The American Spectator
Let’s Lose LOST
When Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech at the Ross Sea Conservation Reception on March 19, he suggested that we should have called…
Red Alert Politics
TSA finally agrees to comply with 2011 court order requiring them to take comments on use of full body scanners
“I wouldn’t applaud TSA for doing this since they were required by the D.C. Circuit to open this proceeding by the end of the month,”…
Law 360
Kirby McInerney Defends $100M Fee Request In Citi Case
Law 360 reports on Frank’s objection to the fees in a Citigroup settlement in which the plaintiffs’ lawyers overcharged the class members they represented.
Blog
The Red Tape Challenge
Over at the Daily Caller, Christian Rice and I take a look at a successful regulatory reform model in the UK: the Red Tape Challenge:…
Blog
When The Nanny State Kills
The government told people to switch from saturated animal fats to unsaturated vegetable fats. But that advice may have killed a lot of people.
Blog
The Cancer Clusters That Weren’t
A recent post in ACSH Dispatch examines an interesting question: How likely is it that some U.S. communities have elevated cancer rates, a.k.a, "cancer clusters,"…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
59 new regulations, from patent fees to pork export reports.
Newsletter
CEI Today: Dow Chemical’s lobbing, Supreme Court hears generic drug case, the Marketplace (un) Fairness Act, and Cyprus problems
The American Spectator
The First Church of Chicken Little
Back to the industry point, environmentalism is hardly an economic weak sister. Ian Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in his 2008 book, The Really…
Law
West Virginia AG’s New Rules for Outside Counsel
Legal reform advocates have had harsh words for outside counsel selection under McGraw. In a 2010 report, the Competitive Enterprise Institute named McGraw to its…
Forbes
FTC Drug Meddling Would Needlessly Push Pharmaceutical Costs Higher
Four of every five pharmaceutical prescriptions today are filled with a generic drug. That sounds like a big number, but the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…
Forbes
Controversial E-Verify System Integral Part of Immigration Reform Proposal
Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, among many others, have expressed concerns about the…
Forbes
Bills would require warrants for police to use GPS tracking
Groups voicing support for the GPS Act include the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Tax Reform’s DigitalLiberty.net, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Electronic Frontier…
Blog
Vitter Amendment To Ban Drug Patent Settlements Would Raise Pharmaceutical Prices
With time running out for the Senate to act on a continuing budget resolution, members are trying to find some magic pot of money that…
Blog
Beyond Tom Perez: Why do we need a Labor Department?
The Baltimore Sun Well, America survived. Yes, it’s true, the United States was able to withstand two months without a labor secretary. The previous…
Forbes
Slowly, GOP shifting on same-sex marriage
The final safe haven within the conservative movement for anti-gay bigotry — the American Conservative Union’s CPAC convention, held last week in Maryland — received…
Forbes
With Cyprus, The EU Needs To Urgently Erase Europe’s ‘Nobody Loses’ Mentality
“Horrifying.” “Dangerous.” “Shocking.” And yes, it is coming to a theater near you. Or so went the general reaction among the media and political punditry…
News Release
Senate Vote on Internet Sales Tax Endangers Small Business
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 22, 2013 – Today, the U.S. Senate voted to approve an amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution surreptitiously meant as a pathway…
Blog
Labor’s Loss: Secret Ballot Protection Advances In Virginia
Openmarket.org This week Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell struck a little heralded — but much needed — blow for privacy rights in the Old Dominion by…
Blog
CEI Podcast For March 21, 2013: A Rainbow On The Right
Blog
Labor’s Loss: Secret Ballot Protection Advances In Virginia
This week Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell struck a little heralded — but much needed — blow for privacy rights in the Old Dominion by signing two…
Blog
Response To Drescher On Cancer And Chemicals
Last week, Fran Drescher responded to my Huffington Post article on cancer trends, and today I posted a reply on the…
News Release
Free Market Group Applauds Bipartisan GPS Act
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 21, 2013 — Today, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, which would limit the…
Forbes
Beyond Tom Perez: Why do we need a Labor Department?
