DC Journal
Public Interest Requires the FCC to Abolish the News Distortion Standard
For decades, the Federal Communications Commission has invoked the public interest to regulate the speech of television and radio stations licensed by the agency. Television…
Law & Liberty
America’s Hidden Judiciary
Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal regulatory agencies have their own court system for adjudicating disputes that businesses and citizens have with regulators. These agencies rely…
The Daily Signal
The Woman Who Redeemed Chester Arthur
The new Netflix series “Death by Lightning” (based on the fantastic book, “Destiny of the Republic”) tells the true story of President James Garfield’s assassination in 1881 and…
Blog
What permitting reform should and shouldn’t include
Congress is working on bipartisan permitting reform. This is a good sign, but any such efforts need to ensure they deliver genuine permitting reform that…
The Dispatch
Antitrust Law Has Never Been Static
Last week a federal judge ruled that Meta was not an illegal monopoly, citing the changes in the social media landscape since the company bought…
Blog
Trade can aid wildlife recovery, latest global confab should admit
Yesterday was the first day of the 20th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP20) to The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of…
Blog
DOGE cancellation theatrics change nothing in the regulatory power game
“Trump administration officials have not openly said that DOGE no longer exists.” That admission came 10 paragraphs into a widely reported “exclusive” Reuters story claiming…
Blog
Interior secretary announces new pro-energy plan for offshore oil and gas
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently issued a Secretary order to replace the Biden administration’s 2024-2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program…
Blog
New York, California make a play for federal labor law enforcement
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency, currently lacks a quorum to act. Ordinarily, that type of federal…
Blog
The week in regulations: Airport fees and pesticide fragrances
September’s jobs report came out after a shutdown-related delay. The FTC lost its antitrust case against Meta. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from postage pricing…
Blog
The Endangerment Finding’s disqualifying systemic biases, part 2
The previous post in this series documented the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding’s reliance on overheated models and inflated emission scenarios to estimate…
News Release
New Interior Department plan to increase offshore lease sales will help lower prices, increase supply – CEI experts
Yesterday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a Secretary Order that would replace the Biden administration’s 2024–2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas…
Blog
CEI warns House committee of dangers of deposit insurance hike
Starting with our late founder and president Fred Smith, CEI has long warned of the risks posed by government-provided deposit insurance to the nation’s banks.
The Washington Times
Thanksgiving dinner prices fall for 3rd straight year as inflation cools
The Washington Times cited CEI’s expert on prices Ryan Young, a senior economist at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, said more families are opting for…
Comment
Coalition Comment on EPA’s Proposed HFC Technology Transitions Reconsideration Rule
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0005: Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Reconsideration of Certain Regulatory Requirements Promulgated Under the Technology Transitions Provisions of the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act…
The Washington Examiner
Coconut, citrus, and tea: Here’s what got tariff relief quietly over the weekend
The Washington Examiner cited CEI’s expert on tariffs Ryan Young, a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the list of tariff rollbacks is…
RealClear History
Death by Lightning: Fact vs. Fiction
People may think the 2020s in America seem like strange times, but 1881 could give it a run for its money. A corrupt Vice President,…
Blog
Bank regulators repeal intrusive ESG guidance
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Fed Board) withdrew their controversial interagency guidance on climate financial risks on…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Sesquicentennial celebration
In this week’s episode we celebrate the show’s sesquicentennial anniversary – that is, our 150th episode. We look back at the dozens of smart,…
News Release
US economy adds 119,000 jobs in September amid tariff turmoil
American employers added 119,000 jobs in September, the government reported today in the first jobs report since the weeks long federal government shutdown. CEI experts…
Blog
The Endangerment Finding’s disqualifying systemic biases, part 1
On August 1, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to repeal its December 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding. In the Endangerment Finding,…
The National News Desk
Rollbacks on tariffs for food could bring shoppers some relief on prices
The National News Desk cited CEI’S expert on tariffs raising prices “The positive experience that consumers will see with price reductions on their food…
Blog
Camelot and misuse of the public interest
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr has used the Communications Act’s public interest obligation to pressure broadcast licensees. This includes threatening ABC over…
Blog
A tariff-funded UBI? Trump just gave progressives their blueprint
Donald Trump’s pitch for a $2,000 “tariff dividend” check to be issued sometime next year (during election season) is being marketed as a windfall…
Blog
Shutdown lesson: Depend less on DC
The record-length shutdown showed how dependent many Americans are on Washington. This is one of the biggest flaws in the ongoing nationalization of politics. In…
News Release
Competitive Enterprise Institute documentary releases on YouTube November 19
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is pleased to announce that its award-winning documentary, Dear Mr. President: The Letters of Julia Sand, will premiere on…
Comment
The Future of Deposit Insurance: Assessing Coverage Levels, Systemic Costs, and Depositor Confidence
Hearing Entitled: The Future of Deposit Insurance: Exploring the Coverage, Costs, and Depositor Confidence Dear Chairman Hill and Ranking Member Waters, On behalf of the…
News Release
New EPA and Corps proposed WOTUS rule is a step in the right direction
Today the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released their proposed revisions to the definition of “waters of the United States.”…
DC Journal
Shutdown Lesson: Don’t Depend on D.C.
