Forbes
China Builds World’s Largest Temple To Capitalist Materialism
Forget the Great Leap Forward. Forget the Cultural Revolution. Forget the Little Red Book, and the 100 million souls who perished transforming one of the…
Legal Brief
Michael Mann. v. National Review, CEI, et al.: Defendants’ Joint Response to DC Court of Appeals on Jurisdiction
Defendants’ (CEI and National Review) Joint Response to DC Court of Appeals on Jurisdiction.
Blog
CEI Podcast for November 12, 2013: CEI’s I, Pencil Film Wins Award
Study
RSVP to November 21 Book Party for Daniel Hannan’s Inventing Freedom
Blog
Under Obamacare, People Pay More for Inferior Health Plans, Lose Health Insurance They Liked
A Colorado woman who championed Obamacare lost her insurance plan. As a CBS TV station in Denver noted, "Millions of people are getting cancellation…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from toy guns to tires.
Human Events
I Don’t Hate the Government; Its Unions Are a Different Story
As a libertarian I am often asked why I “hate” the government. “Hate” is a strong word, so I’ll leave the question’s key assumption for…
Arizona Daily Independent
EPA targets wrong cause of haze in Grand Canyon
William Yeatman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute notes that: “Regional Haze is an aesthetic regulation pursuant to the Clean Air Act. Its purpose is to…
Providence Journal
Labyrinthine law threatens our life insurance now
Dodd-Frank, the law more properly known as the 2010 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, was intended to stabilize the financial system and end…
Wall Street Journal
How Lawsuits Fund Lobbyists
The Wall Street Journal discusses how privacy groups that file class-action lawsuits against companies such as Facebook are the real benificiaries, while users may recieve…
Letters
Open Letter to House and Senate Republican Leadership: Preserve the Sequester
CEI has joined a coalition urging Congress to maintain the spending restraint established by the Budget Control Act of 2011(BCA). The BCA established limits on…
Blog
FDA Trans-Fat Ban Sets Stage to Target Sugar, Salt, and More
On November 7, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced plans to change its classification of trans-fatty acids and remove the designation "Generally Recognized…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Twitter IPO, Obamacare & Big Labor, and investment treaties
Blog
Why Obama’s Pivot from Obamacare to Infrastructure Makes No Sense
President Obama is in New Orleans today to pivot attention to what he’ll call leveraging investment in infrastructure. From the ones and zeros of the…
Wall Street Journal
Hold the line! Conservative groups push Republicans to save sequester cuts
Eighteen organizations signed the letter to Republican…
Orange County Register
Yelp, TripAdvisor: Inside the ratings game
“It’s not an easy problem,” says Ryan Radia, associate director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. “If…
News Release
President Obama Still Doesn’t Get It On Transportation Reform
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — At the Port of New Orleans today, President Obama reiterated his call for increased federal infrastructure spending, which has been a…
Blog
Enflaming, Not Enlightening: George Monbiot on Investment Treaties
George Monbiot in The Guardian, in his usual hyperbolic and specious way, describes the proposed U.S.-EU trade agreement’s purpose as to attack national sovereignty…
Blog
Obama Administration Rule Exempts Big Labor from Obamacare Tax
In September, the Obama administration rejected union demands for subsidies offered under Obamacare, which are reserved for the uninsured and low-income workers.
Blog
Twitter, the JOBS Act, and the Return to IPO Normalcy
The headline read that the company's initial public offering price is "high," and "so is its valuation." The accompanying story explained that the latest tech…
Blog
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…
News Release
I, Pencil Short Film Wins Reason Foundation Award
I, Pencil, a short film produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and adapted from the 1958 essay by the late Leonard E. Read, has won…
KTIC Radio
Defeat Of Food Labeling Measure Was a ‘Mini Tax Revolt’ Analyst Says
"The mandate would have imposed a 'tax' on a perfectly safe technology that some activists object to on purely philosophical grounds," said Gregory Conko, CEI's…
Reuters
How to end pointless class actions, redux
Reuters reports on L'Oreal's class action settlement and the Center for Class Action's objection to the large fees paid to the lawyers and monetary damages to the…
Blog
Labor Ballot Measure Roundup
Voters around the country faced numerous ballot measures yesterday, of which many involved labor policy.