Well, America survived. Yes, it’s true, the United States was able to withstand two months without a labor secretary. The previous secretary, Hilda Solis, stepped…
Forbes
Libertarians: Keep Lights on for Earth Hour
Calling its alternative to Earth Hour “Human Achievement Hour,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute says Earth Hour sends the wrong message by representing “a rejection…
Forbes
Inside the Beltway: CBS is the Clueless Broadcast Network
Free Beacon
E.P.Delay
“It’s not a poorly written rule so much as a muddled one that conflates those two too readily,” Competitive Enterprise Institute energy policy analyst William…
Blog
Administration Notifies Congress That Trade Talks With EU Will Begin
Earlier today, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative sent a notice to Congress that the Obama administration would begin negotiating a trade partnership…
Blog
Bipartisan Dodd-Frank Derivatives Deregulation Advances In House — And Main Street Cheers
This afternoon, members of the House Agriculture Committee with strikingly different views on many issues came together to provide much need regulatory relief from the…
Blog
Sorry, Progressives, But The ASCE Infrastructure Grade Boost Wasn’t The Result Of Obama’s “Stimulus”
I am generally very skeptical of the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) "Report Card for America's Infrastructure," as this self-interested group 1) gives…
Blog
Minnesota’s 300% Alcohol Tax Hike Will Hurt Consumers And Businesses
Politicians love to sell alcohol tax hikes as pennies on the drink that won’t really hurt anyone’s pocketbook, while helping to pay for the…
Blog
Obamacare Harms Colleges And Their Employees
The University of Virginia is expecting a roughly $7-million bill for Obamacare's new employer penalties, said Susan Carkeek, the University's vice president and…
Blog
What Cyprus (Initially) Got Right — Remembering The 2008 WaMu Capital “Run”
There's no shortage of criticism of the Cyprus "bail-in" -- the one-time tax the government had proposed levying on insured and uninsured depositors to rescue…
News Release
Main Street Wins As Dodd-Frank Rules Eased
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20, 2013 — Today, members of the House Agriculture Committee advanced seven bipartisan bills that would ease derivative rules of the…
Forbes
Corporate Lawyers Scratch Their Heads Over Citi Class-Action Fees
Forbes reports on how Center for Class Action Fairness’s Ted Frank discovered the plaintiff’s lawyers, in a class action suit against Citigroup, charged exorbitant billing…
Forbes
How To Protect Your Retirement Assets From The Coming Crash
As a chronic prognosticator of doom, I’m often asked, “Do you heed your own warnings?” I sure didn’t the last time the stock market crashed.
Blog
Rand Paul: No National ID System, Including E-Verify
E-Verify is the Internet-based national identification, which the Senate wants to impose on all workers and their employers. The system, as proposed by the White…
Blog
Unions euthanize nursing homes
The Washington Examiner Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their…
Blog
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter Shows Contempt For First Amendment Freedoms
Philadelphia magazine published an article called "Being White in Philly," with the subtitle, “Whites, race, class, and the things that never get said.” Compared…
Free Beacon
The First Bank of Solar
Free Beacon
Conservative case for gay marriage
In more signs of change, the organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference were widely criticized by mainstream conservatives for excluding pro-gay organizations from this…
Free Beacon
GOP not wedded to views on gays
And at the Conservative Political Action Committee convention, a panel sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute drew a large and approving crowd for a discussion…
Free Beacon
Republicans take aim at another EPA administrator for use of private email account
EPA emails that have been released as part of a lawsuit by the Competitive Enterprise Institute showed that Blumenfeld used an unofficial email address…
News Release
CEI Makes Big Splash at CPAC
Law 360
Citigroup Fee Flap Strikes At Heart Of Class Action Model
Law 360 discusses Ted Frank's objections to the Citigroup settlement that paid attorneys huge fees for work done by contract lawyers. The most…
Blog
Republican National Committee To GOP: Be More Libertarian
Newsletter
CEI Today: Windsorgate, gov’t Sunshine Week, cell phone unlocking, and more
Blog
A Quick Investigation Of Central Bank Redistribution
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
60 new regulations, from financial management courses to de-icing planes.
