News Release
Exit Plan For UK/EU Earns Finalist Spot in Competition
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 – How might the United Kingdom best extract itself from the European Union? A plan focused on deregulation and put forward by…
Study
Questions for Federal Reserve Nominee Janet Yellen
Full Document Available in PDF Janet Yellen is President Obama’s choice to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve Chair. Yellen is…
Blog
Contradictory Financial Regulations Cause Problems
It’s a case of “When Regulations Collide.” As we’ve seen in the energy field, contradictory regulations cost jobs as employers struggle to comply with…
Blog
Scientific Literacy and a Storm in a Tea Party Cup
The American Spectator
BART’s Bogus Ride
It was the 1970s and Britain was the “sick man of Europe.” Labor unions had toppled one Conservative government and were bullying the existing Labour…
Human Events
How the Shutdown Can Inform the Debt Ceiling Debate
Co-authored by George Landrith. It’s all-shutdown-all-the-time in Washington these days. But all that talk has obscured the far bigger challenge facing the nation next week,…
Human Events
Obama’s Brinkmanship
We all remember the term “brinkmanship” from the Cold War, coined by President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. In an interview in Life…
Blog
Regulators and Justice
The federal government cajoled JP Morgan into acquiring Bear Stearns. Now they are punishing JP Morgan for crimes allegedly committed by Bear Stearns prior to…
Blog
Environmental Regulations Threaten Refining Sector Jobs
I had the privilege of meeting with Charlie Drevna, President of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers this week. He had some extremely interesting things to…
National Review
Truly Global Free Trade
Co-written by research associate Alex McHugh As the U.S. and several Asian Pacific nations resume discussion this week over the the Trans-Pacific Partnership…
Fox News
The suspicious science behind ‘happiness’ surveys
Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs, perhaps the world’s leading “sustainability” guru, has a favorite country when talking about progress: the tiny mountain Kingdom of Bhutan. …
Fox News
Happiness is overrated, says Competitive Enterprise Institute
Using happiness surveys for political purposes is flawed, according to a study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a libertarian thinktank CEI accuses happiness indices…
WorldMag
Signs and Wonders
Are you happy? One problem with surveys such as the one above is that they measure factors irrelevant to the outcome, and ignore factors vital…
Study
What Is the Happiness Lobby?
Huffington Post
Don’t Let Entrepreneurs Become a Casualty of the Immigration Impasse
Eberhard Anheuser came to America as a soap and candle maker in 1842. When he died, his company had pioneered the pasteurization of beer. Marcus…
Huffington Post
Inside the Beltway: Regulating the Gun Relics
We’re touchy-feely on a global level. Several large scale “happiness” indexes have emerged in recent years from the United Nations and other sources, measuring the…
Blog
Historians Should Learn the Economic Way of Thinking
Simon Schama is one of the world’s great historians. Indeed, I am currently having my children watch his magisterial “History of Britain,” and they are…
Blog
Germany Legalizes Bitcoin: Competing Currencies Are Here!
