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Oh (Big) Brother
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Today’s Links: November 1, 2012
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Pro-Charter Is Pro-Choice
This November, Washington could become the 42nd state to authorize charter schools. Washington residents will vote on Initiative 1240, which if passed will “allow…
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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…
News Release
Lawson Bader Named President of CEI; Fred Smith To Stay In The Fight
The American Spectator
Dodd-Frank’s Mystery SIFI Theater
Following the financial crisis, there was a desire to protect the nation against banks becoming so large that their failure would threaten the entire financial…
Washington Times
Police union puts bargaining rights ahead of public safety
On Nov. 6, Montgomery County voters will decide whether the police chief or the head of the police union should determine public-safety policy. The voter…
Daily Caller
The Real Fiat Scandal
Cowritten by Mark Beatty. The real outrage arising from the 2009 Chrysler bailout is not that its parent company, Fiat, is planning to build…
Forbes
President Obama’s Hidden Tax
Regulations are often called a hidden tax; but in President Obama’s case, it’s literally true. Despite the written commitment to transparency and…
Forbes
Hurricane Sandy, and the Invisible Hand of Recovery
Once again, a terrible natural disaster strikes, and Americans from the Carolinas to New England are doing their best to sort through the wreckage and…
Forbes
Paul Krugman’s Stimulus Batters The East Coast, Fueling Economic Growth
Mainstream economists, corporate executives, politicians, and pundits are still totaling up the windfall boost to the nation’s GDP, but most agree that the benefits from…
Blog
Obamacare Will Increase Health Insurance Costs In California, Washington, D.C., And Elsewhere
California officials concede that their state’s Obamacare exchange will hike premiums for policyholders by up to 25 percent. In the District of Columbia, small…
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California Unions Uber Alles?
In the media coverage of the presidential election, one state that is unlikely to get much attention is California, which appears to be solidly in…
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On Halloween, Euro Politics Fit Right In
All the usual characters are present this Halloween night across the Atlantic. But European leaders doing the trick-or-treating aren’t getting the sweet sugar fix they…
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Fred Weekly: Rent-Seeking Vs. Advancing Capitalism
In this latest episode of “Fred Weekly,” CEI President and Founder Fred L. Smith, Jr., discusses advancing free markets in an increasingly politicized world. Watch…
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Today’s Links: October 31, 2012
Newsletter
CEI Today: Ethanol election delay, Dodd-Frank’s perverse flaws, and the threat of an airline strike
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Investigators: Operation Fast And Furious Was Product Of “Deliberate” Obama Administration Strategy
According to The Daily Caller, congressional investigators have concluded that Operation “Fast and Furious” was “a product of DOJ ‘deliberate strategy’ laid out by” Attorney General “Eric Holder”…
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Amicus brief in Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles
As I’ve previously written: The Class Action Fairness Act was intended to protect consumers against the unfair class action settlements rubber-stamped in state courts…
Forbes
Markets of Government: Whom Do You Trust?
Free-market advocates have the deck stacked against them in the marketplace of ideas (ironically) for a very simple reason: Markets are impersonal, intangible things, whereas…
Forbes
European Politics Increasingly Resemble Halloween
Politics in Europe is beginning to resemble Halloween. Trick-or-treaters like Greece and Spain come to the doorstep of Germany and the European Union for bailout…
Free Beacon
U.S. Faces Regulatory Cliff: Looming rules could drive up costs, report says
William Yeatman, an environmental regulation expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Inhofe’s steep price tag is no exaggeration. “This has been a…
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Italy’s Greatest Economic Threat: Italian Politicians
Italian ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told news sources last week that his party -- Popolo della Libertà -- would soon decide whether or not to…
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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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Scapegoating Free Speech To Hide Massive Government Failures?
