OpenMarket

On June 29, the Supreme Court ruled the structure of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion, arguing that “the structure of the CFPB violates the separation of powers,” but noting that “the CFPB Director’s removal protection is severable from the other statuary provisions bearing on the CFPB’s authority.” In non-legalese, this essentially means that the agency may continue to exist so long as the CFPB director is removable by the president at will.

The Labor Department’s announcement Thursday that the unemployment rate fell to 11.1 percent after the economy added 4.8 million jobs in July proves the previous month’s decline was no fluke and that the best way to recover economically from the COVID-19 outbreak is to simply let businesses reopen. Unemployment remains far too high, but it is at least edging closer to normal from before the outbreak.

COVID-19 persists into the time of year when most Americans rely on air conditioning, so many are asking whether cranking up the cold air helps or hurts in the fight against spreading the virus. The answer is that air conditioning can provide substantial protection from coronavirus, but we need to make sure that the federal government’s pursuit of energy efficiency and climate change policy is not an impediment.

Three states and three major cities hiked up their minimum wages Wednesday, resisting calls by the business community to hold off until the COVID-19 crisis is under control. Given that most business are going to have radically rethink how they do business, they’ll need more flexibility on how they restructure. A high minimum wage does the exact opposite.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) comes into effect today. USMCA’s policy changes are modest, and its economic impact will be small. But it sets a negative precedent for future trade agreements that could have far larger long-term impacts. Most of its changes also attempt to manage trade, rather than free it.

Today the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement goes into effect. Despite its many flaws, it contains a beneficial provision related to the tech sector. The language of Article 19.17 of the USMCA is similar that of Section 230, the U.S. law governing intermediary liability for web services that has allowed the U.S. tech sector to grow into the dominant world leader we know it as today.

America’s current surface transportation authorization, the FAST Act, expires at the end of September. Rather than reauthorizing it, however, House Democrats have introduced the INVEST in America Act (H.R. 2). While this bill stands no chance of becoming law, it exemplifies several problems with the current approach to lawmaking from the House.

The administration released the Spring 2020 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. Its purpose is to lay out regulatory priorities of the federal bureaucracy and report on recently completed actions.Under Executive Order 13771, the administration directed agencies to eliminate at least two regulations for every significant one added, and keep net new costs at zero.

Those who have followed CEI over the years know that one of our main grievances is “Regulation Without Representation.” The phrase—an apt description of laws effectively made by unelected regulatory agencies instead of the people’s representatives in Congress—also connotes the battle that George Washington and other American patriots fought against taxation without representation.

Consumer spending rose 8.2 percent in May, a new record that gives hope for a quicker economic recovery. On the other hand, new coronavirus cases in the last week set their own record. Meanwhile, regulatory agencies issued new regulations ranging from dry pea insurance to hammerhead shark management.