Blog
Why Workers Deserve the Employee Rights Act, Part 1: Secret Ballot Elections
In November, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Representative Tom Price (R-Ga.) introduced the Employee Rights Act, a bill that strengthens federal labor law to protect…
Blog
IRS Threatens to Curb Criticism of IRS and Bureaucratic Wrongdoing by 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) Groups
The IRS recently proposed rules “limiting political speech" by nonprofit 501(c)(4) groups. In Orwellian fashion, the proposed rules seek to redefine non-partisan, non-election-related criticism of government abuses as…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Micro-unions, cross-state air pollution, and weekly regulation update
Comment
Comments to the Department of Agriculture on the Arctic Apple
Full Document Available in PDF We are a group of legal scholars and practicing attorneys who…
Daily Caller
Podesta’s White House return means a more aggressive green agenda
“Since the Republicans won control of the House in the 2010 elections, he has criticized the Obama White House for wasting time on legislation that…
Daily Caller
Children of the corn subsidies
The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Taxpayers for Common Sense support the Feinstein-Coburn Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2013.
USA Today
Rising sea levels torment Norfolk, Va., and coastal U.S.
Climate skeptics don't buy the global projections. "We don't know how much sea levels will rise or fall," says Myron Ebell, director of the Center…
Blog
NLRB General Counsel: Guidance on Micro-Unions is Coming
Last Friday, at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Manhattan, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel Richard Griffin said the Board…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
56 new regulations, from toddler beds to eagle permits.
Wall Street Journal
The Latest IRS Power Grab (Letter)
Mr. Smith rightly criticizes proposed IRS rules "limiting political speech" by nonprofit 501(c)(4) groups. Those rules restrict even truthful, nonpartisan criticism of IRS and bureaucratic…
Human Events
23 and Me for You and Me
My son’s birth is among my most treasured memories. I knew immediately his arrival had transformed my life. But, the joy of that memory comes…
Blog
BPA Junk Science Headaches
Could your affection for bottled water be responsible for your bout with migraines? Apparently so, if you believe the latest headlines about the chemical…
Human Events
Drowning In A Costly, Intrusive Federal Regulatory Flood
Earlier this week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has a long history of highlighting Washington’s regulatory excess, said that during the first week of December,…
The American Spectator
The Legislature’s First Job Is Not to Legislate
Defenders of Sen. Harry Reid’s triggering of the “nuclear option,” ending the filibuster for all Executive Branch nominees save those to the Supreme Court, call…
The American Spectator
Experts: DOT probably has legal legs to ban calls
The libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute offered a dissenting voice Thursday, calling it “clearly arbitrary and capricious” for DOT to ban cellphone calls under consumer protection…
Newsmax
Volcker Rule Is Just More Red Tape
Blog
Minimum Wage Increases Harm the Young, Unskilled, and Less Educated
Minimum wage increases eliminate some jobs. Real world examples abound. As a business owner explains: The minimum wage kills jobs. End of story. I am…
Blog
CEI Podcast for December 12, 2013: The Affordable Care Act’s Marriage Penalties
The Affordable Care Act's subsides and tax credits are structured in such a way as to cause thousands of dollars worth of penalties for many…
Letters
Economists’ Letter to FCC Chairman Wheeler on Competition
Full Document Available in PDF Introduction Congratulations on your confirmation…
Washington Examiner
Not-so-friendly skies: Deregulation didn’t fail, it was never really tried
Anderson said that, although the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act eliminated the Civilian Aeronautics Board, the DOJ attorneys to this day use the old CAB antitrust…
Washington Examiner
Fixing the nation’s leaky waterworks
Here’s a novel idea: Why not unleash the creative talents of America’s best scientists and engineers, and allow the products and technologies they develop to…
Politico
Anthony Foxx: DOT will consider banning cell phone calls on planes
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian group, questioned the grounds for DOT’s move. CEI fellow Marc Scribner said the move “runs counter to legislative intent…
News Release
CEI Applauds FCC Efforts on Ending In-Flight Cell Phone Ban
Washington, DC, Dec. 12, 2013 – This afternoon, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held an Open Meeting. Among other issues, the FCC indicated it would…
Blog
GOVERNMENT UNIONS BROKE – AND NOW MUST FIX – DETROIT
Government unions broke Detroit. And unions – over their most stringent objections – are going to play a significant part in fixing it.