Daily Caller
Why we held the ‘Rainbow on the Right’ event at CPAC
Watchdog
Dodd-Frank regulatory flaws stir passion at CPAC
But that’s a point of concern to John Berlau, a financial analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, because this could be taken to mean that…
Watchdog
Unions euthanize nursing homes
Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their care. Others —…
Free Beacon
Failure Factories
Argonne, LG Chem, and General Motors are all part of what William Yeatman, an energy policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, describes as a…
Law 360
In-House Attys Fire New Salvo In Battle Over Law Firm Fees
Law 360 reports on Ted Frank's objection to the Citigroup settlement in which lawyers over-billed the class members they represented. The objector, Ted…
Law 360
CPAC stars: Ten Republicans to watch (whether you love or loathe them)
CPAC organisers denied GOProud a booth at this year’s event. But the Competitive Enterprise Institute used its position as a CPAC sponsor, which gave it…
Blog
Dallas Fed’s Fisher And CPAC’s Fishy Too-Big-To-Fail Event
If the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) organizers wanted a speaker or panel on the causes of the financial crisis and what to do about…
News Release
Administration Continues to Hide McCarthy Communications
WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar. 16, 2013 –Since January, the Environmental Protection Agency has provided about 6,000 emails to the Competitive Enterprise Institute as part of…
The Guardian
CPAC 2013: An angry and beaten US right fires out scattergun wacky policies in hunt for victory
CPAC embraced Trump but did not invite gay Republicans, with their GOProud organisation reduced to a single speaker on…
Blog
Lobbying Can Be A Great Investment
Not only did health insurers convince the government to require everyone in the country to buy their products, now their premiums will go up sharply,…
News Release
CEI at CPAC: “A Rainbow on the Right”
Last night at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CEI hosted an event titled: “A Rainbow on the Right: Growing the Coalition, Bringing Tolerance Out of…
Forbes
Judge Demands Contract-Attorney Records In Madoff Fund Fee Fight
Forbes quotes Ted Frank on the ethical issues behind the practice of plaintiffs' lawyers in class action suits charging large fees and billing hours that harm class members.
Blog
A Balanced Budget Isn’t The Primary Goal
Over at the Daily Caller, Wayne Crews and I take a look at Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed budget, the Path to Prosperity. While it would…
Forbes
CPAC Diary: Showdown on Gay Street
This panel, put on by the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, condemned intolerance from CPAC organizers, who were giving voters away by dismissing gay voters. They…
Legal Newsline
House Panel Examines ‘Litigation Abuses’
Legal Newsline reports on a House subcommittee hearing on litigation abuses and Ted Frank's witness on the problem of cy pres. Frank talked…
Letters
Data Quality Reconsideration Request to EPA Regarding Biofuel Mandates
Full Document Available in PDF The Competitive Enterprise Institute and ActionAid USA hereby ask that EPA reconsider its December 12, 2012 denial…
Blog
SEC Charges Illinois With Securities Fraud And Lets It Off With A Warning
This week, Illinois became only the second state in U.S. history to by charged with securities fraud by federal regulators (New Jersey was the first,…
Politico
Morning Energy
WINDSOR NOT: EPA’s running behind on its next batch of emails from former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson’s “Richard Windsor” email account and won’t be ready…
Forbes
Bee-ing Smart: Regulators Must Distinguish Activists’ Bad Dreams From Actual Evidence
Important technologies commonly face opposition from various quarters – often from vested interests, societal Chicken Littles or overly precautionary regulators. Examples include vaccination, fluoridation of…
Heresy Hunters Rule CPAC, and GOProud, Chris Christie Need Not Apply
Heresy Hunters Rule CPAC, and GOProud, Chris Christie Need Not Apply
News Release
Sunshine Week? Administration Brags About FOIA; CEI Experience Tells Different Story
News Release
Free-Market, Hunger Groups Ask EPA to Revisit Ethanol Decision
WASHINGTON, MAR. 13, 2013 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute and ActionAid USA, an anti-hunger group, have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Bloomberg soda ban ruling, escape from Obamacare, and an Internet sales tax
Blog
More Calls For Censorship To Prevent “Bullying”
We live in a culture where harsh but truthful criticism, or exposure of wrongdoing, is viewed by some as "bullying," especially when it affects…
Blog
Human Achievement Of The Day: Bionic Eye Restores Sight To The Blind
Curing vision problems has long been the domain of science fiction, but a recent breakthrough turns fiction into reality. The aptly named Second Sight Medical…
Blog
CEI Podcast For March 12, 2013: Sunshine Week
This week is Sunshine Week, a celebration of openness and transparency. Myron Ebell, Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, is here to talk…
Blog
Federal Pay Freeze Was Really A Pay Slowdown
The Huffington Post’s Dave Jamieson argues that Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget “ignores” a two-year pay freeze for federal employees. But Jamieson also ignores…
Study
Human Achievement Hour 2013
Blog
Will Regulators Fail To Learn From The Past Mistakes Of U.S. Railroad Regulation?
