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Pope Francis Cools It on Climate Change Rhetoric
Pope Francis in his speeches at the White House on Wednesday morning and to a joint session of Congress on Thursday morning toned down his…
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New CEI Paper: The Case for Closing OPIC
OPIC is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. It is a federal agency that offers financing for international projects by U.S. companies. Intended mainly as an…
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Transparency in Card Fees: Where Does the Argument Stop?
There are three ways banks that issue credit and debit cards can gain revenue from them: interest rates (in the case of credit cards) charged…
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You Won’t Believe All the Ways Federal Agencies Issue Rules
Recently, I’d pointed out that we don’t really know how many federal agencies there are. That implies we don’t know how many rules and regulations…
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Has Plain Packaging Reduced Tobacco Consumption?
In 2012, the Australian government instituted a plan tobacco packing requirement—that is, a generic package that removes all stylistic aspects of packaging: colors, imagery, corporate…
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Fantasy Sports Betting Isn’t a Federal Crime, as No Sports Betting Should Be
If you watched football during the open weekend of the NFL season, you probably saw an advertisement for DraftKings or FanDuel. Part of the rapidly…
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A Message from CEI Chairman Todd Zywicki
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NLRB Joint Employer Decision Creates Barrier to Job Creation
In a 2010 speech, President Obama said small business “is as American as apple pie. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.” He went on…
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Proposed Food Label Change Could Make Us Fatter and Sicker
There’s a new push to finalize the Food and Drug Administration’s new guidelines for nutritional panels. The changes, which include listing “added sugars” and updating…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Agencies last week proposed 51 new regulations, and finalized 77 other rules covering everything from aluminum to Peruvian citrus. On to the data: Last week,…
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Free Market Perspective on Pope Francis’s Forthcoming Speech to Congress
On Thursday of next week, Pope Francis will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. He will be the first Pope in history to…
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Decoupling Belied
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Wind & Solar Industries: They’re Mature, and They Can’t Cut It as Adults
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GE’s Ex-Im Scare Story Further Debunked
Earlier this week, I wrote that GE is moving 500 jobs overseas as a direct result of the Export-Import Bank’s expiration. A correction is in…
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Executive Wisdom from Down Under
Yesterday the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted Andrew Mackenzie of Australian natural resources giant BHP Billiton here in D.C. as part of their CEO Leadership…
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Time to Throw out Michelle Obama’s Lunch Program?
As I wrote in The Hill today, Congress this month will decide whether or not to continue funding Michelle Obama’s favorite Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The goal…
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GE’s Outsized Reaction to Ex-Im Expiration
General Electric recently announced it would not move its headquarters to Cincinnati. The reason for this earth-shattering news is that some members of Ohio’s congressional…
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Missouri Can Make History with Right to Work Override Vote
Today, the Missouri legislature is scheduled to vote on overriding Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of right to work. If Republicans can muster enough votes—several…
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Drinkers Give More than They Take
Public health advocates love to make the case that “sinners,” those folks who drink, smoke, or eat “unhealthy” foods, cost society money and that gives…
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Rebuilding Liberty with Charles Murray
My colleague Fred Smith has a new review up, this time of Charles Murray’s most recent book By the People: Rebuilding Liberty without Permission. Murray argues that…
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Drone Policy Update: California Bill Vetoed, New Model Aircraft Guidance, and More
CALIFORNIA UAS BILL VETOED: On September 9, California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 142 that would have imposed trespass liability on unmanned aircraft system (UAS)…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a short work week due to the Labor Day holiday, but agencies still found the time to finalize new regulations covering everything from…
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Southern Ocean Carbon Sink Stronger than Previously Thought
Two new studies, one published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), the other in Science, find that the Southern Ocean carbon sink has become stronger rather than…
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California’s Path to Climate Nirvana Hits Some Snags
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Rep. Paul Gosar Will File Articles of Impeachment Against EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy
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Australian Reserve Bank Gets the Economics Wrong on Interchange Fees
A new report commissioned by the International Alliance for Electronic Payments, of which CEI is a member, finds that the Reserve Bank of Australia…
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New York City’s Salt Warning: Useless and Potentially Harmful
You may have heard on the news that New York City is, once again, on the cutting edge of interfering with consumers and businesses. This time…
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A First Look at Markets without Limits
Georgetown University professors Jason Brennan and Pete Jaworski (left) have a new book out with a fascinating premise: anything that it is morally permissible…
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NLRB’s BFI Decision Deserves Overturning
Who’s the boss? That’s not often a difficult question to answer. But thanks to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), it’s no longer so easy.