News Release
On Right-To-Work Amendment: ‘Bravo for Sen. McConnell and Sen. Paul – shame on Sen. Reid’
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 – Though their effort did not meet with success, Kentucky’s U.S. Senators deserve thanks for their efforts to offer a National Right…
News Release
Defeat Of Food Labeling Measure Was a ‘Mini Tax Revolt’ Analyst Says
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 – Defeat of a ballot initiative that would have required labeling of food with genetically engineered ingredients in Washington state can be…
Blog
Memo to Road Socialists: There Is Nothing Unlibertarian about Road Pricing
Virginia just elected Democrat Terry McAuliffe as governor, as had been predicted by every poll conducted during the past few months -- although at a…
Blog
Senate Poised to Pass Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Yesterday, the Senate voted 61-to-30 to invoke cloture on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban workplace bias based on sexual orientation or…
Blog
House Passes Bill to Delay DOL Overreach
Last week, 30 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representative joined Republicans to approve the Retail Investor Protection Act, which delays the Department of Labor's…
Forbes
Healthcare.gov Isn’t The Only Federal Website That’s Harming Consumers
Forbes
Big Brother’s Stop-and-Snatch Asset Forfeiture Boom
Imagine you are a small town grocer whose business is not large enough for an armored car service, so you regularly deposit the day’s cash…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
92 new regulations, from student loan paperwork to government employee travel allowances.
Blog
November 4 Press Release
US SUPREME COURT DENIES FACEBOOK USERS CY PRES SETTLEMENT CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY OPENS DOOR FOR FUTURE CHALLENGES WASHINGTON, D.C. – The US Supreme…
Human Events
Game Almost Up for Obamacare
Remember Jenga? It’s a simple game, yet addictive. It involves an intertwined tower of small blocks. The players take turns removing and restacking pieces, until…
San Francisco Chronicle
Facebook Prviacy Deal OKd With Justice’s Warning
The San Francisco Chronicle discusses the issue of class-action suits where attorneys get large fees and users are left with little. Center for Class Action…
Law 360
Chief Justice Roberts Turns Up The Heat On Cy Pres Pacts
Law 360 reports on Justice Roberts' comments on the issue of cy pres settlements which Center for Class Action Fairness objected to in the Facebook…
Law 360
Justices Won’t Touch Facebook’s $9.5M ‘Beacon’ Privacy Deal
Law 360 reports on teh case where Cheif Justice Roberts agreed with Center for Class Action Fairness that the problem of cy pres solutions for…
Blog
Cataloging Washington’s Hidden Costs: Part 1: The Loss of Liberty
Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so. —Quote frequently attributed to Galileo that he probably never said. Washington is teeing up…
Blog
CEI Study Supports Tax Cuts for Beer
If you’ve read Lauren French’s Politico article on the two beer tax reduction bills currently under consideration in Congress, you might think that the Competitive…
Blog
Mel Watt Fails Taxpayer, Privacy, and Transparency Tests
Former Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., failed his procedural confirmation vote today to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the government housing entities Fannie…
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.
Blog
Corporate Culture Makes a Difference — In Business and in Baseball
Blog
Happy Halloween! FAA to Allow Portable Electronic Devices During All Flight Phases
A month ago, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) recommended that the agency drop its ban on portable electronic device (PED)…
Study
BEER and Small BREW Can Be Good for You
America’s beer industry directly supports over 1 million jobs and nearly $100 billion in economic activity. However, the entire beer industry still faces the burden…
EPW
Neglecting a Cornerstone Principle of the Clean Air Act: President Obama’s EPA Leaves States Behind
Cited on pages 15, 19, 22, 25.