The federal shutdown is over. Here’s one big takeaway: We need to depend less on Washington. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid program’s…
InsideHealthPolicy
Shutdown Stalled Deregulatory Action At HHS, In Congress
“Jeremy Nighohossian, a health policy expert and economist at regulatory reform organization the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), told Inside Health Policy in a statement that…
Blog
The week in regulations, the final shutdown edition: Manifest mailing and broken trash incinerators
The federal shutdown is over. Since the Federal Register has a few days’ lag time for publishing agency documents, it will likely take until this…
Blog
Swiss trade deal could be a good start towards mutual recognition
Switzerland’s government announced today that it reached an agreement on a trade framework with the United States. America’s Liberation Day tariff rate on Swiss…
Blog
An executive order to make freedom mandatory
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) new “Streamlining the Review of Regulatory Actions” memorandum signals a potentially transformative shift in Washington’s…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Charting tariff madness with Joey Politano
In this week’s episode we talk about changes in consumer credit, disappearing fast-food jobs in California, and six things the climate movement…
Reason
5 Legal Reforms To Consider as Government Officials Lean on Critics
Reason cited CEI’s expert in new study on broadcasting regulation Also making that point is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Brian A. Rankin in a …
Forbes
Regulation Renovation: The Executive Order To Make Deregulation Permanent
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s new Streamlining the Review of Regulatory Actions memorandum signals a preferential stance toward deregulation, urging…
Regulatory Studies Center Columbian College of Arts & Sciences
Exploring the Dynamics of Regulatory Adjudication
In brief… Federal agency adjudication allows certain agencies to oversee and resolve their legal disputes internally. While this process is fairly well documented, what is…
News Release
Visa and Mastercard settlement with US merchants will cause confusion for consumers and harm community banks
Visa and Mastercard have reached a settlement in their 20-year-long legal battle with US merchants. The settlement gives merchants the ability to reject reward-based credit…
Blog
The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Medicare payments and arms trafficking.
The Supreme Court held oral hearings for the V.O.S. Spirits tariff case. Former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away. Democrats had a very good election…
Blog
Obamacare’s subsidy cliff: How many enrollees are actually affected?
Democrats in Congress have put Obamacare front and center in their opposition to the Republicans’ temporary budget. One provision of the American Rescue Plan…
Blog
A bad court decision on furnace regulations strengthens the case for a legislative fix
On November 4, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down a decision that is bad news for millions of…
Blog
The deregulation machine hits bureaucratic resistance
A new White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo, “Streamlining the Review of Deregulatory Actions,” poses an ambitious test: can agencies use…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Truth, lies, and economics with Jeremy Horpedahl
In this week’s episode we talk about Social Security’s cost of living, conserving rare earth minerals, and why California keeps losing…
News Release
Trump Administration Assertions in Supreme Court Tariff Hearing Lack Limiting Principle
Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the legality of President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify the…
National Review
A Less Perfect Union
Charlie Kirk’s tragic murder has had ramifications across America, but one of its strangest consequences has been to bring a venerable British institution to the brink…
National Review
RFK Jr.’s Cherry-Picked Science
One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promises as secretary of health and human services was to bring gold-standard science to our public…
News Release
New CEI paper: FCC should stop regulating news content
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has long used its role in licensing spectrum to broadcast television and radio stations to regulate those outlets under the…
Study
Freedom, Broadcasting, and the Public Interest
Introduction The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is invoking the public interest to justify regulatory moves that would, in theory, force television and radio station broadcast…
News Release
CFPB budget woes underscore fundamental problems with bureau’s set up
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) may run out of money soon, according to news reports. The bureau has been controversial from the start due…
Blog
The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Student loans and foreigners’ biometric data
President Trump announced a trade deal with China. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates. The continued federal shutdown meant another slow week in the Federal…
Forbes
How North Dakota Mastered The Permitting Game
Blog
Stop artificially increasing demand for rare earths
Trade wars with China over rare earth minerals have sparked a number of policy responses, ranging from good ideas like streamlining the permitting process…
Blog
CFPB breaks its stranglehold over adjudications
