Reason
“The Federal Trade Commission’s Latest Frivolous Antitrust Suit Takes Aim at Amazon”
Elizabeth Nolan Brown from Reason magazine details the shortcomings of the FTC’s latest action against Amazon.
Blog
Another sustainable energy company is failing to sustain itself
CNBC’s “Sustainable Future” page reports today that “Siemens Energy shares plunge more than 37% as wind turbine worries deepen.” A “sustainable energy” company…
Blog
House hearing warns of Biden’s admin’s ‘death by a thousand regulations’
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing last week titled “Death by a Thousand Regulations: The Biden Administration’s Campaign to Bury…
Forbes
Will NAIC Insurance Regulators In U.S. Import Harmful European Rules?
My colleague Ari Patinkin, research associate at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, contributed to this post. Although the inflation rate may be slowing, the…
Forbes
How Regulating AI Could Empower Bad Actors
A bipartisan group of legislators in the House of Representatives has introduced a bill to establish a national commission on Artificial Intelligence…
Blog
Fed Chair Powell hearing: more to do on inflation
At his semiannual congressional testimony this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell hinted that the Fed likely is not done raising interest rates. This…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: online trust with Taylor Barkley
In this week’s episode we talk about a survey on work trends for finance bros, Delta’s questionable bid to become the…
Blog
Elephant in the elevator: How government manipulates the social cost of carbon to justify regulations
Four CEI colleagues and I each submitted comments this month on the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed update of Circular…
News Release
New CEI report proposes bold reforms to restore Constitution’s constraints on government power
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report proposes significant reforms aimed at restoring the U.S. Constitution’s separation and balance of powers that are vital…
Study
Constitutional Restoration: How to rebuild the separation of powers
Introduction A specter is haunting America—the specter of unlimited government. A central feature of our Constitution is that it restricts the federal…
Blog
European Union says phones and tablets must be easier to break by 2027
The European Parliament agreed on new rules last week that would require smartphone and tablet manufacturers to make it easier for users to…
Blog
Businesses flocking to states with lower taxes, better regulations
Experts on U.S. economic policy spend a lot of time looking at competition between states and how good tax and regulatory policy can…
National Review
Protectionism without Sugarcoating
National Review cites CEI’s Iain Murray about protectionism: Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute describes the U.S. sugar quotas as the “platonic…
Blog
Younger workers don’t favor full-remote work
Among people who follow the news on workplace (and workforce) satisfaction, the opinions of younger workers are often considered especially relevant, because we assume…
Blog
Das Adam Smith problem? Nein!
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to…
Blog
America takes Entrepreneurship Index top spot, former Soviet bloc countries close behind
Retail software maker Shopify recently released its “Entrepreneurship Index,” a global ecosystem of entrepreneurial activity. Shopify ranks the top ten countries with economies…
Comment
CEI Comments on Proposed OMB Circular No. A-4
RE: Request for Comments on Proposed OMB Circular No. A-4, “Regulatory Analysis”, 88 FR 20915 (Apr. 7, 2023), Docket OMB-2022-0014 Dear Mr. Revesz,…
Wall Street Journal
“Lina Khan’s Recusal Coverup”
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board contends that FTC Chair Lina Khan may have misled Congress regarding ethics compliance.
CSIS
“Noncompete Agreements, Innovation, and National Security”
Experts from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) discuss problems with the FTC’s sweeping rule to ban noncompete agreements in employee contracts.
City Journal
Lab Leak: Likely
Three previously unreleased State Department cables, obtained by the public-health group U.S. Right to Know through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit,…
Comment
OMB’s Problematic Circular A-4 Rewrite
OUTLINE Discard the pro-regulatory bias of the federal government Restore regulatory streamlining prior to Circular A-4 rewrite Restore the $100 million threshold for…
Comment
CEI Comments on Proposed Circular A-4, Regulatory Analysis
Dear Administrator Revesz: I appreciate this opportunity to provide comments on the proposed Circular A-4, “Regulatory Analysis.”1 The focus of my comments is…
Comment
CEI Comments on OMB’s Revision of Circular A-4 Regulatory Accounting Guidelines
Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Draft for Public Review of its proposed update…
Forbes
Biden’s Top-Down Economy, Powered By Executive Action
Joe Biden didn’t take a Juneteenth break, instead heading to Palo Alto to tout “historic action to combat the climate…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: tart cherry assessments and big cat safety
The House passed two regulatory reform bills, the REINS Act and the Separation of Powers Restoration Act. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady.
