Blog
New York Salt-Slashing Op-Ed in NY Post
Here is my op-ed published in the New York Post on January 13th. As-salt on science On Monday, city officials rolled out an initiative…
Blog
A French Kiwi wine? New Zealand and Australia say “non”
Nice article in the Wall Street Journal today by Anne Jolis on a trademark brouhaha between France and Australia that highlights some…
Blog
Experts Question Enormous Cost and Constitutionality of Healthcare Legislation
The health care legislation backed by the president and congressional leaders will increase Americans’ health care costs by more than $200 billion,…
Newsletter
CIA Climate Data, Fannie and Freddie Absent and Health Insurance and Antitrust
The Central Intelligence Agency shares classified satellite data with climate researchers. Executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are conspicuously absent from the first hearing…
Blog
Financial Crisis Hearing is Partisan Sham that Skips Over Fannie and Freddie’s Role
John Berlau, director of CEI’s Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs, offers the following thoughts on what’s missing from the first hearing of the Financial Crisis…
Citation
House Panel Approves Ban On Retail Price-Fixing Deals
Citation
Sarbanes-Oxley: Albatross to Growth
Op-Eds
Financial Crisis Hearing Is Partisan Sham
Today marks the first-ever meeting of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which is charged with investigating the causes of the mortgage meltdown.
Op-Eds
Sarbanes-Oxley: Albatross to Growth
Many economists, policy makers, and members of Congress of both parties are questioning whether what is good for the Big Four accounting firms is…
Op-Eds
As-salt on Science
On Monday, city officials rolled out an initiative to curb the salt content in manufactured and packaged foods. But the idea behind it — that…
Blog
Gag me. Public health establishment takes credit for mildness of swine flu season
Inevitably when pandemic doom fails to pan out, whether it be heterosexual AIDS, SARS, avian flu, or anything else the public health establishment that panicked…
Blog
Trumka: “Well, I’m not done.”
Showing a stubborn belligerence more commonly seen in the coal mines where his father worked than in the leader of one of the largest…
Blog
Why Can’t We Have a “Three Strikes” Policy for Public Financing?
Blog
Regulation of the Day 99: Salty New Yorkers
New York City is seeking to regulate how much salt is in peoples' food. Enforcement will prove difficult; most food that New Yorkers eat comes…
Washington Times
Secret Science from the CIA?
The CIA has reactivated a Clinton-era program, code-named MEDEA (Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis), that allows environmental scientists access to classified…
Blog
This Guy Gets It
Blog
Follow the Money? That’s Exactly What Rent-Seekers Do
This fellow from New Zealand appears to think that Climategate proves that the big money is in climate skepticism. How does that work? Here’s…
Blog
New Federal Program Kills Jobs, While Costing Taxpayers Half a Billion Dollars
A federal biofuels program enacted in the name of fighting global warming and reducing dependence on foreign oil is instead killing jobs while perhaps…
Blog
“Homer doughnut. Bacon doughnut. Paradise.”
Thus says Morgan Spurlock in The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special. When I first heard that Spurlock, whose most renowned contribution to film is a leftish…
Washington Times
Green Jobs, or Pink Slips?
Jim Doyle last week unveiled his marquee energy initiative, the Clean Energy Jobs Act. He says the legislation would create “green jobs,”…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Change We Can Really Believe In
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features a compelling op-ed written by CEI's Fred Smith on what…
Blog
Yes, pseudoscience writer Chris Mooney IS dishonest.
Blog
Flu Watch Jan. 8 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing this week
These things just keep getting briefer and briefer. Infections down, deaths down to only 14, states with widespread activity: just one. Updating you on…
Blog
The Audacity of Doom
At Bigjournalism.com, Woody Hochswender puts global warming alarmism in the context of a long tradition of doomsaying — which wasn’t invented by Al Gore…
Blog
Spiked Online on Art, Commerce, and Rebellion
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Massie on the Politics of Snow
Blog
Nobel Prize Winning Economist Says Obama Policies Delaying Economic Recovery
In the Wall Street Journal, Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker and others explain how President Obama’s policies are delaying and retarding the inevitable economic…
Blog
On this day in 1835…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 98: Gastrointestinal Drugs
Did you know that the federal government has a Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee?…
Blog
“We the People” on Obamacare
Somehow I missed this during the holiday season – singer, songwriter, comedian Ray Stevens’ “We the People.” It’s a country western singing-video about…
Blog
Will Congress protect the economy and the Constitution from Mass. v. EPA?
In this two–part post on MasterResource.Org, the free-market energy blog, I argue that the EPA’s proposed Tailoring Rule is a temporary, legally questionable, and…
Washington Times
Fed Should Let Interest Rates Rise
Washington Times
Tax Preparers Must Meet License Requirement
Washington Examiner
Happy New Year, Here’s 1,000 Pages of New Rules and Regulations!
