National Review
How to Help Discouraged Working-Age Men
More blue-collar American men aged 25–54 than ever are no longer employed and seeking work. That sad trend started in the late 1960s,…
Law and Liberty
The Moral Foundations of Freedom Conservatism
The Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles, which several of us launched in July, is a simple restatement of the principles that…
DC Journal
Railway Safety Act Will Drive Up Prices Without Adding Safety, Critics Say
DC Journal cites CEI’s Iain Murry on the Railway Safety Act: Competitive Enterprise Institute’s vice president for strategy and senior fellow, Iain Murray,…
Blog
Congress should vote no on the Railway Safety Act, says coalition
The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Rio Grande Foundation today sent a coalition letter to Congress expressing serious concerns with the Senate’s Railway…
National Review
Protectionism without Sugarcoating
National Review cites CEI’s Iain Murray about protectionism: Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute describes the U.S. sugar quotas as the “platonic…
Blog
Here comes state capitalism. There go our liberties.
CEI’s own Wayne Crews told the Washington Examiner recently, “Everything from local tap water to space commercialization is being turned into a government…
Blog
Adam Smith’s ‘tolerable administration’ vs. America’s increasingly intolerable one
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to…
National Review
Global Britain Is Closed for Business
One of the supposed benefits of Brexit was that Britain would once again become “Global Britain,” able to adjust its regulatory approaches to one…
American Institute for Economic Research
“The FTC Should Answer Its Call of Duty to Gamers”
Dr. Gary Galles, Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University, argues that the FTC is engaging in “antitrust protectionism” while challenging Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision.
The American Institue for Economic Research
The FTC should answer its Call of Duty to Gamers
The American Institute for Economic Research cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on the Microsoft-Activision merger: The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Iain Murray…
News Release
EU’s Massive Fine Against Meta Could End Up Harming European Consumers
The European Union announced a new enforcement actions today against Meta, the parent company of Facebook. The action penalizes Meta for data transfers…
American Institute for Economic Research
The FTC should answer its Call of Duty to Gamers
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Iain Murray has also noted several other important problems with the assertion that the Microsoft-Activision merger would harm consumers. He has…
News Release
Supreme Court Declines to Rule on Section 230, Leaving Protections for Third Party Content in Place
The Supreme Court today in Google v. Gonzales and Twitter v. Taamneh declined to rule on the meaning of Section 230 of…
Blog
Senate committee yells ‘all aboard!’ for controversial Railway Safety Act
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved the Railway Safety Act this morning, with all Democrats and Republican Sens. J.D. Vance (OH) and Eric…
News Release
Supreme Court to Hear Lawsuit Challenging Unfair ‘Chevron Doctrine’
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging the Chevron doctrine, a policy requiring courts to defer to regulatory agencies in…
National Review
U.K. Laws Are Harming American Companies — U.S. Authorities Pleased
America has made it almost 250 years independent of its colonial master, Great Britain. Now, in one area at least, you might as well…
News Release
UK Competition and Markets Authority Anti-Merger Ruling Undermines Consumer Interests
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is blocking Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game developer Activision Blizzard out of fear the…
National Review
The Free-Market Case Needs More Than Just Morality
George Leef and Mike Munger are right (of course) that we need to make the moral case for capitalism. Yet I…
News Release
House Republicans Helpfully Tie Government Reforms to Debit Limit Deal
House Republican leadership yesterday released the text of their debt limit deal which trades a suspension or increase in the debt limit for a…
News Release
Jeremy Lott Returns to CEI as Managing Editor
Blog
Large Language Models are Great Tools but Lousy Researchers
Climate skeptic Newtuber Tony Heller asked ChatGPT some questions about the climate and found it lacking. It gave the sort of answers you…
News Release
RESTRICT Act Threatens Americans’ First Amendment Rights
Debate in Congress over calls to ban Chinese social media platform TikTok has led to the introduction of the RESTRICT Act by Senator Mark…
Blog
After Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Merge?
