OpenMarket: Risk and Consumer Freedom

Real-life road testing is the best way to continue improving the performance of automated driving systems, thanks in part to the gathering of real-time road data. Throughout that process, engineers will have the time and information to write technical standards to better inform any future regulatory changes. But cutting off or greatly curtailing automated vehicle road testing would only forestall the radical safety improvements that can help end much of the death and destruction that occur on America’s roadways due to driver error.

The idea of genome editing is no longer a theoretical concept studied only within the confines of labs and scientific research institutions. In August 2017, scientists reportedly managed to successfully use the genome editing technique to correct a disease-causing mutation in viable human embryos. This is just one of the many applications of the technique scientists want to use to alter, and ultimately prevent, damaging mutations in plants, animals, and humans.

Thirty-five years ago dishwashers cleaned dishes in about an hour. Sadly, today there are no dishwashers that do so due to federal government regulations. This isn’t progress, it is the failure of government to allow consumer choice. The Competitive Enterprise Institute this week petitioned the Department of Energy to fix the problem.

When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule regulating payday loans in October last year, I wrote that this could be the end of the road for millions of desperate customers who rely on these loans to get from paycheck-to-paycheck. It's now March 2018, and there aren’t many options left for these marginal consumers.

Every March, millions of Americans join friends, relatives, and coworkers in “March Madness” betting pools, centered on the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Men’s Basketball Tournament. Some may wager hundreds of dollars or as little as five bucks. The one thing they all have in common is they will be running afoul of an obscure federal law that for 25 years has prohibited states from legalizing sports gambling.

For the last 25 years, the states have lost out on millions in tax revenue they could have collected from sports betting, thanks to a ban pushed by and maintained by sports leagues. The federal government made a grave error in 1992 when it when it put the interest of these private profit-earning businesses over those of the states and voters. Now that this failed federal policy is on its way out, states should not repeat the mistake.

If you have ever visited California, you have probably encountered the warning labels that appear on everything from seaweed to soft drinks, informing you that they contain “dangerous” ingredients that might cause cancer or birth defects.

A new corporate video from Burger King ostensibly supports net neutrality regulations, but actually demonstrates exactly why such rules are unnecessary.

Congress should use the Congressional Review Act to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's small dollar loan rule.

A panel of government experts gets together and decides what is healthy to eat and what isn’t. What could possibly go wrong?

Freethink Media’s new video on the history of the Food Pyramid will make for surprising viewing for anyone who assumes official health and nutrition advice should be taken at face value. Starting in the late 1980s, the office of the U.S. Surgeon General took the lead in waging the federal government’s war on dietary fat. This led to years of recommendations and public information campaigns that, among...