regulation Roundup
Seatbelts for dogs, surveillance cameras for surveillance cameras, plus more.
Blog
CEI Podcast For September 20, 2012: The Economic Development Administration
Blog
Beware Of Unaudited Benefit Analyses
Regulatory agencies have an eternal incentive to expand their missions and grow their budgets. One consequence of this is that their cost-benefit analyses cannot be…
Blog
Economic Freedom Of The World
Non-economists tend to be much more skeptical about economic freedom than economists are. This in itself is a powerful case for free markets. But empirical…
Investor's Business Daily
Federal Agencies Should Stop Using Cost-Benefit Analyses
Every year, the Internal Revenue Service releases data on how much tax revenue it takes in. It never argues that the nation's tax burden is…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
76 new regulations, from DEA property seizures to place-of-origin requirements for wine.
Blog
CEI Podcast For September 13, 2012: CEI Sues The EPA
The EPA has been stonewalling a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Competitive Enterprise Institute since 2010. CEI has sued the EPA in…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
51 new rules and 1,641 Federal Register pages, from storing explosives to keeping fisheries accountable.
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 228: Peyton Manning’s Jersey
School officials forbid 8-year old Colorado boy from wearing his Peyton Manning jersey to school because of possible gang ties.
Blog
CEI Podcast For September 27, 2012: The Future Of Generic Biotech Crops
Senior Fellow Greg Conko discusses his new paper, "Is There a Future for Generic Biotech Crops? Regulatory Reform Is Needed for a Viable Post-Patent Industry."…
Blog
CEI Podcast For September 6, 2012: Modernizing Air Traffic Control
America's air traffic control system can be charitably described as an antique. Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner describes some of the problems the…
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The Conventions Continue
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
74 new rules and 2,086 Federal Register pages, from migratory birds to cranberries.
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Doormats banned in Leeds, exploding sausages in Canada, plus more.
Blog
CEI Podcast For August 30, 2012: Delayed FDA Rules Should Be Scrapped
Senior Fellow Greg Conko argues that these rules should be scrapped altogether for two reasons: they will do little to improve food safety, and they…
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 227: Returning From The Moon
When Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins returned to Earth after the Apollo 11 mission, they actually filled out a customs form.
Blog
Conventions Cost Taxpayers Up To $136 Million
Blog
Congress Should Create A Repeal Committee
David Deerson and I look at how such a committee might work in a piece over at RealClearPolicy:…
RealClear Policy
Congress Should Create a Repeal Committee
When Congress passes a highly unpopular bill that forces people to buy products from private businesses, and then the Supreme Court upholds it, something needs…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
76 new rules and1,687 Federal Register pages, from offshore drilling to odometers.
Blog
The Dark Ages Weren’t So Dark, And Neither Is Modernity
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Regulation Roundup
A creative way to get around liquor permits, plus more.
Blog
CEI Podcast for August 23, 2012: Bailouts as Corruption
Senior Fellow Matt Patterson argues that when government is big and powerful enough to dispense favors like bailouts, special interests will flock to Washington to…
Blog
Regulation And The Green Bay Packers
The NFL has a 53-man roster limit, but it doesn't prescribe how many linemen or quarterbacks the team must carry. That's up to the GMs.
Blog
FDA Rules Won’t Work, Will Harm Small Farmers
The FDA recently decided to delay implementing about $1.4 billion of food safety regulations until after the November election. We think the FDA should scrap…
USA Today
FDA rules won’t do much good
Food-borne illnesses kill as many as 3,000 Americans each year, but consumers should not expect new Food and Drug Administration regulations to help. These rules,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
65 new rules, from offshore drilling to closed captioning.
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Fines for inaccurate weather forecasts, illegal chocolate egg smuggling, plus more.
Blog
CEI Podcast For August 16, 2012: Drought, Food Prices, And Ethanol
Severe drought in the Midwest has driven corn prices to record levels. Policy Analyst Brian McGraw argues that ending the federal government's ethanol mandate could…
Blog
Regulation And The Setting Sun
Agencies are well-equipped for passing regulations, but not for repealing them. This becomes a problem as the years march on, and dusty old rules that…
Blog
In Praise Of Judicial Activism
Judicial activism is a dirty word in politics. It shouldn't be. Over at The American Spectator, David Deerson try to rehabilitate a term that has…
American Spectator
Needed: Judicial Activism
When it comes to the issues, it’s much harder than it should be to find substantive differences between President Obama and Mitt Romney. One potential…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
68 new rules, from health care to Glasflugel gliders.
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 226: Hot Dog Carts
Nathan Duszynski is 13 years old and lives in Holland, Michigan. His stepfather has multiple sclerosis. His mother has epilepsy. Neither is able to work.
Blog
The Case For A Repeal Amendment
If you want different results, you need different rules. Allowing two-thirds majorities of the states to repeal federal laws and regulations is one rule change…
Blog
CEI Podcast For August 9, 2012: Getting TSA To Follow The Law
When the TSA installed full-body scanners in airports across the country, they did so illegally. Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner explains how a…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
85 new regulations, from prairie dogs to corporate jets.
Blog
CEI Podcast For August 2, 2012: Cybersecurity Bill Fails
Today the Senate shot down a controversial cybersecurity bill that Associate Director of Technology Policy Studies Ryan Radia believes would have been a disaster.