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Education Department Harms Innocent Colleges and Students through Illegal Title IX Mandates
The Education Department, where I used to work, is becoming more and more extreme in how it interprets and applies federal law. Sometimes this comes…
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Cato, CEI File Amicus Brief to Protect Donor Confidentiality and Freedom of Association
The Cato Institute and CEI recently filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, urging it to stop California Attorney General Kamala Harris from making intrusive…
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Ten Major Energy Companies Support Paris Accord, But 18 Don’t
CDP—formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project—this week announced in a press release that: “Disclosures from thousands of the world’s largest listed companies reveal…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
A new International Trade Commission regulation gives a useful reminder of the holy trinity of price regulation: if a company charges a higher price than its…
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UN Climate Negotiators Make Slow Progress in Bonn
Another week of UN climate negotiations ended in Bonn, Germany, on 4th September with expressions of mild optimism that progress was being made from negotiators…
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President Obama Uses Alaska as a Backdrop for Climate Agenda
President Barack Obama followed up his disgraceful speech in Las Vegas last week with an insulting tour of Alaska, which included another disgraceful speech,…
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Workers Deserve Labor Law Reform
Unions use Labor Day as an occasion to remind workers of their past good deeds and deploy their usual rhetoric claiming to have workers’ best…
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More Punishment for Thrifty Seniors from Federal Medicare Laws
If two couples make almost the same amount of money, should one of them be charged $2,000 more in Medicare Part B premiums? Logically, no,…
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How to Fix Regulation without Representation
Before it departed for its August recess, the House passed the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. It would require Congress…
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Court Upholds Legality of NSA’s Bulk Collection of Telephone Records
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down its much-awaited ruling in Obama v. Klayman, one of several lawsuits…
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NLRB’s Joint-Employer Ruling: Payback for Unions at Workers’ and Business’ Expense
In a radical new ruling, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) late last week threw all American franchise and contract businesses into a state of…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
As the 2015 Federal Register topped 50,000 pages, federal agencies issued new regulations for everything from bicycles to tuna. On to the data: Last week, 73 new…
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Cooler Heads Coalition News
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CEI’s Coalition Letter to Prevent New Bailouts of Fannie and Freddie
As the Dodd-Frank “financial reform” celebrated its fifth anniversary this summer, just about every financial business—as well as many nonfinancial firms—have come under its thumb.
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Did North Dakota Just Authorize Pepper-Spraying Police Drones?
The Daily Beast’s Justin Glawe has written an article about a North Dakota law aimed at limiting law enforcement use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or…
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Federal Labor Agencies Attack Workers and the Economy
Today, CEI released a report on the Obama administration’s effort to pay back its union allies by way of federal labor agencies. The National Labor Relations…
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CEI Issues Report on the Nation’s Six Worst State Attorneys General
Today, CEI issued another of its periodic “worst state attorney general” lists, in a lengthy report explaining why those attorneys general received that dubious distinction. (Previous …
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Nobody Knows How Many Federal Agencies Exist
As bureaucracy sprawls, nobody can say with complete authority exactly how many federal agencies exist. The twice-annual Unified Agenda of Federal Deregulatory and Regulatory Actions, which…
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Clean Energy Incentive Program: Why It Makes EPA’s Power Plant Rule Even More Unlawful
EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), which imposes carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rate targets and tonnage caps on state electric power sectors, is unlawful in at…
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Study “Wounds” the Carbohydrate-Insulin Theory of Obesity
Last week a very interesting and, by all accounts, very well-done study made waves among the nutritional science community. For many years, the idea that reducing…
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CEI’s Battled Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Nearly 2,000 Federal Register pages contain regulations for everything from pay ratios to apricots. On to the data: Last week, 76 new final regulations were published in…