News Release
Exit Plan For UK/EU Earns Finalist Spot in Competition
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 – How might the United Kingdom best extract itself from the European Union? A plan focused on deregulation and put forward by…
News Release
A Second Federal Court Green-Lights Lawsuit Against Obamacare
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 – A second federal judge Thursday has ruled a lawsuit that challenges a major IRS Obamacare regulation could proceed despite the government’s…
News Release
Is More Beer Production Only a Tax Cut Away?
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 – Originally instituted as a way to pay back America’s debts from the Civil War, excise taxes on beer continue to dampen…
Blog
Congressional Scorecard Update–Richard Griffin Confirmation
Yesterday, the Senate voted 55-44 to confirm Richard Griffin as the National Labor Relations Board general counsel, with Senator Lisa Murkowski as the sole Republican…
Blog
Jane Brody’s Uninformed Attack on Cars and Suburbia
While at a conference where participants discussed the wannabe social engineers cum urbanists' war on automobility and housing affordability, Jane Brody's broadside against Americans'…
Blog
Fairy Tales and Astroturf
Blog
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
Don’t Let FTC Shut Down Legit Credit Repair Services
Next to the infamous Healthcare.gov, the website that featured the most bugs of the last month was FTC.gov, the site of the Federal Trade Commission. During…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Obamacare in court, putting regulators on a budget, and perverse sugar subsidies
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…
Blog
Racial Preferences in Obamacare, and Discrimination, Too, Based on Weird Ideology
The Daily Caller has an interesting story about race-conscious provisions and racial preferences contained in Obamacare. It's a subject that has received remarkably little…
News Release
Questions for Yellen
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 – It’s not every day we get a new chair of the Fed. It is a time to check the fundamental bearings…
Forbes
Will Supreme Court Review Of Greenhouse Rule Take Air Out Of EPA Regulatory Overreach?
Marlo, first of all, what potential significance does this Supreme Court decision to review the case have? Does it indicate evidence of a shift within…
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…
Forbes
Why Obama’s Healthcare.gov Will Never Work As Specified
“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Thus answered the HAL 9000 computer in the classic Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space…
Blog
An Alarmist Vocabulary: Chemical Is “Linked To,” “Study Suggests,” “Consistent With”
Headlines continue to appear to claiming that a recent study has shown that the chemical bisphenol A increases the risk of miscarriage, which I addressed…
Blog
Racial Preferences and Red Tape Grow Under Federal Dodd-Frank Act
Last Friday on National Review's The Corner, Roger Clegg wrote about the 2010 law governing the financial sector, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the racial "diversity quotas"…
Letters
REINS Act coalition letter
We, the undersigned public interest organizations, write to urge you to support the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act of 2013 (the…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from energy-efficient urinals to interstate turtle requirements.
Human Events
Alarmism is Dangerous
I am a twisted father. When my children were in junior high, I would teasingly wake them with the question, “Hey, do you know what…
Human Events
Alcohol Crimes Decline After Liquor Sales Privatization
In the lead up to Washington State voters approving privatization of liquor sales in the state, opponents claimed—as they always do—that the increased availability and…
Human Events
The heavy price of regulations
Moreover, countless other federal, state, local and international regulatory authorities are busy interpreting, implementing and imposing rules under thousands of laws, ordinances and treaties. The…
News Release
Oppose Obama’s Pick For NLRB General Counsel
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 – Richard Griffin, one of three members of the National Labor Relations Board who lost their seats when their “recess” appointments were…
News Release
Senate Action on $2 Trillion Gov’t Regulatory Burden Urgently Needed
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 — Regulatory reform is urgently needed to get our economy and businesses out of the doldrums, and there’s a House-passed bill that…
Blog
Contradictory Financial Regulations Cause Problems
It’s a case of “When Regulations Collide.” As we’ve seen in the energy field, contradictory regulations cost jobs as employers struggle to comply with…
Legal Brief
King v. Sebelius: Reply Brief in Motion for Preliminary Injunction
Legal Brief
King v Sebelius: Declaration in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction
Legal Brief
King v Sebelius: Motion for Preliminary Injunction
Legal Brief
King v Sebelious: Declarations
Legal Brief
King v. Sebelius – Defendants’ Memorandum in Opposition to Motion for Preliminary Injunction
Full Document Available in PDF The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Act”) includes a series of measures that will…
Legal Brief
King v Sebelius: Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment
Legal Brief
King v Sebelius
Blog
Glitches and Errors Widespread on Obamacare Health Insurance Website
In addition to the Obamacare web site glitches that left people unable to purchase insurance despite hours or days of trying, the website dramatically…
Washington Examiner
Treasury evasions on carbon tax email mock Obama’s ‘most transparent administration ever’ claim
A Washington, D.C., federal court this week ordered briefs to be filed in the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s struggle to obtain Treasury Department “carbon tax” emails.
