OpenMarket

Since a Republican majority was installed at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), labor unions and Democrats in Congress have lobbed baseless conflict of interest claims at members of the Board. This is a transparent effort to block the NLRB from issuing decisions that overturn Obama-era policies.

Last week was a bad one for farmers. Two legal decisions were released that promise to undermine access to valuable agrochemicals that farmers need to produce a safe and affordable food supply. Both of these decisions came about thanks to a series of lies, misinformation, and junk science peddled by environmental activists and trial lawyers.

In our new paper, “Traders of the Lost Ark,” my Competitive Enterprise Institute colleagues and I attempt to articulate a strong moral and economic case for free trade. Free trade has long been one of CEI’s core issues, and we felt it necessary to restate the case given current policy disputes. Those disputes, we believe, have lost sight of what trade is and why we engage in it, and in so doing will lead to the infringement of liberty and great economic harm.

Big government is crushing small business owners around the nation, punishing decades of hard work and job creation. Too few people speak up as the burdens of the regulatory and nanny states slam down upon them, but every now and then I hear from someone in trouble. 

Every Medicaid dollar is statutorily required to directly fund care for the elderly or disabled. This requirement is known as the “direct payment requirement.” Congress, in enacting the Social Security Act, which created the Medicaid program, created narrow exceptions to this condition including sending Medicaid payments to governmental agencies or pursuant to an order of a court. 

The number of new final regulations for the year passed the 2,000 mark, with new rules ranging from cell walls to harpoon fishing.

A new study by climate scientists Judith Curry and Nic Lewis, published in the August 2018 edition of Journal of Climate, estimates median values for equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) and transient climate response (TRC) of 1.5°C and 1.2°C, respectively.

The Wall Street Journal reported late last Friday that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulators have “decided against trying to penalize the energy giant over its disclosures and how it accounted for oil and gas assets.” For years, climate campaigners have alleged that ExxonMobil defrauds shareholders by failing to take into account the financial risks of potential future climate policies that put a price on carbon.

Energy and Environment News reported Wednesday that the Trump Department of Energy (DOE) is pushing back against two last-minute Obama regulations that would expand the applicability of the de facto ban on incandescent light bulbs. At issue are a number of specialty bulbs that the last administration wanted to add to the ban. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) argues that the Obama DOE went beyond its statutory authority and that doing so would harm both consumers and manufacturers.

In the last decade there has been a kind of separation of powers renaissance in the courts. Previously, separation-of-powers cases were rare and usually occurred when Congress did something very unusual (like give itself veto powers). But in the last eight years, almost every term of the U.S. Supreme Court has had at least one, and sometimes several, separation of powers cases.