Blog
Regulation of the Day 42: Hearing Aid Calibration
In Virginia, state law requires hearing aids to be calibrated at least annually. Records must be kept for three years.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 41: The Color of Beer Cans
Having already solved all of the country's economics woes, the FTC now has time to threaten to step in and stop Budweiser from selling cans…
Club For Growth
Checked Baggage Regulations
Blog
Nanotech: Innovation or Stagnation?
In the long run, a competitive, cut-throat market process driven by innovation is better for consumers than if government were to fund and direct research.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 40: Flying a Plane
Want to fly a plane? The FAA just published 72 pages worth of changes to its already extensive certification rules. 173 changes in all.
Washington Examiner
Nanotechnology: Innovation vs. Corporate Welfare
For the sake of consumers, nanotech firms should compete in the marketplace, not in Washington. Otherwise a vibrant, dynamic, and innovative sector risks…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 39: Postmodern Microwave Ovens
Appliances have to have little badges on them that say they comply with rule that requires the little badges. Perhaps the rule came from the…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 38: Carrying Letters
If anything qualifies as an anti-competitive practice, fining and jailing people for competing with you would certainly top the list. Which brings us to a…
Blog
DOJ to Investigate Microsoft-Yahoo Search Partnership
As expected, The Department of Justice is launching an antitrust investigation into the Microsoft-Yahoo search engine partnership. As I've said before, this is not an…
Blog
Why I Want a Public Option in the Health Care Bill
A bill with a public option will probably not pass. Too much opposition. But one without it probably will.
Blog
Friday Fun: Viking Funeral
Blog
Regulation of the Day 37: Lemonade Stands
It is illegal for children to sell lemonade in New York City without a permit.
Blog
New Schumpeter Book
In the tradition of the Reader’s Digest condensation of F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, Joseph Schumpeter’s Can Capitalism Survive? is coming out on September…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 36: Buying American
The $787,000,000,000 stimulus contains a provision requiring the Department of Homeland Security to buy american textiles. Basically, that means TSA uniforms will go up in…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 35: Doctors with Borders
In 49 states, it is illegal to practice medicine outside of the state in which you are certified. Tennessee is the lone state with an…
Overlawyered
July 16 Roundup: Chronicling the High Cost of Our Legal System
Blog
Rose Friedman, 1910-2009
Blog
Regulation of the Day 34: Diabetic Truckers
It is a violation of federal regulations to “operate a commercial vehicle in interstate commerce” if you have insulin-treated diabetes.
Blog
The Long Odds of Voting
Blog
Regulation of the Day 33: Pressure-Sensitive Plastic Tape
Ending the levy would “likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping,” so it’s here to stay. Domestic tape producers must be pleased. Consumers,…
Blog
Federal Budget Deficit Hits $1,270,000,000,000
Federal spending is going up. Tax receipts are going down. 2009's federal budget deficit is now up to $1.27 trillion as a result. That's about…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 32: Migratory Birds
If you’re planning on hunting migratory birds this year, be sure to read all 14 subparts and 61 sections in Title 50 of the Code…
Blog
TARP Transparency: A Good Start, but Not Enough
More transparency would alleviate some of TARP’s symptoms. But TARP itself is a disease. The sooner Congress gains the political will to recover from its…
Blog
Money Is Not Wealth
Blog
Regulation of the Day 31: Fraud in Wholesale Oil Markets
If you’re a wholesaler of crude oil or gasoline, a new FTC rule makes it illegal to engage in any business practice that“operates or would…
Blog
Media Bias: The More, the Better
Blog
Regulation of the Day 30: Labeling Mustard
If your company makes mustard bottles that are reusable as beer mugs, you are specifically required to put a country-of-origin label on your product.
Blog
They Can’t Even Keep Drugs Out of Prison?
Armed guards. All the bad guys behind bars. Under constant supervision. And Mexico still can’t keep drugs and drug dealing out of its prisons.
CEI Planet
TARP Transparency: A Good Start, but Not Enough
Herbert Allison is President Obama’s newly-confirmed head of the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Stability. On Thursday, June 25, he promised to “emphasize transparency so…
Blog
All Community Organizing Is Astroturfing – And That’s Fine!
The fact that members of Congress extolling the president’s plan are attacking astroturfers while leaving their arguments alone says to me that the Congressmen believe…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 29: Protecting Us from Cheap Foreign Goods
Sometimes (but not always), when a foreign producer sells goods to U.S. consumers cheaply, the U.S. government takes action to put a stop to it.
Blog
Inconvenient Evidence Suppressed in EU-Intel Antitrust Case
The EU’s top antitrust regulator intentionally suppressed “potentially exculpatory" evidence in its case against Intel. This is the rule of men, not law.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 28: Urine Trouble Now
Want to work for HHS? You’ll have to comply with approximately 32,463 words worth of regulations in the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing…
Blog
Reporting the Hidden Costs of Stimulus
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Microsoft, Yahoo, and Antitrust
If regulations are to be effective, they must be either clear or silent; antitrust statutes are neither. That alone is reason enough to urge trustbusters…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 27: Beekeeping in South Dakota
Beekeeping in South Dakota is illegal without a license.
Blog
Today’s Unintentionally Funny Headline
Blog
Regulation of the Day 26: Fortune Telling in Maryland
You need a license to tell fortunes in Annapolis, Maryland.
Washington Examiner
Trustbusters Should Lay Off Microsoft and Yahoo
Yahoo and Microsoft are going to join forces – that is, if regulators let them. But will their much-vaunted search partnership succeed? Both firms certainly…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 25: Cattle with Scabies
If you own cattle and they are at risk of catching scabies, you may want to read up on the pertinent federal regulations. There are…
Blog
The Antitrust Religion still Has Many Adherents
Why bother with the ongoing challenge of competing in the marketplace if one can merely go to Brussels or Washington?…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 24: The Width of Ladders
It is illegal for a portable metal ladder to have steps narrower than 12 inches.
Eweek
Microsoft-Yahoo Search Partnership
Blog
In Which Greed Is Good
The great economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote that "[F]ree trade is the cement that holds together the idea of peace." His logic is sound. Commerce gives…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 23: Texting While Driving
Texting while driving is both dumb and dangerous. But making it a crime won’t make people stop doing it. It will merely make more people…
Eweek
Microsoft-Yahoo Search Partnership
Yahoo! Finance
Microsoft-Yahoo Search Partnership
SC Magazine
Microsoft-Yahoo Search Partnership
News Release
Justice Department Should Leave the Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal Alone
Today, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a ten-year partnership of their search businesses in order to better compete against Google. The Department of Justice, citing antitrust…
Opposing Views
Justice Dept. Should Leave Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal Alone
Today, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a ten-year partnership of their search businesses in order to better compete against Google. The Department of Justice, citing antitrust…