Blog
Regulatory Reform Bills in the 118th Congress: The REINS Act
Every new session of Congress is a new chance to enact substantive regulatory reform. This post inaugurates an occasional series highlighting reform bills that have…
Blog
State of the Union and Inflation
Presidents, like quarterbacks, get too much blame when things go badly, and too much when things go well. Look for President Biden to take advantage…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had a setback in one of its cases against Meta. The Fed raised interest rates. Meanwhile, agencies…
News Release
Economy Adds 517,000 Jobs in January: CEI Analysis
The U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs in January 2023, according to newly released government numbers. That’s higher than expected. CEI experts explain what it…
News Release
Latest Fed Interest Rate Increase Brings Us Closer to a Soft Landing: CEI Analysis
The Federal Reserve today announced an interest rate increase of a quarter percentage point, as expected. CEI Senior Economist Ryan Young says the series of…
Blog
FTC Should Not Trade Consumer Welfare for an Antitrust Crystal Ball
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Department of Justice filed another antitrust lawsuit against Google. GDP numbers for the final quarter of 2022 looked healthy. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations…
News Release
Good News on Economic Growth: CEI Analysis
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released data today showing the economy grew 2.1 percent in 2022. CEI Senior Economist Ryan Young…
News Release
Why DOJ’s Antitrust Suit Against Google’s Digital Ad Business Misses the Mark
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Google today, a division of parent company Alphabet, alleging the company has a monopoly over digital…
Blog
Adam Smith, Greek Tragedy, and Public Policy
In high school civics classes, Adam Smith is a cartoon character. Like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, he is portrayed as selfish, cold, and calculating.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The U.S. government hit its debt ceiling, setting up some congressional drama. Microsoft and Google joined the parade of antitrust targets announcing layoffs despite…
Blog
The Debt Ceiling and the Trillion-Dollar Coin
Another debt ceiling battle is brewing, and pundits are debating what to do about it. Over at National Review’ Capital Matters, I take a look…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Inflation fell to a 6.5 percent annual pace. Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro staged their own version of January 6. An…
National Review
Can a Trillion-Dollar Coin Repay Our Debt?
The red wave that wasn’t has consequences for policy-making in Washington. One result of the GOP’s new, narrow House majority is that outlandish and marginal policy…
News Release
Inflation Ticks Down in December – Fed Should Stay on Course, CEI Economist Urges
Good news – the annual inflation rate fell from 7.1 percent in November to 6.5 percent in December, according to the latest consumer price…
Blog
Federal Reserve Declines to Become Climate Regulator
Most agencies can either do one thing well or many things poorly. For example, the Federal Reserve would be perfectly capable of keeping inflation low…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The new Congress began with a lot of drama over selecting a speaker. The Federal Trade Commission announced its intention to ban non-compete clauses.
News Release
Economy Added 223,000 Jobs in December – Some Good News and Bad
The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in December, according to government data, and the unemployment rate dipped down to 3.5 percent, where it was…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations – Year-End 2022
Happy new year, everyone. Year-end totals for 2022’s new regulations are in. The 2022 Federal Register weighs in at 80,756 pages. It includes 3,168 final…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
A massive snowstorm with heavy winds hit most of the U.S. just in time for Christmas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Washington and addressed…
News Release
Senate Passes $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill, No Help to Inflation Reduction
The Senate today voted to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus package to fund the federal government through September next year. CEI Senior Economist Ryan…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
CEI released its latest Agenda for Congress. Inflation slowed down in November, though there is still a ways to go before it’s…
Blog
Agenda for Congress: Inflation
CEI’s Agenda for Congress is out now. This post summarizes its recommendations for inflation. Since inflation is mostly a monetary phenomenon, it is…
News Release
Fed Raises Rates Again to Slow Inflation
The Federal Reserve has been trying to slow inflation by raising interest rates, today issuing its smallest rate increase since June – raising the federal…
News Release
November Inflation Less Bad Than Before, but the Fed Should Stay Focused on It
The latest consumer price index (CPI) released today by the Labor Department revealed that inflation, while still high, has been slowing as of November. That…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
A former president called for terminating the U.S. Constitution. Socialism failed again, this time in Peru. Congress passed a bill to protect…
Blog
Gas Prices Are Lower than a Year Ago: What Does that Mean for Inflation?
