Blog
VIDEO: Why Antitrust Is a Problem, Not a Solution
With major political figures proposing the forced breakup of some of the nation’s most successful companies, the once-arcane field of antitrust law is now at…
Blog
Regulatory Costs of Delegating Lawmaking Power to Executive and Unelected Administrators
The administrative state, blessed by Congress, has dispensed with the Founders’ system of legislation fashioned solely by an elected body. Regulatory reforms call for holding…
News Release
CEI Releases New Video: How Antitrust Harms Consumers by Stifling Innovation and Competition
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today launched a new video, “Antitrust Explained,” disputing recent calls by politicians and academics to use antitrust laws and regulations…
C-SPAN
VIDEO: Marc Scribner Testifies Before House Ways and Means Committee
Senior Fellow Marc Scribner testifies before House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the nation's infrastructure needs.
National Review
Breaking Up Platforms Has Sickening Implications
Hipster antitrust sickens me. Literally. I was under the weather last week. Feeling ill, I spent a good amount of time at local pharmacies, searching…
Blog
Agencies Failing to Follow Law on Key Financial Regulation
The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 is one of the worst pieces of legislation to have become law in recent history. It created the Consumer Financial…
News Release
Washington Bureaucrats Should Stay Out of T-Mobile-Sprint Merger
Today, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law will hold a hearing on the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. The…
News Release
Trump Budget Seeks Ill-Advised E-Cigarette Tax
President Trump’s budget submitted to Congress today contains an ill-advised tax on e-cigarettes. CEI Senior Fellow Michelle Minton says such a tax would do less…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter in Support of Volcker Rule Relief
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen: As conservative and free-market organizations concerned with reducing red tape that is holding back American entrepreneurs, consumers, and investors, we urge…
Comment
CEI Comments on Volcker Rule Relief
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI"), we are pleased to provide the following comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking to implement amendments…
Blog
States Challenge Federal Internet Gambling Ban
This January, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an opinion that threatens legal online gambling in the U.S. The tenuous rationale on which the opinion…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Last week was low-drama by recent standards, but still had some important developments. The U.S. trade deficit set a record for the second year in…
Blog
Maryland Considers Another Anti-Gas Pipeline Measure
The abundant natural gas produced in Pennsylvania and West Virginia could do a lot of good for East Coast states—reducing electric bills, improving reliability, and…
Blog
Defense Establishment Blasts Proposal for Trump Climate Review
In a letter released earlier this week, 58 “former national security leaders” urge President Trump not to approve the formation of a panel to review…
Blog
VIDEO: Deirdre McCloskey on “Bourgeois Dignity”
Given that it is International Women’s Day and almost CEI’s 35th anniversary, today is an excellent day to celebrate the impressive legacy of economist (and…
Blog
Labor Department Issues Proposed Update to Overtime Requirements
Last night, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) long-awaited proposed rule on overtime requirements was unveiled. The DOL intentionally wrote the rule to withstand legal challenge,…
News Release
Plan to Break Up Tech Companies “Bad News for Consumers, Innovation”
According to reports, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is set to announce a new plan to use antitrust regulations to “break up” large and innovative technology…
News Release
CEI Comments on New Labor Department Rule on Overtime Pay
The Trump Labor Department put forward a new rule on overtime pay for salaried workers yesterday, that would increase the threshold for overtime eligibility from…
Forbes
Warning Signs: How Trump’s Ascendant Regulatory Impulses Could Swamp His Deregulatory Program
President Donald Trump has pruned rules and costs and held down regulatory output with more enthusiasm than other presidents. But on the flipside of Trump’s controversial regulatory savings, Trump sports regulatory…
Blog
Federal Labor Ruling Prohibits Unions Charging Non-Members for Lobbying
It has long been the law of the land that labor unions may only collect agency fees, or forced union dues, from non-union members to…
Blog
Higher Taxes, Wasteful Spending Not Solutions to Infrastructure Problems
In recent years, there have been increasing calls to raise federal fuel excise tax rates in order to address what many have called an infrastructure…
Blog
California Supreme Court Upholds Pension Reform, Punts on ‘California Rule’
On Monday, March 4, the California Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, upheld a major provision in the state’s 2012 pension reform legislation, but punted…
Blog
E-Cigarette Puritans Risk Lives
Tobacco companies faced a savage backlash in the 1990s when the public realized they willfully misled the world about the dangers of smoking. Yet when…
Blog
Florida Bill Shines Light on Union Subsidy
Taxpayer dollars should be used to benefit the general public, not special interest groups. Yet, the state of Florida doles out a massive subsidy to…
The Washington Examiner
The Inefficiency of Efficiency: Appliance Standards Often Cost More Than They Save
It is hard to find anything in Washington more inefficient than an efficiency standard for home appliances. Each standard can require more than 30 bureaucratic…
Blog
The Regulatory Costs of Abandoned Federalism
The deterioration of the principle of separation of powers is a signature feature of the powerful federal Administrative State. This corrosion is accompanied by a…
News Release
Congress Should Stay Out of Broadband Regulation and “Let the Free Market Keep Working”
Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will roll out a new piece of legislation aimed at reversing the FCC’s decision to repeal so-called “net neutrality” rules…
Comment
Marc Scribner Testimony Before the Committee on Ways and Means U.S. House of Representatives
Chairman Neal, Ranking Member Brady, and Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is…
Blog
Three Reasons Kigali Amendment Favors China over America
Beginning in the 1970s, many policymakers became concerned that the refrigerants used in most air conditioners and refrigerators were leaking into the air and depleting the…
News Release
FDA, Activists Put Smokers’ Lives at Risk with Misleading Claims about E-Cigarettes
The FDA is working on a plan to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes from convenience stores nationwide -- which is precisely the sort of…
Study
Anti-E-Cigarette Puritans Put Lives at Risk
Big tobacco companies were publicly pilloried when they were found to have misled the public about the dangers of their products. To this day, that…
The Hill
Congressional Review Act Rises Again!
