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The week in regulations: Music royalties and avocado maturity
The Iran war continued to raise oil prices. The Trump administration took steps to raise tariffs under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, but…
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Good and bad trade news: Jones Act suspension, but more tariffs on the way
Two conflicting bits of trade news came out yesterday. The good news is that the Trump administration is considering temporarily suspending the Jones Act,…
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The week in regulations: Shellfish inclusion and paper manifest sunsets
The labor force shrank by 92,000 jobs in January. Oil prices spiked. Twenty-two state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s Section 122 tariffs.
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The week in regulations: Fusion machines and suspicious health care
President Trump launched a preemptive war with Iran, leading many to question the true worth of the FIFA Peace Prize. The 2026 Federal Register topped…
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The week in regulations: Grandfathered driver vision and socializing dogs
The Supreme Court declared President Trump’s IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional. The White House responded by enacting a 15 percent global tariff under a different statute. The…
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The week in regulations: Beet food coloring and crab housekeeping
Culture warriors got upset over the Super Bowl halftime show. A mini-shutdown over ICE funding delayed some labor market indicators. Agencies issued new regulations ranging…
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The week in regulations: Reimagining education and underground mines
Kevin Warsh is President Trump’s nominee for the next Federal Reserve chairman. The Fed held interest rates steady at its most recent FOMC…
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The week in regulations: Homework gaps and cannabimimetic agents
At Davos, President Trump withdrew his threats to invade Greenland and tariff European countries. The Supreme Court appeared skeptical about his attempt to fire Lisa…
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The week in regulations: Neck floats and glazed bus portals
President Trump opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He also proposed capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent, effective January…
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The week in regulations: Taconite and label shapes
President Trump deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and embarked on a nation-building project. ICE agents killed an American citizen in Minnesota. Agencies issued new regulations…
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Politicians need to think beyond stage one on credit card price controls
President Trump, in a Friday news dump on social media, proposed price controls on credit card interest rates. He wants to cap annual rates…
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New CEI study: Zero-based regulations
A new CEI study by Alex Adams looks at a regulatory reform approach that succeeded in Idaho: zero-based regulation. The idea is similar to…
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The week in regulations: 2025 year-end special
Happy New Year, everyone. The final numbers for 2025’s regulations are in. The first half of this post summarizes those numbers and compares them with…
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Best books of 2025: Johan Norberg’s Peak Human
Johan Norberg’s latest book, Peak Human, is a history of golden ages. After starting in Ancient Greece and then Rome, Norberg tours the Abbasid…
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The week in regulations: Neck floats and stablecoins
Unemployment went slightly up, and inflation went slightly down. President Trump gave a primetime speech, and earlier in the week commented on Rob Reiner and…
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Time to end the Christmas tree tax
Fun holiday fact: the federal government has a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. It works a bit like a trade association does in the private…
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The week in regulations: Fuel casks and water beads
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates. President Trump proposed $12 billion in giveaways to farmers harmed by his tariffs. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from…
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The week in regulations: Cable television rates and estate sales
President Trump announced an easing of vehicle fuel economy standards. Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. and HBO. The Defense Secretary is in…
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The week in regulations: From postal possession to foreign atomic energy
It was a four-day week due to Thanksgiving. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from postage pricing to non-endangered woodpeckers. On to the data: Agencies issued…
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The week in regulations: Airport fees and pesticide fragrances
September’s jobs report came out after a shutdown-related delay. The FTC lost its antitrust case against Meta. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from postage pricing…
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Shutdown lesson: Depend less on DC
The record-length shutdown showed how dependent many Americans are on Washington. This is one of the biggest flaws in the ongoing nationalization of politics. In…
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The week in regulations, the final shutdown edition: Manifest mailing and broken trash incinerators
The federal shutdown is over. Since the Federal Register has a few days’ lag time for publishing agency documents, it will likely take until this…
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Swiss trade deal could be a good start towards mutual recognition
Switzerland’s government announced today that it reached an agreement on a trade framework with the United States. America’s Liberation Day tariff rate on Swiss…
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The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Medicare payments and arms trafficking.
The Supreme Court held oral hearings for the V.O.S. Spirits tariff case. Former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away. Democrats had a very good election…
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The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Student loans and foreigners’ biometric data
President Trump announced a trade deal with China. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates. The continued federal shutdown meant another slow week in the Federal…
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Rare earths and China: Choose deregulation, not price controls
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to implement price controls on unspecified goods if China continues to restrict rare earth mineral exports. Over at the…
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The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Visa fees and regional haze
President Trump demanded that the Justice Department pay him $230 million. He also cut off all trade negotiations with Canada because of a tv commercial…
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The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Mackerel and helicopters
The continuing shutdown made for another slow week in the Federal Register. The four-day week’s total of five proposed regulations, six proposed regulations, and 131…
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A Nobel for human progress
This year’s economics Nobel Prize went to three students of the two most important questions in economics: Why have living standards in rich countries improved…
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The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Pot gear and hot air fuel
Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize. The partial federal shutdown meant there were no proposed regulations and five new regulations…