The history of U.S. railroads provides an interesting case study on federal regulation. They were the first sector of the economy to come under heavy…
Study
Slow Train Coming?
After a century of severe regulation nearly brought the United States railroad industry to ruin, policy makers in the 1970s began a process that ultimately…
Forbes
EPA Nominee Gina McCarthy Has A History Of Misleading Congress
Co-written by Research Associate Anthony Ward. President Obama has nominated Gina McCarthy to succeed Lisa Jackson as EPA administrator. When the Senate takes up her…
News Release
Railroad Industry Will Suffer Under Proposed Rate Regulations
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 12, 2013 – A new study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute strongly warns against recent efforts to re-regulate the railroad…
Forbes
John Kerry’s Climate Change Alarmism
Blog
Human Achievement Of The Day: Replacing Herbicides With Lasers
Blog
Should Agencies Be Self-Funded?
If an agency is doing a poor job pursuing its mission, it needs to be held accountable; there is a reason Congress holds the power…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
69 new regulations, from grading almonds to lost luggage.
News Release
CEI at CPAC
News Release
CEI Analyst on Court Overturning Soda Ban in NYC: “Sweet!”
WASHINGTON, Mar. 11, 2013 — A state judge in New York has struck down the ban enacted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on…
New York Times
Letter to the Editor: JOBS Act Successes
Steven Rattner asserts that “the JOBS Act has little to do with employment” (“A Sneaky Way to Deregulate,” Op-Ed, March 4), but the data…
Washington Examiner
Internet sales tax bill a bad idea
If less complexity, fewer loopholes and lower rates are the signposts of meaningful tax reform, the dubiously named Marketplace Fairness Act embodies the exact…
Blog
No, Hugo Chavez Did Not Improve Health Or Human Development In Venezuela
Reuters’ recent obituary for Venezuela’s anti-American strongman, Hugo Chavez, obscured the fact that he made life worse for his countrymen — worse, that is, than…
Blog
Sequester Show May Not Have Jumped The Shark, But Its Format Has Changed
Are you watching the Sequester Show? In today's Wall Street Jorunal, my friend Kim Strassel says the sequester drama has "jumped the shark," a phrase used when…
Blog
Lessons On Regulatory Reform: The United Kingdom
In 2001, the United Kingdom passed the “Regulatory Reform Act” which allowed a government minister (similar to the head of a government agency in…
Blog
Washington Examiner: “Congress: Obamacare To Boost Premiums To $7,186 — A Year”
Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reports on massive premium increases due to Obamacare: Health insurance companies, facing new and costly rules and…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: REINS Act Introduced in House
Blog
CEI Podcast For March 7, 2013: The Three-Sided Immigration Debate
Immigration Policy Analyst David Bier recently wrote for USA Today about a third side in the ongoing immigration debate: population control advocates who oppose immigration…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Court Rules Against Obama Recess Appointments
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: National E-Verify Mandate Is a Bad Idea
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: CEI Responds to the 2013 State of the Union
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: FCC Is Third Most Expensive Agency
Newsletter