The Hill cited Vice President for Policy and a Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on regulatory dark matter. This problem increases considerably when you…
Breitbart
Energy, Climate Change Experts Weigh in on ‘Dangerous’ Green New Deal: ‘We Will No Longer Be America’
Breitbart cited Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy Myron Ebell on the Green New Deal. “The Green New Deal is really…
Politico
Takeaways from the DOJ’s Merger Defeat
Politico cited Associate Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on the AT&T and Time Warner merger. The Justice Department’s headline-grabbing…
The Cato Institute
Bloomberg Unwittingly Vindicates Stigler
The Cato Institute cited Vice President for Policy and a Senior Fellow Wayne Crews on the Trump administration and regulatory reform. Thankfully, we…
Blog
What Do Economists Think about the Minimum Wage?
The playwright George Bernard Shaw once said that if you laid all the world’s economists end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. President…
Blog
House Democrats Take on Department of Energy over Appliance Efficiency Standards
The Department of Energy (DOE) has been regulating the energy efficiency of home appliances since 1987, ostensibly for the benefit of consumers, but the Obama-era…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Michael Cohen hearing shenanigans gobbled up the headlines, but actual substantive news happened regarding talks with China and North Korea—in particular, a planned tariff…
Blog
EPA Finally Initiates Air Quality Assessment of Renewable Fuel Standard
The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it is taking comment on the air quality impacts of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and will complete a study…
Blog
McCarthy Picks Republicans for Select Committee on Climate Crisis
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on February 28th announced the names of the Republicans he has chosen to serve on the Select Committee on the Climate…
News Release
FDA Ban on Sale of Flavored E-Cigarettes Bad for Public Health
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has reportedly given the White House his plan for stopping the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in convenience stores…
Blog
Trade, Job Losses, and Comparable Wages
One of the frequent objections posted by those who are concerned about free trade is that it leads to job losses. This is true. However,…
Citation
Delaying Further China Tariffs “Nice” but Fails to Undo Harm “Being Done Right Now”
In a notice put out this morning, the Trump Administration announced a delay in tariffs against China “until further notice.”…
Blog
VIDEO: Gig Economy Is Here to Stay
Our friends at the Federalist Society are back with a new video on the gig economy, “Here to Stay: The Modern World of Hospitality,” examining…
Real Clear Policy
The Flawed EPA Program that Needs to be Cut From the Federal Budget
As the Trump administration and Congress look for items to trim from the federal budget, they should paint a target on the Integrated Risk Information…
News Release
CEI’s Myron Ebell Applauds Confirmation of EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler
Today, the Senate voted to confirm Andrew Wheeler as EPA Administrator.