Washington Examiner
The Biden administration shouldn’t waste more taxpayer dollars on COVID vaccines
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recently voted to recommend updating the COVID-19 vaccine. But important questions remain:…
National Review
FTC Continues War on Bigness by Opposing Microsoft Video-Game Acquisition
The FTC is doubling down on its opposition to Microsoft’s acquisition of video-game company Activision Blizzard by filing to block the merger in…
Blog
Here comes state capitalism. There go our liberties.
CEI’s own Wayne Crews told the Washington Examiner recently, “Everything from local tap water to space commercialization is being turned into a government…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: growth and taxes with Alex Muresianu
In this week’s episode we talk about Gen Z and remote work, businesses moving between states, and inspiring evidence of…
Bob Harden
U.S. House Passes Legislation to Preserve Consumer Choice in Kitchen Appliances
We visit with Ben Lieberman, Senior Policy Analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, about the Biden administrations war on gas…
Bloomberg
“FTC Rejected Ethics Advice for Khan Recusal on Meta Case”
Bloomberg’s Leah Nylen reveals newly unredacted memo showing that FTC Chair Lina Khan declined to recuse herself from the FTC’s case against Meta despite…
Washington Times
“Republicans Should Be Commended for Working to Rein in FTC”
Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, discusses the importance of work done by congressional Republicans on holding the Federal Trade Commission accountable.
Blog
Market failure? Let’s talk about government failure
Government interventions in the market are often said to be justified by market failures, which prevent the free market from maximizing social welfare. What…
Blog
Adam Smith on how to love and be lovely
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to…
Blog
Is Biden admin disappearing a red flag for costly regulations?
Is the Biden administration trying to do away with the category of “economically significant” regulations altogether? Before this administration, an “economically significant” regulation…
Blog
Court punts to FTC, freezing Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took action Monday to stop Microsoft from purchasing the game developer Activision Blizzard. The FTC filed for both…
News Release
House passes sensible regulatory reform bills to shrink power of the administrative state
Earlier today, the House passed 220 to 211 the Separation of Powers Restoration Act (SOPRA) sponsored by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald…
News Release
CEI expert analyzes the permitting provisions in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
After several attempts to reform the United States’ broken permitting system for large infrastructure projects, major changes have finally made it to the president’s…
Study
Permitting reforms, finally
Introduction The United States has one of the world’s most burdensome, time-consuming, and unpredictable systems for authorizing major infrastructure projects. The centerpiece of…
Blog
Adam Smith’s ‘tolerable administration’ vs. America’s increasingly intolerable one
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to…
Blog
New Biden White House Agenda shows 3,666 rules in regulatory pipeline
The Spring 2023 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions has been released. A fall version of this twice-yearly document will also contain…
News Release
Fed holds interest rates steady but shouldn’t have: CEI analysis
The Federal Reserve decided to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at today’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting. CEI senior economist Ryan Young…
Blog
Senate Commerce hearing shows why some junk fees aren’t garbage
In his State of the Union address this February, President Biden reiterated his intent to crack down on so-called junk fees. Biden…
Wall Street Journal
Is a U.S. Wealth Tax Constitutional?
The Wall Street Journal encourages the Supreme Court to grant cert in CEI’s Moore v. US case: The Moores…
Forbes
Virginia’s New Permitting Portal Is A Model For Other States
Our nation’s system of environmental permitting is broken, putting both economic growth and the clean energy transition at risk. So it’s a relief that…
News Release
U.S. House passes legislation to preserve consumer choice in kitchen appliances
The U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1615 today, a bill that would protect Americans ability to choose the type of stove they want…
Blog
Time to shine more light on regulators’ ‘shadow boxes’
Accompanying presidential executive orders and memoranda are the numerous sub-regulatory proclamations of departments and agencies we like to call “regulatory dark matter.” Occasionally…
Blog
The real Adam Smith
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to…
News Release
Inflation Slows, Fed Actions Pay Off: CE Analysis
Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in May (up 4 percent this past year), according new inflation data released today by the Labor Department.
Blog
Why Trump and Biden are wrong to sweat a trade deficit
Do trade deficits make American workers worse off? Trade deficits occur when a country imports more goods than it exports, which the U.S. has…