Even with inflation near 40-year highs, gas prices are lower than a year ago, and not just in real, inflation-adjusted terms. They’re lower even…
Blog
Regulatory Reform in Mississippi
Washington isn’t the only place that needs regulatory reform. States have their own excesses to deal with. To that end, our friends at the Mississippi…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The World Cup is underway in Qatar and the labor market had another good month. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from canola oil jet…
Blog
Retro Review: George Selgin, Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1997)
This year, inflation reached levels not seen in 40 years. The Federal Reserve spent most of 2022 trying to undo its runaway money creation in…
News Release
Job Gains in November 2022 Amid Inflation, Economic Problems: CEI Analysis
The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in November while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7 percent, according to the Labor Department. CEI experts break…
News Release
Fed Should Do More to Fight Inflation with Interest Rate Increases
The Federal Reserve Chairman today confirmed that further interest rate increases are likely, maybe as soon as December. CEI economy expert Ryan Young says…
Fox 26 News
Some states still delivering final round of stimulus payments as inflation lingers
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
We hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving and/or Black Friday. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from nuclear drug tests to food tracing. On to the data:…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2022 Federal Register surpassed 70,000 pages on Friday, and is on pace for 79,617 pages. The first Artemis moon mission rocket launched. The…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The midterm elections happened, and most of us (sorry, Georgia) are finally free of misleading, scaremongering political ads. Inflation slowed down slightly. Meanwhile,…
Blog
October Inflation Slightly Improves: Time for Less Politics and More Policy
Thank goodness the election is over. One of the frustrating parts of midterm season was that many people were more interested in how inflation would…
American Viewpoints
AUDIO: Senior Fellow Ryan Young Joins American Viewpoints
Senior Fellow Ryan Young reacts to President Biden’s announcement that his administration is going to address “junk fees” as part of his effort to lower…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate again, though it remains less than the rate of inflation. Employment increased by 261,000 in…
News Release
US Economy Added Jobs in October, but Unemployment Remains High – Signs of Cooling
The U.S. added 261,000 jobs in October, while unemployment ticked up to 3.7 percent, according to data released today by the Labor Department. That’s more…
Blog
Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rate; Uncertainty Strengthens Case for a Policy Rule
As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage points coming out of this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)…
Blog
Retro Review: Jared Diamond—Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Norton, 1997)
In 1972, Jared Diamond was researching bird evolution in New Guinea. While walking along a beach, he had an hour-long conversation with a local politician…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Happy Halloween! CEI released the latest edition of Wayne Crews’s Ten Thousand Commandments report, which gives a big-picture overview of the federal regulatory state.
News Release
Biden Wrong About “Junk Fees” in Sweeping Government Mandate
Today the Biden administration announced a new whole-of-government initiative against “junk fees” from airlines, banking, and other industries. But what he is calling junk fees aren’t…
Blog
New Whole-of-Government Initiative on Junk Fees Comes with Unintended Consequences
Today the Biden administration announced a new whole-of-government initiative on junk fees from airlines and other industries. The news comes on the same day…
National Review
No Need for Antitrust Scrutiny of Kroger–Albertsons Merger
The Hill
Biden’s ‘whole of government’ overhaul of federal agencies undermines their purpose
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2022 Released
The 2022 edition of Wayne Crews’s Ten Thousand Commandments report is out now. Now in its 28th year, it has its usual panoply of…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Just two more weeks until the relentless barrage of misleading election ads goes away. The Energy Information Administration warned that heating bills could get…
News Release
Union Risks Job Loss in Bid to Stop Kroger/Albertsons Merger, Warn CEI Antitrust Experts
Four local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers International representing some 100,000 workers are reportedly lobbying regulators and lawmakers to oppose the $25…