Blog
Labor Officials Dragging Feet on Union Financial Transparency
The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), a division within the Department of Labor (DOL), has been generally inactive during the Trump administration, an unfortunate reality…
Blog
Administration Looks to Make Household-Level Imports More Expensive
One of the consistent problems with the Trump administration’s trade policy is an obsession with reciprocity—if goods aren’t treated exactly the same way as imports…
The Washington Journal
VIDEO: Myron Ebell Discusses the Green New Deal on the Washington Journal
Competitive Enterprise Institute Director of the Center for Energy and Environment Myron Ebell joined the Washington Journal to discuss the "Green New Deal" with Greenpeace…
Products
Coalition for Future Mobility Letter on Federal AV legislation
Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader Schumer: Roughly two years ago, the Coalition for Future Mobility – a group…
Comment
Letter for the Record to the Senate Finance Committee on Senate Bill 252
Dear Chair Kelley and distinguished members of the Senate Finance Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to supplement the record of your hearing on Senate…
Blog
Pension Obligation Bonds No Panacea for State Budget Liabilities
Illinois has a new governor and Chicago will soon have a new mayor—and the same old underfunded public pensions. Inheriting a predecessor’s debts is never…
Blog
Warren Buffett Warns about Unfunded Public Pension Liabilities—Again
Would you invest in a state with large unfunded pension liabilities? Warren Buffett likely wouldn’t. In a long interview with CNBC this week, the famed…
Trucks.com
Real-World Value of Truck Platooning Questioned as Support Wanes
Trucks.com cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on automated platooning. The Competitive Enterprise Institute shows 17 states have approved platooning in some form, according…
Vaping Post
The Department of Health and Human Services and Vaping: A tale of Bootleggers and Baptists
Vaping Post cited Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on e-cigarettes. To further understand the concepts that I’m presenting, we need to consider some basic…
The Washington Examiner
Pressure to Get Self-Driving Cars on the Road
The Washington Examiner cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on the AV START Act. Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was…
The Daily Signal
VIDEO: Hope for an Overregulated Nation
The Daily Signal
VIDEO: Hope for an Overregulated Nation
Senior Fellow Wayne Crews joined “The Bill Walton Show” on the Daily Signal to explain how to return the U.S. to the path of greater…
The Washington Examiner
CEI Calls on EPA to Scrap Model Used in Regulations
The Washington Examiner cited CEI’s paper by Senior Logomasini on the EPA’s IRIS program. The libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute is calling on the…
Blog
Virginia Legislature Restricts Privately-Funded State Legal Staff
As revealed in detail in “Law Enforcement for Rent: How Special Interests Fund Climate Policy through State Attorneys General,” former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg…
The Jersey Journal
Plastic Bags in Hoboken are a No-No Starting Tuesday
The Jersey Journal cited Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini on plastic bag bans: The bans are less popular with Angela Logomasini, a senior fellow…
Comment
Myron Ebell Testimony on the Green New Deal for Congressional Western Caucus Policy Forum
Chairman Gosar and Members of the House Western Caucus, Thank you for inviting me to speak today at this forum on the Green New Deal. …
News Release
Court Rejects Antitrust Lawsuit Against AT&T/TimeWarner Deal: CEI Comment
Today, a federal court rejected an antitrust challenge to a merger deal between AT&T and TimeWarner. CEI technology policy expert Jessica Melugin praised the ruling…
Trucks.com
Truck-Only State Tolls Roil Industry That Favors Fuel-Tax Hike
Trucks.com cites CEI Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on alternatives to fuel tax increases: A mileage-based user fee and unlimited private activity bonds for…
Blog
How Much Will the Green New Deal Cost Your Family?
The American Action Forum (AAF) yesterday posted a preliminary analysis of the scope, implications, and costs of the Green New Deal (GND). I can’t wait…
Blog
Fintech and the Future of Consumer Finance
Everyone understands the need for access to credit. No matter how well we budget, we occasionally come up short due to an unexpected circumstance or expense—a…
Blog
Costs of Regulatory Takings and Property Value Destruction
Takings issues noted here are just the beginning of government neglect of the institution of private property, notable especially in emergent sectors. But the disdain…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The federal government was on a four-day work week in honor of George Washington’s birthday, but agencies still found time to issue regulations ranging from…
Blog
White House to Create President’s Commission on National Climate Security
The Washington Post obtained leaked Trump administration documents this week that reveal that the White House is preparing an executive order to create a President’s…
Blog
More New England Natural Gas Pipelines Needed, But Unlikely
New England continues to struggle with barely-adequate electric reliability, especially during the region’s winter cold spells. This is due in large part to the retirements of…
Blog
Say No to Trump’s Proposed Auto Tariffs
President Trump is mulling a tariff on automobiles. Joining a long list of people urging him against it is the Japanese auto industry. That opposition…
Blog
VIDEO: You’ve Come a Long Way, Regulatory Reform
Our friends at the American Enterprise Institute are doing a great job leveraging their many decades of experience in Washington, D.C. They've been raiding their…
Blog
Confusing Poll Clouds Public Perception of Trump Emergency Declaration
President Trump’s national emergency declaration is constitutional, as I explained in a recent op-ed in the Washington Examiner. That’s an important fact, because we trust…
Blog
Real-World Effects of Pension Debt
Debates over public pension finance often have an abstract quality, taking place outside most people’s immediate concerns. Yet, the real-world effects can be quite tangible.