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) just announced that it will revise its adjudication rules to ensure greater fairness. Specifically, the CFPB is rescinding…
Watts Up With That
Part 2 Hiding the Endangerment Finding’s Systemic Biases – Politico’s Failed Attack on DOE’s Climate Science Report
Part 1 can be found here. Marlo Lewis, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute Part 2: Allegations and responses The Politico reporters…
Watts Up With That
Hiding the Endangerment Finding’s Systemic Biases – Politico’s Failed Attack on DOE’s Climate Science Report Part 1
Part 2 can be found here. Marlo Lewis, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute Politico recently published an article…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Our nuclear tomorrow with Craig Piercy
In this week’s episode we talk about administrative law judges, AI innovation saving lives, environmental regulation creating more wildfires, and more…
The Daily Economy
Digital ID and the Return of Big Brother Britain
Fresh out of university and looking for a career in public policy, I interviewed for a job in the Conservative Research Department of the British…
News Release
Interest rates cut again, Fed to stop shrinking balance sheet in December: CEI analysis
Today, the Federal Reserve announced an interest rate cut of 25 basis points, in line with economists’ predictions. CEI senior economist Ryan Young…
Blog
Darklore Depository 2025: An unofficial inventory of guidance documents and other regulatory dark matter
Halloween can remind policy wonks that some of the ghastliest regulatory chills come not from ordinary notice-and-comment regulation buried in the daily Federal Register, but…
News Release
Frack to the Future with North Dakota’s permitting success
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a new report highlighting North Dakota’s user-friendly environmental permitting laws. “North Dakota has always been rich with…
Study
Frack to the Future
Introduction North Dakota is typically known for the Badlands, agriculture, Fargo (thanks, Coen brothers), cold weather, and its flat landscape. Yet, due to technological advancements…
Fox Business
Federal Reserve faces dilemma amid expected rate cut decision
FOX Business cited CEI’s expert on inflation data The latest inflation data from September released on Friday showed that the consumer price index…
Forbes
Washington’s Hidden Rulebook: The 2025 Darklore Depository And The Case For Guidance Document Reform
Agencies also say “BOO” with guidance documents, statements of policy, memoranda, notices, bulletins, advisory opinions, directives, news releases, letters and even blog posts. We call…
National Review
U.N.’s Global Carbon Tax Should Be a Wake-Up Call to Fight International Climate Extremism
The United States should be an international leader in the fight against energy poverty and for energy freedom. Because, as of now, many countries are using…
Washington Examiner
No excuse for price floors in rare earths dispute
Parents don’t tolerate “But they do it, too” as an excuse from their children. What about when adults in positions of power use it? That…
Blog
Rare earths and China: Choose deregulation, not price controls
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to implement price controls on unspecified goods if China continues to restrict rare earth mineral exports. Over at the…
Comment
CEI comments on Regulatory Reform on Artificial Intelligence
RE: Request for Information: Regulatory Reform on Artificial Intelligence Docket No.: OSTP-TECH-2025-0067 The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Office…
Blog
The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Visa fees and regional haze
President Trump demanded that the Justice Department pay him $230 million. He also cut off all trade negotiations with Canada because of a tv commercial…
Blog
The TrumpRx medicine will prove worse than the disease
On September 30, President Trump, standing alongside the CEO of Pfizer, announced a multifaceted deal wherein Pfizer would inoculate itself from new regulations and…
News Release
Inflation increased 0.3 percent in September, higher prices still sticking around: CEI analysis
September saw an inflation increase of 0.3 percent across all sectors, in line with economists’ predictions. CEI senior economist Ryan Young says today’s…
Blog
CFPB must withdraw open banking rule to protect innovation and consumer choice
On October 21, John Berlau, senior fellow and director of finance policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, submitted a comment letter to the Consumer…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Obamacare problems with Jeremy Nighohossian
In this week’s episode we talk about the unintended consequences of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, decarbonization of economic growth, and resources…
Blog
Exposing America’s hidden judiciary
I have a new paper published with the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), How Interagency Borrowing of Administrative Law Judges Circumvents the Rule of Law.
Blog
The war on gas stoves is not over – but the Trump administration is fighting back
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that it is rescinding federal grants for changes to state and local building codes that would discourage the…
Forbes
$1 Trillion And Counting: Do Federal Grants Sabotage Regulatory Reform?
There’s been much attention to Donald Trump’s streamlining and “deconstruction” of conventional notice-and-comment regulation this year – a campaign that includes…
Blog
Has Washington bought off the deregulatory movement?
