Blog
The rules Congress never gets to see
The 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA) has been used to overturn only a few dozen federal regulatory directives since its enactment, most during the…
Blog
Jimmy Kimmel and the FCC: No time for equal time
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “equal time” rule aims to foster competing voices and ensure opportunities for debate. It was created in an era…
Blog
Pre-approved plans can speed up housing without compromising health and safety
Housing affordability has renewed interest in removing unnecessary barriers to homebuilding. While much of the discussion has centered on land use and zoning regulations…
Blog
The pointless trade war against Canada
Starting a trade war with Canada is one of the strangest decisions of Donald Trump’s presidency. Over at the Daily Wire, I try to…
Blog
The week in regulations: Waters of the United States and ASCII formatting
The country reflected on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. President Trump promised a $5,000 check to every American adult…
Blog
9/11 and presidential power
America is a complicated country, founded on a simple idea: no kings. Even so, nearly every president since at least John Adams has grown…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The search for critical minerals with Seaver Wang
In this week’s episode we cover the latest employment data, a new award for academic courage, free speech versus native…
Blog
Misalignment by design: How AI could become the operating system of the administrative state (Part 2)
Read Part 1 here. The AI deregulatory alternative: Liberalize networks and what flows through them This is where the…
Blog
Misalignment by design: How AI could become the operating system of the administrative state (Part 1)
The AI debate asks how the federal government should regulate commercial artificial intelligence and “big tech,” with little recognition or appreciation that the government…
Blog
Out, damned spot! Precautionary regulation could threaten the future of wearable AI
California may become the first state to take major statutory action to regulate wearable recording devices like smart glasses. Senate Bill 1130 has…
Blog
The week in regulations: Honey taxes and airline delays
August’s job numbers were better than expected. President Trump threatened to cut off trade to all nations that export more to America than they…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Maximum New York with Daniel Golliher
In this week’s episode we cover climate collusion between California and Quebec, how luxurious college campuses are breeding socialists, and government…
Blog
The ‘no hire, no fire’ era is starting to crack
Families gathering around the barbeque next Monday to celebrate the national day off from work will probably be grilling more hot dogs and cheap…
Blog
The never-ending ferry tale: Why Washington shouldn’t subsidize ferries
The Trump administration recently announced $664.8 million in federal grants for ferry infrastructure, including $28.2 million for North Carolina’s Cherry Branch Ferry Terminal.
Blog
The regulatory costs we still aren’t counting
Several years ago, I assembled a “Costberg” working paper surveying the largely impenetrable and undisclosed costs of regulation. The project grew out of…
Blog
The week in regulations: Voting by mail and $100,000 visas
The number of new final regulations in 2026 topped the 2,000 mark. President Trump escalated his trade war against Canada and issued an executive…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The future of financial regulation with Thomas Hoenig
In this week’s episode we cover the status of occupational licensing in the 50 states, the coming crack-up over entitlement spending,…
Blog
Sports dominate prediction markets, but don’t bet on that being the whole story
Less than two years ago, the biggest controversy surrounding prediction markets was their enabling of speculation on elections. Then in early 2025, with…
Blog
HHS cutting Head Start red tape shows the cost of regulatory micromanagement
Individual regulations are often defended as necessary on their own terms. But as CEI Senior Fellow Wayne Crews’ Ten Thousand Commandments documents, the…
Blog
It’s not the (government’s) thought that counts
Good intentions are not enough to create an effective regulation. An executive agency, Congress, or the White House can have the best intentions in…
Blog
Let’s end ‘reputational risk’ debanking once and for all
Although this legislative session is near its end, Congress still has the opportunity to take an important step to ensure that financial regulation is…
Blog
The week in regulations: Roadless areas and squid quotas
The national debt topped $40 trillion. Vice President JD Vance argued for ending the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. The Treasury Department…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Housing abundance and affordability with Luca Gattoni-Celli
In this week’s episode we cover J.D. Vance and the strength of the US dollar, how to track extreme weather events,…
Blog
Are Trump’s drone tariffs flying blind?