While Thailand may have banned Bitcoin, the electronic currency — although some are not so sure — the economic powerhouse of Germany has…
Conservative Way Forward
The Eurocrisis Started in Basel
The popular wisdom about the Euro crisis is that it was all the greedy bankers' fault. Yet, we live in a political world, not a…
Comment
Balance of Competences Review: Trade and Investment
Full Document Available in PDF Iain Murray is a British citizen who is Vice President at CEI and heads the…
Daily Caller
A culture of freedom: the first casualty of the U.S.-EU trade deal
Co-written by Research Associate Alex McHugh The proposed trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment…
Letters
Letter to the U.S. House of Representatives on HR 2642, The FARRM Act
Dear Representative, The House is slated to vote on H.R. 2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM Act). This bloated…
Letters
Open Letter to Speaker Boehner
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the undersigned organizations, we write…
National Review
Obama’s Climate Plan: It’s for the Kidz
Yes, the official subtitle of “President Obama’s Plan to Cut Carbon Pollution” is “Taking Action for Our Kids.” That should give you plenty of clues…
Blog
Obama Should Learn from Germany about Cape Wind
I have an op-ed online in USA Today today entitled “America should learn from Europe on wind power.” In it, I outline how Europe…
USA Today
America should learn from Europe on wind power
As the Department of Energy considers a loan guarantee for the Cape Wind Project in Massachusetts, it should learn from Europe's failed wind energy experiments…
The American Spectator
Disabling American Sovereignty
Coauthored with Geoffrey McClatchey. The United States Senate will likely soon consider ratification the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),…
National Review
The Life of Julius
Remember the White House’s poster child for welfare dependency, Julia? Meet Julius. Julius is the star of a new original production from my team at the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
The American Spectator
Another Correa Problem
Co-written with Geoffrey McLatchey. Following Hugo Chavez’s death, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador could be considered his likely successor as leader of South America’s…
The American Spectator
The Lady Wasn’t for Turning
When Margaret Thatcher was about to enter 10 Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister in 1979, she surprised everyone by quoting a…
News Release
Margaret Thatcher: A Defender of Liberty and an Inspiration
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2013 — Iain Murray, vice-president of strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, native of the United Kingdom, graduate of Oxford…
The American Spectator
Let’s Lose LOST
When Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech at the Ross Sea Conservation Reception on March 19, he suggested that we should have called…
The American Spectator
The First Church of Chicken Little
Back to the industry point, environmentalism is hardly an economic weak sister. Ian Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in his 2008 book, The Really…
National Review
A Genuine Conservative Opinion Editor at the Times
No, not the New York Times. That could happen today only under the most bizarre of circumstances. It’s the Times of London, the Thunderer herself,…
National Review
Virginia’s Transportation Mess
Virginia’s transportation-funding system’s drive toward socialism seems to veering even further left. Readers may remember Governor McDonnell’s plan to increase funding…
National Review
Smearing the Tea Party with Taxpayer Money
You may be aware of a recent study that suggested that the Tea Party was founded by Big Tobacco. My colleague Hans Bader has been…
National Review
Re: Out of the Woods
News Release
Obama State of the Union – Will the Transoceanic Trade “Partnerships” be Free Trade Agreements?
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 13 – Iain Murray, vice president for strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, had the following to say about the announcement…
Forbes
Obama Administration Errors Set The Stage For The First Green Trade War
Trade wars benefit nobody, but we may need to brace for one soon. This month, China is set to decide on whether to…
Study
10 Cool Global Warming Policies
Full Document Available in PDF Global warming is a reality. But whether it is a serious problem — and whether emis-sions of…
Yahoo Finance
The Fog of Austerity: This Smoke Cloud Is the Ultimate Symbol of Greece’s Depression
But "Greece is regressing," said Iain Murray, vice president for strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "As it becomes poorer, its environment suffers more."…
Huffington Post
Greece Shows Us How Poverty Degrades the Environment
Human Events
The Return of Gunboat Diplomacy
Co-authored with Riley Walters. Last September, China deployed six surveillance ships in response to the Japanese government’s attempt to buy the disputed Senkaku islands,…
Huffington Post
Transatlantic Free Trade Must Be Done Right
There's a buzz, says Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, in both Berlin and D.C. these days, for free trade as a potential path back to…
Blog
I, Pencil – Simply Perfect
Blog
Oh (Big) Brother
The American Spectator
Dodd-Frank’s Mystery SIFI Theater
Following the financial crisis, there was a desire to protect the nation against banks becoming so large that their failure would threaten the entire financial…
Forbes
Hurricane Sandy, and the Invisible Hand of Recovery
Once again, a terrible natural disaster strikes, and Americans from the Carolinas to New England are doing their best to sort through the wreckage and…
National Review
Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Destabilizing Force
On October 12, it was announced that the European Union had won the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. The announcement was greeted with warmth in Brussels…
The American Spectator
Did Magna Carta Die in Vain?
It's rare that an interview by David Letterman gives you deep insight into a troubling problem, but his interview with British Prime Minister David Cameron…
The American Spectator
Worst Congress Ever?