Back during the Biden administration, I noted how rising federal spending and regulation seemed to swap unfunded mandates for funded ones – turning what should…
Blog
In absence of federal action, states begin challenging the proxy duopoly
The two largest proxy advisors, Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), have dominated the proxy voting market for the past 22 years. Following the…
Blog
FTC’s Strategic Plan needs better strategy, more plans for Hart-Scott-Rodino
[Author’s correction: This blog post and comment incorrectly stated that the Federal Trade Commission’s Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2026-2030 failed to comply with the…
The Washington Examiner
Soybean farmers twisting in the wind during US-China talks
The Washington Examiner cited CEI’s expert on trade Accordingly, the timeline for the U.S. and China to come to an agreement over soybeans is…
Comment
Comments urging withdrawal of Chopra CFPB open banking mandate
Dear Acting Director Vought: On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I appreciate the opportunity to submit comments on RIN 3170-AB39, CFPB’s reconsideration of issues…
Blog
Free Speech Week: The speech that ignited a revolution — and still speaks to us today
A Richmond story, a Virginia legacy, and the American ethos Richmond is my home city. My family has lived in Virginia for generations, and our…
Blog
The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Mackerel and helicopters
The continuing shutdown made for another slow week in the Federal Register. The four-day week’s total of five proposed regulations, six proposed regulations, and 131…
Comment
CEI Comments on the FTC’s Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2026–2030: Supporting Balanced Enforcement, Evidence-Based Policymaking, and Regulatory Predictability
[Author’s correction: This comment incorrectly stated that the Federal Trade Commission’s Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2026-2030 failed to comply with the Foundations for Evidence-Based…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Energy diversity and abundance with Stephen Perkins
In this week’s episode we talk about the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics, eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, why we…
Letters
CEI joins coalition Letter against caps on stablecoin rewards
RE: Coalition in Support of Preserving Consumer Rewards and Competition in Digital Asset Legislation Dear Chairmen Scott and Boozman, Ranking Members Warren and Klobuchar, and…
Blog
Report highlights the environmental costs of wind and solar
A Center of the American Experiment report, authored by Sarah Montalbano, explores the environmental costs of wind, solar, and battery storage technologies. These “green”…
Blog
A Nobel for human progress
This year’s economics Nobel Prize went to three students of the two most important questions in economics: Why have living standards in rich countries improved…
Blog
Katie Porter’s exchange with CFPB’s Kraninger revisited amid new revelations
A recently surfaced clip of former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) has sparked a firestorm online. In a newly revealed 2021 video revealed published by…
Independent Institute
Report Highlights the Environmental Costs of Wind and Solar
A Center of the American Experiment, authored by Sarah Montalbano, explores the environmental costs of wind, solar, and battery storage technologies. These “green” technologies are…
Blog
The hidden growth of government in an age of less red tape
Recent editions of Ten Thousand Commandments detail how regulatory red tape mushroomed under Biden. For vulnerable small business, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council…
The Daily Signal
Is a Leftist-Created Corner of the Bureaucracy Defying the Government Shutdown?
The Daily Signal cited CEI’s expert on the CFPB Despite limits, with Vought at the helm, the CFPB has been headed in a more positive…
Forbes
Small Business Regulation Is Cratering – Here’s The Hidden Catch
But during the Biden administration, red tape proliferated. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council noted, for example, the toll from credit card…
Blog
Senate’s turn to pass the Fix Our Forests Act
It’s not often that legislation has as much bipartisan support as H.R. 471, the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) does. On January 23, FOFA…
Blog
The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Pot gear and hot air fuel
Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize. The partial federal shutdown meant there were no proposed regulations and five new regulations…
Blog
The problem with Obamacare is Obamacare
This year, the COVID-induced expansion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will expire. Extending the expanded subsidies has become a point of contention between Republicans…
Blog
Impasse over NLRB nominee may be just what unions want
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee yesterday approved one of President Trump’s nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main…
Letters
CEI Joins ATR in Urging Commerce to Reject Patent Tax Proposal Undermining OBBBA Success
Dear Secretary Lutnick: The undersigned organizations represent millions of Americans for whom efforts alongside the Trump administration on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)…
DC Journal
Counterpoint: Single-Use Plastic Bans Make No Sense
Nobody wants plastic pollution. That doesn’t mean poorly considered and heavy-handed governmental actions are the solution. This includes misguided single-use plastic bans (e.g., bans on…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Celebrating human achievement with Ed Hudgins
In this week’s episode we talk about the need to build more infrastructure in the UK, an award for public finance leadership…
Letters
CEI joins a coalition in Protecting Consumer Data: Why the CFPB Must Abandon Biden’s Flawed Open Banking Rule
Dear Acting Director Vought: We commend the bureau for acknowledging the flaws in the Personal Financial Data Rights rule promulgated under the Biden administration. We…