Blog
Milton Friedman Turns 100
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 225: Boobie Pillows
Kern County, California's government takes morality very seriously. Chapter 9.12.010 of the County Code states that “No vendor shall vend stuffed articles depicting the female…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
86 new rules last week, covering everything from Florida tomatoes to tug boat races.
Blog
Politics In A Nutshell
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CEI Podcast for July 24, 2012: Unfunded Mandate Reform
Research Associate David Deerson explains why past efforts to rein in unfunded mandates failed, and why new legislation that Congress is set to vote on…
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Time To Reform Unfunded Mandates
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
81 new rules and 1,283 Federal pages last week, covering everything from sippy cups to perch fishing in Alaska.
Washington Times
Season for Relief From Big Government
The good news is that this year’s budget deficit will be half a trillion less than last year’s. The bad news is that it still…
Blog
CEI Podcast For July 19, 2012: Congress Takes On High-Skilled Immigration Reform
Congress will soon vote on a package of reforms for holders of the H-1B visa for high-skilled immigrants. Policy Analyst David Bier unpacks the proposed…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
84 new rules and 1,412 Federal Register pages, covering everything from fair use of the FBI's anti-piracy seal airline pilot's working hours.
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Britain bans starting pistols from track meets, plus more.
Blog
Rent-Seeking In The Apple Industry
A small food company in Canada has grown an apple that doesn’t turn brown after being sliced. Not everyone thinks it’s a great idea.
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 12, 2012: Who to Blame for D.C.’s Power Outage
Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman thinks the jeering public should look in the mirror. A government-granted monopoly and rampant NIMBY-ism are not a recipe for…
Blog
TSA Roundup
Everyone's favorite sexy-searchers are back in the news, but not for the right reasons.
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 224: Competing With Taxis
A cool startup company called Uber operates in about half a dozen cities in the U.S. and Canada, and is growing fast. Think of…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
71 new rules and 1,388 Federal Register pages covering everything from wedding entertainment to collisions at sea.
Blog
Clarence Birdseye: An Unsung Hero Gets His Due
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 5, 2012: Relic of Prohibition
Prohibition ended 79 years ago, but in Washington, D.C., it is still illegal to buy liquor on Sundays. Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 223: Fred Flintstone Cars
Sebastian Trager built a replica of Fred Flintstone’s car, but regulators won't let him drive it.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 222: Macaroni
According to federal regulations, you may not, in fact, stick a feather in your hat and call it macaroni.
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The State of American Manufacturing
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
101 new final regulations, covering everything from Costa Rican flowers to tanning.
Reason
Government Mini Golf: The Federal Regulations For Putt-Putt Courses
From Peter Suderman's post on Reason's Hit & Run: Under the umbrella of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal government has issued…
Blog
CEI Podcast: June 28, 2012: The Obamacare Decision
General Counsel Sam Kazman shares his thoughts on the Supreme Court's health care decision, the Commerce Clause, Congress' taxation power, and more.
Blog
Quick Thoughts on the Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court upheld the health care bill, as you've no doubt heard by now. Over at the Daily Caller, I offer a few quick…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 221: Miniature Golf Courses
The federal government regulates the slopes of miniature golf courses.
Daily Caller
Three Quick Thoughts on the Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court has upheld the health care law’s insurance mandate, to the surprise of many. This surprise sparked a few quick thoughts about the…
Blog
The Good-Citizen Economist
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Globalization Has Been Happening for a Long Time
Our innate tendency to truck and barter, as Adam Smith put it, is very strong indeed.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new final rules and 1,633 Federal Register pages, covering everything from prison rape to airport concession workers.
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 21, 2012: Free Speech for Me, and for Thee
Labor Policy Counsel Vinnie Vernuccio explains why today's 7-2 Supreme Court decision in the Knox v. SEIU case is an important victory for free speech.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, covering everything from gopher frogs to cotton gins.
New York Times
This Week in Small Business: Working Without Pay
From Gene Marks' post in The New York Times' You're the Boss blog: The Internal Revenue Service offers advice for safeguarding tax…
Blog
An IRS Trojan Horse
The IRS' proposed real-time tax system is a Trojan horse for a return-free system, in which the IRS would become your tax preparer as well…
Daily Caller
The IRS’s Trojan Horse
It may be another 10 months before Tax Day rears its ugly head again, but that doesn’t mean that the American people should take their…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 13, 2012: Smarter Transportation Funding
When the federal government gives out transportation funding to the states, it attaches a lot of strings. The solution, according to Land-use and Transportation Policy…
Blog
Stigler on the Regulatory Mindset
"There are only two alternatives to the market: the state, and prayer. It turns out the two were merged in one."…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
65 new regulations last week, covering everything from substance abuse to the official taxonomy of the endangered African wild ass.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 220: Driver’s Side Mirrors
A math professor has invented a driver's side mirror that eliminates the dreaded blind spot, but regulators won't let car makers use them.
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 7, 2012: MACT the Knife
A new EPA regulation is intended to cut mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants. Are the costs worth it? Policy Analyst David Bier, co-author of…
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments and Growing
Over at ?The Washington Times?, Wayne Crews and I praise President Obama's recent regulatory reforms. They're small, but they're better than nothing:…
Blog
Washington’s Ten Thousand Commandments
The 2012 edition of “Ten Thousand Commandments” is out now. If you don’t feel like reading all 66 pages (though I recommend you do!),…