It's no surprise that 60 percent of Americans, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling for the leftist Daily Kos website, think that…
Capital Research
Hospital Unionization Harms the Sick
Full Document Available in PDF Summary: Nursing is a valued career in a civilized society. It combines helping people with the economic demand for…
Letters
Coalition Letter to the U.S. Senate on Tax Competition
Full Document Available in PDF CEI co-signed a coalition letter to the U.S. Senate urging support for Senator Rubio’s S.J.Res. 46, which…
Daily Mail
America’s Real Choice: Cronyism or Capitalism
America appears to be at war with itself, if the Presidential campaign is anything to go by. The adverts that have saturated the airwaves over…
Blog
New Regulations Threaten To Wipe Out Community Banks
The new Basel III capital requirement regulations are supposed to strengthen the international financial system, with their avowed effect being to: improve the banking…
Daily Mail
Bring on the ‘Brixit’: EU Withdrawal Would Bring Benefits for Both Britain and the US
While much of the worry in the United States about the future of the European Union has focused on Greece, Spain, and Italy and their…
Daily Mail
Scott Walker’s Victory is a Victory for Worker Freedom
You wouldn’t know it from the recall election campaign itself, but yesterday’s failed attempt to unseat reforming Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was all about…
Blog
Give a Man a Fish
Those with an interest in conserving our oceans’ fish stocks and those with an interest in promoting private property should both be interested in my…
Study
Give a Man a Fish
Attempts to prevent overfishing by promulgating regulations (which are often at odds with subsidies) have proved both ineffective and impossible to enforce. Ending subsidies and…
Blog
Let’s Lose LOST
The Law of the Sea Treaty would drastically undermine American sovereignty, giving massive powers to the U.N. (aka the Dictators’ Club of New York), but…
Daily Mail
Let’s Lose LOST
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Survey of the Regulatory State
The latest edition of my colleague Wayne Crews’s annual snapshot of the regulatory state, “Ten Thousand Commandments,” is out. This year’s lowlights include: Estimated…
Blog
Greek Tragedy Nears a Dramatic End
With the prospects for a Greek pro-austerity coalition fading rapidly, here is a round-up of the most useful stories on the Greek tragedy: The…
Blog
Austerity Bites – But It Isn’t the Problem
The election results in Europe, we are told, are a vote against the austerity of "savage" spending cuts. Veronique de Rugy, in National Review Online,…
Daily Mail
Forget France, the Greek Elections Are the Beginning of the End for Europe
While much of the world’s attention was concentrated on France’s presidential election last Sunday, the real action was in Greece. French President-elect François Hollande may…
Blog
The Great Unanswered Question About the Eurozone
In a column for the FT today, Wolfgang Munchau lays out what may be the only plausible solution to the Eurozone crisis – for…
Washington Examiner
A Free-Market Solution for Fisheries
When humans first shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture thousands of years ago, the establishment of private property rights yielded enormous benefits to natural…
Washington Examiner
Walker’s Reforms Stand Up in Court, On Balance Sheets
Asked recently if he was a “union buster,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker answered, “I know that collective bargaining is not a right; it’s an expensive…
Washington Examiner
War on Coal Escalates
Faced with rising gas prices, President Obama recently outlined what he calls an “all-of-the-above” energy policy “that develops every available source of American energy…
Washington Examiner
The Export-Import Bank Should Be an Ex-Bank
Among the nation’s failing financial institutions the Export-Import Bank has received little notice. Now, however, the House and Senate are considering whether to reauthorize the…
Washington Examiner
Two Budget Proposals Demonstrate the Depth of the Political Divide in the U.S.