Did antitrust ideology play a role in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the slight contagion that destabilized the global banking system…
Inside Sources
East Palestine Derailment Reveals a Lot of What Is Wrong With Our Politics
The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous material in East Palestine, Ohio, is a social and environmental disaster that can potentially ruin…
News Release
Biden Budget Amounts to Top-Down Central Planning, Lacks Needed Reforms
President Biden today unveiled his latest budget submitted to Congress. CEI experts take a dim view of the agenda of excess spending and…
Blog
Rep. Duncan Leads Letter Expressing Concern over Foreign Regulatory Overreach
I’ve written before about the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, its main antitrust regulator. It has already blocked one US company from taking over…
News Release
Supreme Court Rightly to Review CFPB Funding Constitutionality
The Supreme Court today announced it will review the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding, an unusual arrangement of unchecked funding…
Blog
CFPB Court Defeat a Welcome Reminder of who Makes the Rules
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suffered a stinging reverse in court last week when its action against Chicago-area mortgage company Townstone Financial was…
Boston Herald
Murray: College credential snare should be bipartisan issue
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, did all Pennsylvanians a favor in January by making 92% of state government jobs open to anyone without…
National Review
Southwest’s Debacle Should Cost It Dearly
It is by now clear that the airline chaos of the past week, which started during the punishing winter storm shortly before Christmas, is…
Blog
Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Faces Needless Challenges
Emboldened antitrust bureaucrats on both sides of the Atlantic are flexing their muscles with challenges to Microsoft’s planned acquisition of the game developer Activision,…
Blog
Does Artificial Intelligence Have a Statist Bias?
I recently asked the ChatGPT AI to “write an essay critiquing the Biden administration’s trade policy.” This is what I got:…
National Review
Antitrust’s Cloudy Crystal Ball
Even in the wake of Meta’s biggest mass layoff ever and a $71 billion loss this year, antitrust regulators around the world are peering into…
American Liberty
What the FTX Collapse Tells Us About Regulators and ESG
First, regulators often can’t stop investors from fraud. Second, companies that work closely with regulators often do so for their own benefit.
Blog
We Need to Pay More Attention to AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most important emerging technologies today. It has the potential to revolutionize many industries and sectors, including health…
The Hayride
Prepare To Pay More For, And Get Less From, Your Credit Cards
Seven in 10 Americans have credit cards these days, and a third have three or more. Many of those cards are co-branded with an…
Blog
The Founding Fathers and Free Trade
There is an ongoing small cottage industry of historical revisionism aimed at showing that America since its founding was friendly to protectionism and that…
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Opposing Increased Government Interference in Rail Operations
CEI and 21 other organizations and individuals have signed a letter opposing the misleadingly named Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act, which…
The Hill
Isolating China through decoupling would be a mistake
What should be the goal of America’s trade policy with China? The simple answer would be mutually beneficial exchange of goods, services and payments.
National Review
U.K. Regulator Deservedly Loses Case against Meta
The recent announcement of the final verdict in the U.K.’s case to block Meta’s acquisition of GIF library Giphy is a partial victory…
News Release
CEI Experts React to Supreme Court’s West Virginia v EPA Decision
WASHINGTON—In deciding West Virginia v. EPA today, the Supreme Court held that Congress never authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions…
Fox News
Supreme Court ruling limits EPA power, returns it to Congress where it belongs
For some time, the Environmental Protection Agency has wanted to destroy the American coal industry and has issued regulations with that end in mind.
Libertarianism.org
Socialism isn’t what it used to be
CEI Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow Iain Murray discusses the many faces of socialism, from the American experiments of the New Deal…
City AM
Before giving the CMA more teeth, we should look at its Meta shaped bite marks
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been flexing its muscles like a growing schoolboy recently. On Tuesday, it finally got a well-deserved admonishment…
Issues & Insights
Militarizing The Baby Formula Crisis Is Infantile
A military cargo plane lands filled with vitally needed baby formula to be greeted by a top government official. A relief flight…
National Review
Free Enterprise Is the Basis of Prosperity
Free enterprise is under attack from across the political spectrum. Socialists and their allies regard it a source of corruption and as antithetical to democracy.
Action Institute
Do Libertarians Have a Political Home Anymore?