Washington Examiner
Checking In
Blog
Waxman-Markey’s impact on housing prices — more than your average postage stamp
Proponents of the Waxman-Markey (W-M) cap-and-trade bill assure us it will cost the average household less than a postage stamp a day. The Heritage…
Blog
Thinking outside the box on security
The Washington Post editorial, “In the wake of Flight 253, the TSA must get more anti-terrorist tools” makes a short-sighted argument for increasing resources for…
Blog
That Didn’t Take Long
Today is the fourth working day of the new year. The Federal Register has already exceeded 1,000 pages.
Blog
More Enron-like Behavior by Administration Officials Comes to Light
Earlier, the Washington Post reported on how the Obama administration pressured Freddie Mac not to disclose to investors and the SEC the $30…
Blog
Bastardi: Today’s frigid weather similar to 1970s when Ice Age was alarm
Accuweather’s meteorologist Joe Bastardi has a new video titled “Worldwide Cold not Seen Since 70s…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 97: Full Body Scans and Child Protection Laws
Sometimes, when two regulations love each other much, they get together and have little baby regulations. This is happening right now in Britain.
Washington Examiner
More Enron-Like Behavior by Obama Administration
Earlier, The Washington Post reported on how the Obama administration pressured Freddie Mac not to disclose to investors and the SEC the $30 billion…
Washington Examiner
Child Support, Through Age 23?
Blog
Serial Rapists Roam Free in D.C. as the D.C. Government Shields Ex-Cons from Discrimination
The D.C. government sometimes has more empathy for criminals than for their victims. In December 2007, the D.C. Council voted to…
Blog
Virginia Weighs Discriminatory Mandate on Divorced Parents
Married parents don’t have any legal obligation to pay for their adult children’s college education or living expenses. But a bill just introduced in…
Blog
An Authoritarian Climate
Certain influential forces in the environmental movement – most notably James Hansen of NASA – have expressed disquiet with the inability of democracies to deal…
Blog
Richard Epstein: “Deregulation Now”
In his Forbes.com column, University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein offers a simple proposal for reviving the economy: “Deregulation Now.” His proposals are…
Blog
Positively bad thinking
“Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now,” says George Clooney’s “termination engineer” to just-fired employees in the…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 96: Health Warnings on Cell Phones
These warning labels have nothing to do with letting people know that their phones can make them look like jackasses.
Washington Examiner
Reforms Bode Ill for Tax-Free Health Accounts
Washington Examiner
Letter to the Editor: TSA Doesn’t Need Any More Obstacles
The Examiner was right to oppose unionizing the Transportation Security Administration, which would harm airline security and reduce its effectiveness. But the TSA is…
Credit Union Times
Payment Card Networks Under Assault
Credit Union Times
VA Considers Mandate on Divorced Parents to Pay for College
Married parents don’t have any legal obligation to pay for their adult children’s college education or living expenses. But a bill just…
Blog
Public Sector Unions’ Heavy Burden on Taxpayers
As the old saying goes, when you start getting flak, you must be over the target. That seems like a good reason for the hysterical…
Blog
Congress Mulls More Credit Card Restrictions, in Legislation Likely to Backfire on Consumers
Some in Congress want to impose interest rate ceilings on credit cards and restrictions on interchange fees. Australia tried the same thing, and it…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 95: Buying Wine in Ohio
It is illegal to buy more than 288 bottles of wine per year in Ohio.
Blog
Government Uses Takeover of Mortgage Giants to Deliberately Increase Their Massive Losses at Taxpayer Expense
The Wall Street Journal notes that the Obama administration has used the federal government’s bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and…
Blog
“Was Swine Flu a False Pandemic?”