Blog
The Volcker Winter Storm — Bad Rule, Worse Implementation
On a snowy day in Washington, several federal agencies packed some mean regulatory snowballs that will most likely overshoot their supposed destination of Wall Street…
Blog
Volcker Rule Curbs Useful, Profitable Proprietary Trading, Not Risky Lending
The government just approved a regulation called the Volcker Rule to curb proprietary trading by banks -- even though such trading did not cause the financial crisis,…
News Release
Volcker Rule Could Cause Financial Storm, Warn CEI Scholars
Washington, DC, Dec. 11, 2013 – Amid the snow that seemed to paralyze DC yesterday, bureaucrats issued a final regulation on Dodd-Frank’s Volcker Rule that…
Politico
Path to a successful spectrum auction requires focus
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Fred Campbell recently concluded that restrictions on the participation of large firms in previous FCC spectrum auctions have delayed the provision…
The Atlantic
How Pope Francis Misunderstands the World
Just how free the free market really is today is debatable. The United States is perceived as the paragon of free-market capitalism. And yet over…
McClatchy DC
Regulatory bullying? You bet your life
If companies failed in insurance pursuits, many people would suffer, but the financial system would not be affected in a major way. It is additionally…
Blog
Driving the Market out of the Marketplace of Ideas
Forbes
App Fatigue Sets In As The Digital Revolution Ages
The technology pendulum never stops swinging. Its rhythms create, then disrupt, then transform, delighting users while enriching innovators. When tech revolutions reach middle age innovators…
Blog
NLRB Ambush Elections Coming Soon
Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board's savvy legal maneuver takes the labor agency one step closer to finalizing its ambush election regulation.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Refresh Pa. beer laws
For beer lovers in Pennsylvania, good news may be on the horizon. Laws on the books since the end of Prohibition that make it more…
The Hill
Sheldon Adelson’s futile war on online gambling
Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is not known for modesty. So it was fitting the recent announcement of his plans to push for a federal…
Washington Post
How Australia’s minimum wage differs from America’s (Letter)
Eugene Robinson [“An issue Democrats can win on,” op-ed, Dec. 7] argued that America’s minimum wage should be increased in part because it is lower…
The Diane Rehm Show
William Yeatman on the Diane Rehm Show
Blog
Busybodies in Congress Prepared to Re-Prohibit Voice Communications During Flight
After two decades with a ban on the books, the Federal Communications Commission is set to consider allowing transmitting mobile devices on aircraft. On…
Blog
Sugar — Congress’ Favorite Sweetener
The sugar lobby’s sweet contributions and their day-in-day-out lobbying means broad bipartisan support for continuing the U.S. sugar program in the 2013 farm bill, as…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
95 new regulations, from mad cow disease to falconry federalism.
Human Events
Don’t let the Nanny State ruin holiday feasts
In the musical “Oliver!” the opening scene features the protagonist and his band of merry miscreants crying, “Food, glorious food!” The orphans then proceed…
Blog
Fast-Track Trade Authority Is in the Works
It sounds like fast-track authority for trade deals is getting some traction, according to an article today in the Financial Times. The FT says that…
Fox News
Regulation Nation: Gov’t regs estimated to pound private sector with $1.8T in costs
A new report on the government's regulatory actions was released just before Thanksgiving, and it contains more than 3,300 rules -- which the Competitive Enterprise…
Human Events
Government unions broke – and now must fix – Detroit
Government unions broke Detroit. And unions – over their most stringent objections – are going to play a significant part in fixing it. U.S. Bankruptcy…
Blog
Retailers Only Sell Half a Loaf in their Analysis of the Costs of Interchange Fees
In a comment on my American Spectator article on the deleterious effects of debit card interchange fees on American households, Sara Durr, Spokesperson for…
Blog
President Pushes Welfare Rather than Opportunity and Social Mobility in Speech about Inequality
"President Obama on Wednesday declared that addressing income inequality would be the focus of 'all' of the White House’s efforts 'for the rest of…
Comment
Balance of Competences Review: Trade and Investment
In December, 2013, Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute submitted evidence to the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in order to argue…
Blog
CEI Podcast for December 5, 2013: Ending Corporate Welfare
Politico
EPA proposal could shift war on renewable fuels
Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute called the program a “Soviet-style production quota system.”…
Politico
The Battle of Two Hedgehogs
As it happened, Simon won the bet. Because of his victory, he became a conservative hero. He died in 1998, but he continues to be…