For many years, libertarians and economic conservatives lived in harmony. The philosophy of fusionism said that the conservative party, when it governed, would seek…
Blog
Elon Musk’s Purchase of Twitter Stock Is an Important Reminder of How Capitalism Works
The tech world was shaken by the recent news that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, had bought up nearly one of every…
Blog
Deregulation is Key to Building a Broad-Based Economy
Critics of free market economic policy often point to declines in manufacturing employment or, worse, to the “hollowing-out” of the American middle class as…
National Review
If You Really Want Broad-Based Prosperity, Dismantle the Regulatory State
National Review cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on dismantling the regulatory state: So argues Iain Murray of the Competitive…
Law & Liberty
Dismantling the Regulatory State
Samuel Gregg’s lead article adroitly sketches the opportunities and obstacles to America building a broad-based economy, but I want to focus on one…
News Release
Mandating Reciprocal Switching Would Trample Property Rights and Raise Costs for Consumers
The Surface Transportation Board will hold a hearing on March 15 and 16 to consider a proposal to mandate reciprocal switching for freight…
Comment
Comments on Application Of The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Under 49 U.S.C. § 24308(E)
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit this comment letter for the Board’s consideration in the FD 36496 proceeding. Founded…
National Review
Video Explains Why New Freight-Rail Regulation Is a Bad Idea
National Review cites CEI’s video on reciprocal switching, featuring Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray: A new video from…
Blog
Reciprocal Switching Is a Bad Idea at a Bad Time
The Surface Transportation Board has resurrected a bad idea it considered in 2012 and 2016—mandated reciprocal switching for freight railroads. For background, you can’t…
Inside Sources
The America COMPETES Act Seeks to Counter China by Imitating It
Public approval of Congress stands at 18 percent. If you wonder why, just look at the America COMPETES Act, which passed the House of…
News Release
House Democrats’ China Bill Would Make the U.S Less Competitive and Harm Consumers
The House of Representatives is considering the America COMPETES Act this week, a bill described by sponsors as a “China competition bill.” The wide-ranging…
Real Clear Policy
This Biden Nominee Could Restrict Worker Freedom
Real Clear Policy cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on Biden nominee David Weil: The AI broadened the scope of…
Reason
Lawsuit from Former Students Alleges Financial Aid Price Fixing at Elite Universities
Reason cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on how federal regulations affect student loans: Iain Murray, the vice president for…
The Dispatch
Classical Liberals Aren’t Naive About Big Business
Big business has become a point of friction between conservatives and classical liberals, especially social media and other internet companies that fall under the…
Blog
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority Is Becoming a Global Problem
When British supporters of Brexit talked of “global Britain,” they probably didn’t have in mind British bureaucrats dictating to the world how businesses should…
Real Clear Policy
DOJ’s Antitrust Case Against Publishers is an Overreach
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust suit to stop the merger of publishers Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has not gained…
The Washington Times
Economic Pressures Boost Thanksgiving Turkey Prices by 20%
The Washington Times cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on Thanksgiving prices: Iain Murray, a senior analyst at the libertarian…
Letters
CEI Joins ATR Led Drug Price Control Coalition Letter
Dear Member of Congress: We write in opposition to the Democrat plan to impose price controls, a 95 percent excise tax, and inflation…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Opposing the Wall Street Looting Act
Dear Senators Warren & Kennedy, We are writing to express our concern about the upcoming hearing in the Senate Banking Economic Policy Subcommittee…
The Washington Times
Libertarian Analyst Warns of Socialist Drift in Dems’ Spending Plan
The Washington Times cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on a recent $3.5 trillion social spending bill proposal: A prominent…
Blog
Happy Constitution Day!
When I was a civil servant in the United Kingdom, I had a friend who worked at the Ministry of Defence. Part of his…
Letters
CEI and Other Organizations Urge Biden Administration to Prioritize Free Trade Agreements
Dear President Biden, On behalf of the undersigned groups, we urge you to pursue free-trade agreements that enhance America’s freedom, prosperity, and competitiveness.
Real Clear Policy
UK Antitrust Bureaucrats Could Kill American Startups
In case you thought the “techlash” threatening Big Tech companies with greater regulation was largely driven by former President Trump’s bluster, think again. An…
Blog
UK’s Attempt to Block a Merger Between American Firms Could Cripple Innovation
As I explain in both an op-ed and regulatory comments submitted yesterday, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s…
Comment
Comments to the CMA in re: Facebook/GIPHY merger
Submitted to the Inquiry via [email protected], 1 September 2021 Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments in the matter of the…
National Review
Economic Tea Party, R.I.P.
National Review Online’s esteemed editor, Philip Klein, asked an important question last week. Referring to the lack of opposition to the president’s big-spending agenda,…
News Release
Senate-Passed Infrastructure Bill Is a Gigantic, Counterproductive Spending Bill: CEI Analysis
The Senate today passed a complicated, controversial $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. CEI policy experts criticized the mammoth bill as a plan that will…
The Bluefield Daily Telegraph
The Infrastructure Bill Highlights What is Wrong with Congress
The Bluefield Daily Telegraph cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act: Iain Murray of…
Blog
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Shows Much of What’s Wrong with Congress
Although it now looks unlikely, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D_NY) wants the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, popularly known as the bipartisan infrastructure…
The Southern Illinoisan
A Proposed Law Would Break the Internet
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a law that would break the internet as we know it. Dressed up in legalese as a…
S&P Global
Targeting Amazon Brands, House Bill Could Spur Competition — or Raise Prices
S&P Global cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on proposed regulations targeting Amazon brands: Iain Murray — a vice president…
National Review
Biden’s Executive Order Moves the U.S. One Step Closer to Rule by Decree
President Biden’s sweeping executive order on competition is a strange beast. It lurches from lofty claims about encouraging competition to niggling complaints…
News Release
CEI Experts React to President Biden’s Wide-Ranging Executive Order on Competition
President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy today, which the White House claims is aimed at…
National Review
INVEST in America Act Is a Bad Investment
The House of Representatives will soon vote on the “Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST in America)…
The Teller Report
American Elected Officials Attacking Tech Giants: Overhaul or Demolition?