No, that’s not Michael Fumento asking. It’s a pharmaceutical industry blog declaring, “That’s the contention by more than a dozen members of the Parliamentary…
Blog
Hayek on Freedom
Blog
In Case You Missed it: Lone Voice of Reason at CPSC
In 2008, Congress passed Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), which regulates lead and certain chemicals in toys. Never mind the…
Blog
LibertyWeek 75: Credit Cards, Government-Style
Blog
Regulation of the Day 94: Plastic Shopping Bags
Washington, DC’s city government is now requiring stores to charge customers five cents for each plastic bag they use at checkout. There were 84 unsolved…
Blog
Obama’s Recent $75 Billion Mortgage Bailout Fails: Harmful to Economy, Housing, and Construction, Say Economists and Real Estate Experts
Economists and real estate experts are saying that a $75 billion mortgage bailout program designed by the Obama administration has backfired and harmed the housing market,…
Credit Union Times
Change We Can Really Believe In
Over the last century, America has lurched down a path toward statism. And Presidents Bush and Obama accelerated the expansion of government power by…
Study
The Ultimate Payoff
Full Document Available in PDF The December issue of Labor Watch looked at the growing influence of the 2.1-million…
Credit Union Times
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
UN Sponsored Sad Waste of Energy,Passion, and Money
President Barack Obama has declared that the outcome of the recent United Nations climate confab in Copenhagen—a/k/a the 15th Conference of the Parties…
Blog
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes, Harms Economy
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes. The Wall Street Journal…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 93: Predatory Lending
The CCARD Act is, completely unintentionally, a wealth transfer from poor people to richer people. Congress is actively hurting the very people it intended to…
Blog
Terrorism Is Rare
Each time you board a plane, your odds of being a victim of terrorism are about 1 in 10,408,947. Your odds of being struck by…
Blog
Flu Watch Dec. 30 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing
It’s a holiday so we’ll make this quick. Infections have somehow managed to drop again as have deaths and hospitalizations. Just 15 deaths reported…
Minneapolis Star Tribune
LETTER: The Minimum Wage: It’s a Job Killer and a Job Repressor
A Dec. 30 letter by a former career Labor Department bureaucrat claimed the haves have had it in for the have-nots for decades because the…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: November – December 2009
To view this issue of the CEI Planet, please click here to download the PDF file. Below are selected articles from the November-December 2009 issue: …
Blog
CEI Weekly: Looking Back on 2009
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features a recap of the major events that happened in 2009…
Blog
TSA Praises Itself After Year of Security Lapses; Obama Administration Backs TSA Unionization at Public Expense
In a year-end message to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff, the agency praised itself for a “very good year” in airline…
Blog
Louisiana auto insurance at a crossroads
Louisiana drivers pay the third highest expenditures for auto insurance in the country (with N.J. taking second and D.C. taking the top honor). On…
Blog
Latest Victim of the State–Your Dog
Blog
Year-End Fun: Scroogenomics
Blog
Florida Attorney General Questions Constitutionality of Healthcare Bills in Congress
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is questioning whether it is constitutional to force people to buy health insurance, as the health…
Newsletter
Cell Phones and Cancer, Political Anniversaries and the Regulation of the Day
A new study finds no link between cell phone use and brain cancer. News outlets assemble their 2009 “year in review” features. The state of…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 92: Camping at the Beach
In Oregon, it is illegal to set up a tent at most beaches.
Blog
Swine flu also unexceptional in contagiousness
With a massive amount of data indicating swine flu is vastly milder than seasonal flu, a new study in the New England Journal of…
Blog
No, yet again, cell phones do not cause cancer
If you’re getting a headache from spending to much time on your cell phone, it’s probably from yakking too much. But it’s not from brain…
Blog
MI Senate not “FAIR” and it’s a good thing
The Michigan Senate recessed last week without passing the proposed insurance reforms that would, among other things, prevent insurers from using factors such as…
Blog
For the Birds
An environmental group is suing to cancel an upcoming AC/DC concert in Austria because they think loud music poses a threat to birds.
Comment
Response to the Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule
Full Document Available in PDF In…
Newsletter
Fewer Hurricanes, Union Lobbying and the Individual Mandate
Financial losses from natural catastrophes decline significantly from 2008. Labor unions continue to lobby for the mis-named Employee Free Choice Act. Health care legislation may…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 91: Horse Floaters
Blog
Where did all the global warming hurricanes go? (My Forbes article)
The cover of Al Gore’s new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, features a satellite image of the globe showing…
Washington Examiner
Seven Quotes about Communism
The 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall was widely remembered this past November, the 20th anniversary of one of the most momentous events in the…
The Economist
Letter to the Editor in the Economist
SIR – Public-sector unions have entrenched their privileges through a combination of political dynamics that have proven extremely difficult to overcome. For example,…
Blog
Is ObamaCare’s “Individual Mandate” Unconstitutional?
The health care bills backed by the President require that individuals buy health insurance if it is not provided by their employer. Is that unconstitutional?…
Blog
Say No to EFCA in 2010
Given the amount of palm-greasing that was required to get reluctant moderate Democratic senators to vote to end debate on Obamacare, it's unlikely that those…
Blog
LibertyWeek 74: TSA Under Fire
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Progressives Against Health Care Bill for Wrong Reasons
Blog
Regulation of the Day 90: The National Poultry Improvement Plan
Having solved all the nation’s other problems, the federal government has a National Poultry Improvement Plan.
Newsletter
China in Copenhagen, Cash for Fannie and Freddie and the Pandemic that Wasn’t There
Officials debate the role of China as a “spoiler” in recent UN climate change negotiations. The Treasury Department announces the availability of “an unlimited amount…
Blog
Entitlement creep exemplified (or why we’re going broke)
1965, Medicare health insurance authorized for all Americans over age 65 along with Medicaid that covers both seniors and the poor. Somehow for 190 years…
The Economist
No Government in the Bedroom
Three cheers for the judge in Los Angeles who dismissed the petition to mandate condom use in adult films. While the spread of sexually…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Offers More for Gore Debate
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's video invitation to Al Gore to debate the topic…