This morning, House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan (R.-WI) unveiled his budget proposal, which took aim at the culture of debt financing that most analysts…
Washington Examiner
New IRS Rule Benefits Only Foreign Dictators
Since when is it the U.S. government’s job to report on the financial activities of foreign nationals to their home governments? It is now. The…
Washington Examiner
On Both Sides of Atlantic, Faceless Bureaucrats Are Assailing Religious Freedom
In late January, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a rule that requires nearly all employers, including many affiliated with religious…
Washington Examiner
Obama’s Amazing Energy Spin Machine
The bankruptcy of Ener1, a “green energy” firm that got a $118 million stimulus grant, has brought the Obama administration’s commitment to sinking billions of…
BBC
How ‘Europe’ Became a Dirty Word in the U.S. Election
BBC
When ‘Being Green’ Means Subsidies For Rich, Harm for Poor
One thing we can expect in President Obama’s State of the Union speech is for him to echo his declaration from last month, “That’s…
Blog
John Kay on the Market Economy
In a truly excellent column for the Financial Times today, John Kay lays out in a few hundred words a clear defense of the…
BBC
Obama Channels Cheney
(Appeared in The Sacramento Bee, The Miami Herald and The Monteray County Herald) When Vice President Dick Cheney held secret meetings for his…
Blog
Re-organizing the Federal Government to Crush Opposition
One of the few virtues of the federal government has been its inefficiency. With functions spread out across different agencies and duplicated powers and responsibilities,…
Daily Caller
Obama Reorganizes Government, Adds Inefficiencies, Expands Economic Footprint
Daily Caller
Commerce Head Wants Consumers to Pay More for Energy
Americans spent more on gas this year as percentage of their income than at any other time in 30 years. To most people this would…
Daily Caller
Avoiding a Lost Decade
Remember Japan’s “lost decade” of the 1990s? For the United States, 2011 was the “lost year.” Congress and President Obama are engaged…
Politico
Left Bloggers Hail “New Obama”
Hot Air
Obama Follows Cordray Recess Appointment With Three More to NLRB
Hot Air
Britain’s Future Lies With America, Not Europe
In 1952, then-U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that “Britain has lost an empire but has failed to find a role.” Sadly for Britain,…
Washington Post
The Death of Kim Jong Il and the Unraveling of North Korea and More
Washington Post
Create Wealth, Not Jobs
Spending on construction and infrastructure jobs is a perennial favorite of government stimulus boosters. “There’s no reason for Republicans in Congress to stand in…
Blog
A Nice Review of Stealing You Blind
David Hogberg of Investor’s Business Daily and The American Spectator has a very complimentary review of my book, Stealing You Blind: How Government Fatcats…
Blog
Time to Include Britain in NAFTA?
On Monday, I sent this letter to the editor of the Financial Times in response to an appalling column by former British apparatchik Jonathan…
The American Spectator
The Grinches Who Stole Christmas
The American Spectator
A Cautionary Tale on Government Spying
Who enforces the law? Most people would answer that this is the central function of government. However, America’s federal government has increasingly distanced itself from…
The American Spectator
Where’s the Money to Save the Euro Coming From? Not Us!
Markets rallied last week on news of central bank intervention to ease indebted European governments’ liquidity problems, but the central problem remains. Europe is in…
The American Spectator
The Regulatory Thicket
How to Do ItIn the seemingly endless debate about how to put Americans back to work, one solution dare not speak its name: deregulation.
The American Spectator
A Federal Black Friday
Black Friday this year was a roaring success. I have heard it said that it is called Black Friday not because it inspires black tempers…
The American Spectator
Manhattan Moment: Here’s the Right Way to Do Regulatory Relief
In the seemingly endless debate about how to put Americans back to work, one solution dare not speak its name: deregulation. Yet if implemented correctly,…
The American Spectator
The EU Just Repudiated Itself and Nobody Noticed
American Thinker
Will Germany Choose Another Gotterdämmerung?
American Thinker
Obama’s Education Disaster
“We’re laying off teachers in droves,” President Obama told a crowd recently. “It makes no sense. It has to stop.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,…
American Thinker
The Euro Was Always a Bad Bet
Rumors are flying around Europe that Chancellor Merkel of Germany and President Sarkozy of France are making plans for a smaller eurozone, including provisions…
American Thinker
EPA Jackboots?
When Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson recently ridiculed her opponents as thinking of EPA officials as “jack-booted thugs,” she should have thought through exactly…