The Teller Report cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on antitrust laws and Apple: “In general, the experience of the…
The Foundation for Economic Education
Breaking Down the Latest Bipartisan Assault on Big Tech—And How It Could Blow Up in Consumers’ Faces
The Foundation for Economic Education cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on a series of proposed antitrust bills targeting “Big Tech”:…
News Release
New EU Antitrust Investigation into Google More Proof European Antitrust Policy is Untethered from Consumer Harm Standard
The European Union announced today it is launching a new antitrust investigation into Google, alleging the company is using anticompetitive practices in its…
The World News
Huge Changes Coming Soon for Internet and Big Tech Under US Antitrust Proposal
The World News cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on antitrust laws and Apple: Iain Murray, a senior fellow at…
Real Clear Policy
Risk, Trust, and COVID
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last month that vaccinated people need not wear masks regularly, Americans’ reaction was polarized. Many…
Letters
CEI Joins TPA Led Coalition Calling for IRS Investigation
Dear Senator, On behalf of the undersigned organizations, representing taxpayers, consumers, and free market advocates across the nation, we write to urge you…
Blog
What Do We Want from Our Platforms?
Two recently introduced House bills seek to restructure antitrust law, supposedly to tackle purported abuses by “big tech” firms. They aim to change how…
News Release
US/EU Reach Limited Agreement on Aerospace Tariffs but Fall Short
The European Union and the United States eagerly announced today that they resolved their 17-year dispute over aerospace subsidies, but subsidies to Boeing and Airbus will…
News Release
House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Bills Would Compromise U.S. as Global Leader on Tech and Harm Consumers
Several antitrust bills were introduced today by members of the House Judiciary Committee, including the “American Innovation and Choice Online Act,” the “Platform Competition…
The American Conservative
Why Small Firms Sell Out
Among some conservatives’ main complaints about Big Tech is the way it acquires smaller competitors, stopping them from displacing them like Facebook displaced MySpace.
USA Today
Buying American Is Harder Than It Sounds: Jeep Is A Good Example
USA Today cites Vice President for Policy Iain Murray on the “buy American” movement: “Buy American provisions have one effect above…
Cleveland.com
Why You Shouldn’t Trust The Big-Tech Trustbusters: Tom Haren
Cleveland.com cites Vice President for Policy Iain Murray on antitrust enforcement: Ian Murray, a vice president and senior fellow at…
Blog
Is the Biden Administration Socialist?
One of the points I make in The Socialist Temptation is that today’s “democratic socialists” don’t really know what they mean by socialism.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Keep Driving Fees Flat No Matter the Vehicle
It’s plain that the federal gas tax is past its sell-by date. Originally introduced as a fair way for automobile drivers to pay for…
The Dispatch
The Rejection of Globalism—on the Left and the Right—Is Changing Our Political Alignments
Many traditional conservatives are dumbstruck when they see Republicans like Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley or venture capitalist/potential candidate J.D. Vance espousing what they regard…
National Review
Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Plan: If You Build It, You Will Pay
You and I come by road or rail. Economists travel on infrastructure,” Margaret Thatcher once told an audience — pillorying economists’ love of…
Blog
Secretary Pete Scores an Own Goal
It should have been an open goal. Everyone agrees that the nation’s highways need more funding. Everyone agrees that the gas tax has passed…
Blog
Debate over Vaccination Passports Gathers Steam in Europe and United Kingdom
The concept of a “vaccination passport” was raised in the European Union (EU) early in the pandemic. EU documents show a timetable for discussion…
News Release
FTC Nominee Khan’s Antitrust Views Will Have Negative Consequences for Consumers if Made Official Policy
Competitive Enterprise Institute experts reacted to today’s announcement the White House intends to nominate Lina Khan to be a Commissioner at the Federal Trade…
National Review
The Answer to Our Big Tech Problem Is Decentralization
Before the “great de-platforming” following the events at the Capitol on January 6, defenders of a laissez-faire approach to social media were able to tell…