The Washington Examiner
Why Trump’s Border Wall National Emergency is Constitutional
Democratic congressional leaders claim President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to spend additional money on a border wall is unlawful, with some even saying this maneuver looks more like…
News Release
CEI Applauds Reports Trump Administration Will End CAFE Negotiations with California
According to reports, the Trump Administration is set to announce it is ending negotiations with the California Air Resources Board over its proposed rule to relax…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Urging Scientific Transparency
Blog
Regulatory Costs and the Loss of Liberty
From classical liberal and individual rights perspectives, the administrative state is an affront to liberty almost by definition.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Congress and President Trump passed a spending bill to avoid another shutdown, but President Trump’s national emergency declaration over a non-emergency provides a troubling precedent…
Blog
California’s Gov. Newsom Slams Brakes on California Bullet Train
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on February 12th unexpectedly slammed the brakes on the state’s high-speed rail project. The project “as currently planned, would cost too…
Blog
Sen. McConnell Calls for Senate Vote on Green New Deal, Markey Calls ‘Sabotage’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on February 12th that he planned to schedule a vote on the Green New Deal Resolution in the near future using Rule…
Blog
House Republican Committee Leaders Begin Caving on Climate Science and Policies
Reps. Greg Walden (R-OR) and Frank Lucas (R-OK), the ranking Republican members of the two committees with the most jurisdiction over climate science and energy-rationing…
Blog
SEC Should Stop Coercing Brokers to Buy Data From Exchanges
There are many types of burdensome government mandates, but of all the Ten Thousand Commandments, regulations that coerce the purchase of a particular product or…
Blog
Tim Carney on ‘Alienated America’
Our old friend (and former CEI Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow) Tim Carney has a new book out, “Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others…
The Wall Street Journal
EPA’s Top Leaders Stymied Research Unit, Report Finds
The Wall Street Journal cited CEI’s report on the EPA’s IRIS program: The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative advocacy group, issued a report…
Inside Sources
The Trump Administration Just Relaxed Payday Lending Rules. Is That Good or Bad for Borrowers?
Inside Sources cited Policy Analyst Daniel Press on the CFPB and payday loans: When drafting the original payday lending rule, the CFPB believed…
Greenwire
Group Calls for Elimination of Chemical-Testing Program
Greenwire cited CEI’s report on the EPA IRIS program: EPA’s program for toxic chemical risk assessments should be dissolved and its responsibilities split…
The Washington Examiner
On Trade, Conservatives Need to Stick to the Knitting
Successful companies tend to “stick to the knitting,” focusing on things they are good at, note Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in their seminal book…
Blog
Appalachian Trail Should Not Block New Energy Development
The Department of Justice is pushing back against a federal court decision that could jeopardize the future availability and affordability of natural gas across America’s…
Blog
Carbon Capture and Storage Not ‘Best System’ to Reduce Emissions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency yesterday held an all-day “listening session” at its Washington, D.C. headquarters on its proposal to revise the Obama administration’s new…
The Los Angeles Times
CON: Green New Deal Will be All Pain and No Gain
The Green New Deal sounds really good. But as the details start to come out, it looks worse and worse. In fact, the costs would…
Blog
Economics of Green New Deal: More Red Than Green
My colleagues have written elsewhere about the energy and environmental components of the “Green New Deal” proposals that have been enthusiastically agreed to by most…
Blog
Unions Defend Job-Killing Regulation
A holdover Obama regulation is costing businesses billions of dollars and workers millions of job opportunities. A survey conducted by the International Franchise Association found…
News Release
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, ACLU of DC, Washington Post, Fox News Network, Others File Support for CEI Rehearing Motion in Michael Mann Defamation Case
In a letter filed with the D.C. Court of Appeals today, 24 media organizations, including the Washington Post, Tribune Publishing Company, TIME Magazine, ACLU of…
Crowdfund Insider
The House Financial Services Committee: What Should Fintech Expect from Chair Maxine Waters?
Crowdfund Insider cited Senior Fellow John Berlau on his predictions for Representative Waters: John Berlau, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, recently …
The Daily Caller
Two Cases The Supreme Court Might Use To Crush Unions
The Daily Caller cited CEI’s amicus brief in support of Dr. Uradnik: Amicus briefs have been filed in support of Dr. Uradnik. For…
Fox News
Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Wealth Tax’ Faces Constitutional Questions
Fox News cited Attorney Devin Watkins on a proposed wealth tax: The tiny number of rich people in State B would have to…
The Washington Post
CFPB Wants to Weaken Rules for Payday Loans
The Washington Post cited Policy Analyst Daniel Press on payday loans and the CFPB: “The newly proposed payday loan rule is…
Blog
Setting the Record Straight on IRIS Reform Progress
The Competitive Enterprise Institute published my paper this week on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). This is a research program that…
Blog
Unmeasured Meta-Costs of the Administrative State
In my recent Forbes column “Rule of Flaw and the Costs of Coercion: Charting Undisclosed Burdens of the Administrative State,” I discuss some of the…