Earlier, I wrote about how the U.S. government had scapegoated free speech for the terrorist attacks in Libya, claiming that the attacks were…
Blog
Opening brief in Ninth Circuit MagSafe appeal
In the In re Apple MagSafe Power Adapter Litigation, the attorneys walked away with $3.1 million, while the class got less than $1 million, and…
Free Beacon
The Ethanol Election Delay
Last October, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Action Aid petitioned the EPA to review the so-called renewable fuel standard that mandates that 13.8 billion gallons…
The Daily Californian
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
in April 2011, the U.S. Department of Education ordered all American colleges and universities to comply with certain new disciplinary procedures for students accused of…
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The threat striking fear into the hearts of weary airline travelers everywhere
By Matt Patterson, FoxNews.com On October 24th, 1978 President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Airline Deregulation Act, ending the nightmare of total government-control…
The Daily Californian
The threat striking fear into the hearts of weary airline travelers everywhere
On October 24th, 1978 President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Airline Deregulation Act, ending the nightmare of total government-control over air travel. But now…
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Today’s Links: October 26, 2012
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Regulatory Delays May Be Responsible For Slightly Better GDP Growth
This morning, data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed third-quarter growth of gross domestic product (GDP) at 2 percent. This beat expectations slightly as, according to…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Anti-trust attack on Google, reigniting a carbon tax, and the virtues of immigration
News Release
Climate Scientist Sues CEI
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 26, 2012 — Penn State Professor Michael Mann, creator of the infamous hockey stick reconstruction of climate data, is suing CEI for…
Blog
PolitiFact Fixes Two Of Its Three Errors Related To The Supreme Court’s Ledbetter Decision
PolitiFact just revised a webpage discussing the Supreme Court’s Ledbetter decision that once contained an error that we discussed here and brought…
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Today’s Links: October 25, 2012
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Immigration Policy Should Strive For The “City On The Hill,” Not The “Deserted Town”
Opponents of human movement, also known as “immigration,” argue that if the U.S. government stops forcibly preventing foreign-born people from relocating to the United States,…
Blog
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…
CNET
Google is many things — but not an illegal monopoly
The Internet market is notoriously dynamic. Its giants rise and fall far faster than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. This dynamism perplexes and worries many — especially…
SNL
Groups resume bid to require retrofits, close exemptions under Regional Haze Rule
However, William Yeatman, assistant director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the right-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute, argued that the prospects for environmental petitioners…
Study
Myron Ebell on PBS Frontline: “Climate of Doubt”
A growing number of Americans doubt the urgency or existence of man-made global warming. On Tuesday, October 23, PBS Frontline took a look at the…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Global warming, EPA’s 2013 agenda, and right to vote fallacies
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Today’s Links: October 24, 2012
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No, Billboards Denouncing “Voter Fraud” Don’t Violate Constitutional “Right To Vote”
One of the most basic principles of constitutional law is that the Constitution only binds the government -- not private individuals -- so…
Forbes
President Obama Reverses Course, For Now, and We’re Better Off For It
“We’ve come too far to turn back now.” That’s been President Obama’s response, in his weekly address and elsewhere, to the jobs numbers from last…
Forbes
A Lack of Government Transparency: The Devil In The Detailing
Cowritten by Jeff Stier. A House Appropriations subcommittee has voted to move forward legislation that would cut $1.3 billion from the Department of Health and…
Forbes
Distorted Government Statistics Endanger Our Economic Health
What is the real inflation rate, calculated using an accurate technique that doesn’t change with time? What is the real unemployment rate, one that counts…
New York Times
From Frontline, A Look at the Skeptics’ Advance
The correspondent, John Hockenberry, asks Mr. Ebell about that rout, which many attribute to Mr. Inglis’s speaking out about climate change and the need to…
Politico
Dems Opposing Dodd Frank
Competitive Enterprise Institute’s John Berlau in National Review: “[E]ven members of the president’s own party are coming to realize Dodd-Frank is actually too tough on…
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Pepco Caves On Contract Dispute To Avoid Union Strike
Talk about having your negotiating adversary over the barrel. Pepco and the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers’ Maryland-based Local 1900 had been in contract gridlock…
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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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Police (Union) Brutality: Montgomery County Police “Effects” Bargaining Bludgeons Public Safety
Openmarket.org This November, voters in Montgomery County, Maryland, will decide whether the police chief or union boss should determine public safety policy. The voter initiative,…
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Today’s Links: October 23, 2012
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Police (Union) Brutality: Montgomery County Police “Effects” Bargaining Bludgeons Public Safety
This November, voters in Montgomery County, Maryland, will decide whether the police chief or union boss should determine public safety policy. The voter initiative, which will appear…
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PolitiFact Smears Supreme Court, Provides False Political Talking Point For Democratic Party
Earlier, the left-leaning "fact-checker" PolitiFact made the false claim the Supreme Court had declared employees are barred from suing over pay discrimination even…
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Devolve Infrastructure Decision-Making To Promote Efficiency, Foster Innovation
Last week, Walter Russell Mead had an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal arguing that traditional infrastructure spending will no longer provide the services…
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Today’s Links: October 22, 2012
Newsletter
CEI Today: Global warming – media coverage, public opinion; and the federal transportation monopoly
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
71 new regulations, from gas mileage to certifying seafarers.
News Release
PBS Frontline: “Climate of Doubt”
Washington, D.C., Oct. 22, 2012 — CEI’s Myron Ebell, one of America’s best-known climate science skeptics, will be on TV Tuesday night (Oct. 23)…
Denver Post
Layoffs, failures test Colorado’s “new energy economy”
"It's not just Colorado," said William Yeatman, an energy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based free-market think tank. "Renewable-energy manufacturing is taking…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: ‘Infostructure’ Is Fine but Roads Are Still Essential
Mr. Mead correctly identifies three major problems facing infrastructure funding: nimbyism, cronyism and an outdated vision of what infrastructure ought to be. However, there is…
Letters
Letter Opposing Misnamed ‘Taxpayer Protection Act’: Another Beach House Bailout
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the millions of citizens represented by the undersigned groups, we write in strong opposition…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: October 19, 2012
The only real change of late seems to be happening to leaves on trees. But on the alcohol regulatory reform front, the following states have…
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Free Education? Not In My State!