Washington Post
Letter to the Editor: Consumers have help in identifying non-bioengineered foods
In his Oct. 19 letter on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Tom Natan stated that “the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not allow foods…
National Review
Dodd-Frank’s Diversity Quotas
Blog
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…
Blog
Alcohol Crimes Decline in Washington After Liquor Sales Privatization
In the lead up to Washington State voters approving privatization of liquor sales in the state, opponents claimed—as they always do—that the increased availability and…
Blog
The Implications of Kludgeocracy
Steven Teles tells us in the fall issue of National Affairs that over the next decades, the challenge of "kludgeocracy" will come to the forefront of…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Obamacare ruling, Katy Perry, BPA risk & pregnancy, and social cost of carbon
Blog
Scientific Literacy and a Storm in a Tea Party Cup
Blog
Stop Watching Us: End Suspicionless NSA Mass Surveillance
By now, pretty much everybody has heard that the U.S. National Security Agency is indiscriminately collecting private information about all Americans who use a…
Blog
More Bipartisan Opposition to Obama Administration’s Move to Block Airline Merger (Including Rahm Emanuel)
Another day, another round of public bipartisan opposition to the Obama Department of Justice’s lawsuit to block the pending American Airlines and US Airways merger.
National Review
The Real Reasons We Have a Public Pensions Crisis
America’s public pension funds are in trouble because sketchy Mr. Wall Street sold some slack-jawed pension fund managers on risky investments with promises of high…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Obamacare in court, putting regulators on a budget, and perverse sugar subsidies
Blog
Is Katy Perry Causing Childhood Obesity?
No, of course not! However, a coalition of health advocates seems to be making that assertion when they sent her a letter this week…
Cheap Over-the-Counter STD Test Turbocharges Casual Sex
Cheap Over-the-Counter STD Test Turbocharges Casual Sex
Imagine you’re a young Millennial prowling for a hookup. It looks like tonight might be your night. But when the magic moment arrives, instead of…
Letters
Coalition Letter Opposing Reform-Less Water Resources Reform and Development Act
Full Document Available in PDF Coalition Letter Opposing Reform-Less Water Resources Reform and Development Act We understand that H.R. 3080, the…
Blog
The NSA: Upgrading from Privacy Destruction to Job Destruction
At a recent Cato Institute event on NSA spying activities, the ACLU’s Chris Soghoian stated that NSA activities were not only a threat to…
Forbes
A Miscarriage Of Science: BPA’s Unproven Pregnancy Risk
The headlines are out: Pregnant woman should fear the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) because a “new study” says it increase the risk of miscarriage. Fortunately,…
The American Spectator
BART’s Bogus Ride
It was the 1970s and Britain was the “sick man of Europe.” Labor unions had toppled one Conservative government and were bullying the existing Labour…
The Wall Street Journal
Latest Legal Challenges to the Health Law: A Guide
A fourth lawsuit is pending in Virginia. That case, as well as the one in Washington, is in the hands of Michael A. Carvin, a…
Daily Mail
Bombshell: Federal judge suddenly green-lights lawsuit that could stop Obamacare in its tracks
The Treasury Department, they contend, 'has reasonably interpreted the Act to provide for eligibility for the premium tax credits for individuals in every state, regardless…
News Release
Obamacare Lawsuit May Proceed, Judge Rules
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 – A federal judge Tuesday ruled that a lawsuit challenging a major IRS Obamacare regulation may proceed, denying the government’s motion to…