President Trump’s new Section 232 tariffs on drones and drone components are being justified as responses to national security vulnerabilities. In its…
Blog
Vance wants to break the dollar’s global reserve currency status: Why American consumers would pay
A recently resurfaced video of Vice President J.D. Vance has brought renewed attention to his argument that the US dollar’s status as the…
Blog
Why a supersonic cross-country flight could be closer than you think
What if a cross-country flight took less time than your favorite movie? That future may be closer than it sounds. The Federal Aviation Administration…
Blog
The Regulatory Plan needs a regulatory plan
As the Trump administration’s early emphasis on the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has tapered off, so too has its emphasis…
Blog
Federal court strikes down another bad appliance regulation – this time for stoves
Last June, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court decision upholding a bad Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency regulation targeting residential furnaces and sent…
Blog
Third-party reviewers expand permitting capacity without expanding government
Housing permitting reform has become one of the few housing policies to attract support across the political spectrum. States as politically diverse as…
Blog
The week in regulations: Fresh produce guidance and naval weapon storage
Inflation remained above target for a 64th consecutive month. President Trump signed an executive order to revise vaccine recommendations. Agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
One lesson protectionists forgot: Trade interventions backfire
It’s not just tariffs that backfire in trade policy. The government has a long history of similar failures. Between 1934 and 1941, the Treasury…
Blog
What Trump’s vaccine executive order actually does
Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal health agencies to revise childhood vaccine recommendations, reducing the number of vaccines recommended for…
Blog
The trucker shortage debate: Government recruiting more truckers won’t solve trucking challenges
When I wrote my recent piece on why Trump’s Freedom Haulers initiative won’t fix the issues facing the trucking industry that Trump exacerbated…
Blog
The week in regulations: Professional fireworks and farmer training
The 2026 Federal Register topped 50,000 pages and is on track to exceed 85,000 pages for the year. The economy lost 23,000 jobs, yet…
Blog
Section 338-tariff uncertainty highlights the knowledge problem
Last month, the Trump administration invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to impose new 50 percent tariffs against Canada. A…
Blog
Class is in session: Are educators ready for AI?
From the early internet to modern artificial intelligence (AI), technological change causes panic. News outlets often amplify fears surrounding AI. Teachers and…
Blog
Forecasts, not puppet strings: The myth that prediction markets rig reality (Part II)
Prediction markets have become an increasingly prominent tool for forecasting elections, economic indicators, geopolitical developments, and other uncertain events. Their growing popularity has also…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The Independence Index with Marc Wheat
In this week’s episode we cover the effect of tariffs on car prices, trends in electricity supply and demand, and the…
Blog
Revenue over reason: A case for home distilling
Want to distill spirits at home? Congress says you can’t. This ban from the Reconstruction era was not instated for health or…
Blog
FSC v. Paxton after one year: Age verification moves down the stack
This past June marked the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s FSC v. Paxton decision. The Court held that states may require age…
Blog
Freedom Haulers won’t fix the truck driver shortage that Trump helped worsen
With more than two million truck driving jobs and a growing demand to replace departing workers, the industry requires a steady supply of…
Blog
Protectionism in North America? Not again
Well before its ratification in 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was scorned by its critics as a dangerous, unfair deal. CEI,…
Blog
The epistemological mismatch of KOSA’s constructive knowledge standard
The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a markup on Wednesday for several online child safety bills, including the Kids Online Safety Act (…
Blog
The week in regulations: Peach diversion programs and nuclear packages
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates the same, and an increase may be on the way. Economic growth remained below average, and inflation remained…
Blog
Trump administration decision highlights disastrous Part D redesign
The Trump administration recently announced the end of a demonstration project that was pulled together by the Biden administration as the Inflation Reduction…
Blog
Fauci’s lasting legacy will be the damage he did to science and government
Anthony Fauci isn’t faring well in the court of public opinion. His recently divulged “diary” and subsequent July 29 appearance before the Senate Homeland…
Blog
When driverless vehicles are attacked, look for the union label
Self-driving cars are coming to major cities, and one group in particular is not happy about this: unions. An effort to bring self-driving vehicles…
Blog
The self-defeating trade policy affecting memory chips
Affordability is a major concern for many Americans. Whether you’re checking out at the grocery store, filling up at the gas station, or paying…
Blog
The AI Jobs apocalypse gets postponed, as CEI predicted
The prophesies of doom that artificial intelligence would destroy jobs have been put on hold recently. Businesses, including the ones that use AI technology,…
Blog
Forecasts, not puppet strings: The myth that prediction markets rig reality (Part I)
Prediction markets have become an increasingly prominent tool for forecasting elections, economic indicators, geopolitical events, and other uncertain outcomes. As their popularity has grown,…