Coursera is a California-based startup that partners with top-tier universities to provide free online courses to people around the world. Sounds like a pretty great service,…
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Today’s Links: October 19, 2012
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A Rational View Of The Presidency
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Welfare Nation
National Review
More Democrats Diss Dodd-Frank
‘For some reason, some Republicans in Congress are still waging an all-out battle to delay, defund, and dismantle these commonsense new rules.” That was, in…
National Review
Europe vs. Scientific Consensus
Co-authored by Drew L. Kershen. The modern techniques for genetic improvement — recombinant DNA, or “genetic modification” (GM) — began to be applied to bacteria…
Bio-IT World
Can Private Jets For The Poor Save Health Care Dollars?
Few perks of wealth are more widely demonized than the private jet. Yet these very symbols of power and luxury could save health care dollars…
Reason
Yes, Romney and Obama, Government Regulation Encourages Outsourcing
Last month, CEI's Wayne Crews told the House Judiciary Committee: “For the broader ‘significant’ category of rules (economically significant rules plus rules considered officially significant…
US News
Red Tape Is Strangling the Recovery
Last year alone, federal agencies issued 3,807 final rules according to data compiled by Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The Daily Beast
More Fact Checker Fail
Fact checkers from the LA Times to Candy Crowley have made a number of erroneous "factual claims"–and yes, indeed, conservatives, the errors do all seem…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Racial Quotas Create Double Standards
Your editorial, "Henrico's Numbers," was right to defend colorblind student discipline. It would be a terrible mistake to ignore misconduct by some minority students in…
Study
Of Mice, Mushrooms, And Formaldehyde
Blog
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
Of Mice, Mushrooms, And Formaldehyde
According to New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, the chemical industry is engaged in a grand conspiracy to hide the fact your kitchen cabinets…
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New Study Questions Link Between Alcohol And Breast Cancer Risk
Every day, we make decisions about what to eat and drink that can affect our long-term health. Each individual is ultimately responsible for determining the…
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The True Cost Of The Auto Bailout
By Matt Patterson and Crissy Brown, Openmarket.org Once upon a time, there was a company called General Motors. It made cars. But the company…
Blog
Southern European Bailouts Must Focus On Reform
As European leaders meet in Brussels this week for a summit on the future of European integration, bailouts for the south will be heavy on…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Obama v Ledbetter, Obama v Romney on energy, and Greece’s ongoing problems
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Culinary Workers Union Behind Sin City Setback
As of July 2012, the unemployment rate of greater Clark County, Nevada, which includes the desert oasis of Las Vegas, is at 12.9 percent,…
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Today’s Links: October 18, 2012
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Greece Fire: Unions Hold Up Negotiations On Austerity Measures
This week, Greek officials and monetary lenders continued negotiations over the austerity measures the country must implement to save itself from economic collapse. Greece must…
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The True Cost Of The Auto Bailout
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Greece must stop hitting snooze and wake up to economic reform
WHEN the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European finance ministers meet today at the European Union (EU) summit, they are bound to butt heads over…
The Volokh Conspiracy
When Fact Checkers Have Trouble With Facts
Another example of fact checkers having trouble with facts can be found in Politifact’s commentary on whether it was fair for President Obama to criticize…
Forbes
To Finally Abolish Affirmative Action, All Americans Should Check The Minority Box
As the Supreme Court makes another foray into the mess of confusing and contradictory rulings over the constitutionality of race-based college admissions, one has to…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Presidential debate – economy, Dodd-Frank, energy policy, immigration
Blog
Obama Makes False Claim About Supreme Court Decision; Fact-Checkers Parrot It
Reading a Supreme Court decision is so hard! If you are a fact-checker, it's much easier just to let President Obama, a critic of a…
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Not All Jobs Are Created Equal
By Matt Patterson & Crissy Brown, American Thinker Once upon a time, there was a company called General Motors. It made cars. But the company was…
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UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm To Step Down Following Turbulent Tenure
John Wilhelm, the long-time president of the union UNITE HERE, has just announced he plans to step down. Union leadership changes are not often…
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During Debates, The Only Good Businesses Are Small Businesses
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China’s High-Speed Rail Disaster Is Not A Model For The U.S.
After taking office in 2009, President Obama aggressively marketed high-speed rail in the United States. (I noted at the time that most of what…
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Today’s Links: October 17, 2012
Forbes
Republicans Denounce Immigration Regulations Reagan Created
“I believe this action by the Obama administration is unconstitutional and circumvents Congress’ authority.” That was Mississippi Republican Governor Phil Bryant explaining last week why…
Washington Post
Letter to the Editor: The Limits of Free Speech
Jonathan Turley was right [“Shut up and play nice,” Outlook, Oct. 14] to criticize the Obama administration for backing “the passage of a resolution” at…
Tech News World
EU Gives Google a Privacy To-Do List
The list of potential uses will be long, complex and no doubt written in legalese, which the consumer will gloss over, predicted Radia. "I can't…
Blog
PATTERSON AND BROWN: Greece’s grim future portends Western decline
By Matt Patterson and Chrissy Brown, The Washington Times In 490 B.C., the brand-new democracy at Athens faced its first existential challenge: a vast …