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Smith: Ayn Rand Redux
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Regulation of the Day 68: Ironing Tables
At HPI's request, the International Trade Administration will continue to add anti-dumping duties to the price of its competitors' Chinese-made ironing tables. Sorry, consumers.
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ObamaCare Blueprint Called ‘The Worst Bill Ever’: It Drives Up Taxes, Insurance Premiums, State and Federal Deficits, and Legal Bills
The Wall Street Journal calls the House version of President Obama’s health care plan “the worst bill ever,” noting that it…
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Swine flu “survivor” speaks out on media hysteria
From a letter to the editor of the Washington Post: It is ridiculous that The Post has dedicated so much of the A section…
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LibertyWeek 67: Cash for Kids in Court
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If at First You Don’t Succeed, Change the Rules.
From attempting to manipulate the definition of “supervisor” to changing the way in which workers are organized, the above seems to be a…
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Net Neutrality Not Needed: New BitTorrent Version Throttles Itself
TorrentFreak reports that a new “network-aware” version of the BitTorrent protocol is being beta-tested. The new client, µTorrent 2.0 or µTP, will be able…
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Government Incompetence Costs Woman Her Job
Wired reports that a Maryland woman recently lost her job due to an error in the FBI’s criminal database. Eschol Amelia “Amy” Studnitz, formerly…
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Recession Over? Don’t Hold Your Breath
There is a clear political incentive for Geithner and others to make efforts to convince us that this economic slump is over. It is unfortunate…
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Lomborg Strikes Again
Some people want to cure malaria by reducing carbon emissions. Others want to cure it with mosquito nets, and better health care and sanitation. Which…
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Taxes without Borders
This month's issue of Info Tech & Telecom News contains an article by yours truly on certain states' attempts to collect sales taxes from out-of-state…
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Cap-and-Trade Global Warming Bill Is A Scam, Experts Reveal
Two EPA lawyers criticized the cap-and-trade energy bill passed by the House as a scam, noting in The Washington Post that it will be manipulated…
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Honduras Agreement Did Not Promise Return of Authoritarian Ex-President, Contrary to Earlier Press Reports
The small country of Honduras did not agree to return its authoritarian ex-president to power after all. Press reports said it did, but The…
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Flu Watch Oct. 31 – What swine flu ISN’T doing this week
It’s Halloween, and the monster at the door is swine flu. Or so we’re told. Yet again. And people respond accordingly. “I’ve never seen it…
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Greider: $1.4 Trillion Deficit Isn’t Enough!
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Under U.S. pressure, impoverished Honduras may allow authoritarian ex-president to return to power
Under U.S. pressure, Honduras’s leader has reportedly agreed to return to power its authoritarian ex-president, Manuel Zelaya, in exchange for an end to…
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CEI Weekly: CEI Testifies Against Cap and Trade
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features Iain Murray's testimony in front of the Senate against the…
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NY Guv orders state of panic over swine flu
Emulating the Obama Administration, New York Gov. David Paterson has “declared a state of emergency, saying a recent rise in swine flu cases has created…
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Halloween treat: Top ten scariest movies
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Senator seeks to cover up report showing Honduras acted legally in removing authoritarian ex-president
The Obama administration and congressional allies like Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) are seeking to silence government lawyers who point out their mistakes and misinterpretations of…
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Here’s the House health care reform bill, catering to the public’s right to know
Everything you need to know, right here. And the best part is, it’s only 1,990 pages long! Print it out and read it during…
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Washington and Wall Street: Best Kept Separate
Russ Roberts' recent Congressional testimony is superb: "I’m mad at Wall Street. But I’m a lot madder at the people who gave them the keys…
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Why did Obama declared a swine flu “emergency” with no emergency?
As I note in my Investor’s Business Daily article, swine flu cases in the last seven months, according to the CDC, equal about four…
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“Saving” Jobs Isn’t Always Good
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Obama Signs Hate-Crimes Bill Into Law; Critics Say It Circumvents Constitutional Safeguards Against Double Jeopardy
Today, President Obama signed into law a bill that will dramatically expand the federal hate crimes law, enabling prosecutors to bring federal charges against…
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Regulation of the Day 67: Oysters
A new FDA rule requires oysters harvested between April and October to be sterilized before they are eaten. An unintended consequence is that the state…
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Another Bill to Block Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality’s opponents are fighting back. Last week it was John McCain’s “Internet Freedom Act,” and yesterday, Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced…
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Reps. Maloney and Adler push true bipartisan stimulus — Sarbanes-Oxley relief
After months of talk about solutions that would rev up job growth and the economy, today the House Financial Service Committee may finally adopt a…
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My Power Company Wants to Sell Me Climate Indulgences
I pay my power bill online, so whenever I get something from Dominion Virginia Power over snail mail it catches my attention. Usually, it’s some…
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Secretary Chu’s Befuddled Economics
Revised 10/28/09 At the first Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on S. 1733, the Kerry-Boxer “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act,” Department of Energy Secretary…
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False Claim About Justice Scalia from Liberal Reporter: No, He Didn’t Say He Would Have Voted to Uphold Segregation
Liberals are busy sending each other twitters falsely claiming that Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the more conservative members of the Supreme Court, said…
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Regulation of the Day 66: Trick or Treating
Trick-or-treating is banned in Dunkard Township, PA. The government will hold a four-hour Halloween party to make up for it.
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Kerry-Boxer’s not-so-hidden fangs: Why its bite is worse than its bark
Today, on MasterResource.Org, the free-market energy blog, I examine the Kerry-Boxer bill’s not-so-hidden fangs. Like its House companion bill, Waxman-Markey, Title VII, Part A…
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“Cities are probably the greenest thing that humans do.”
Environmental guru and author of the Whole Earth Catalog Stewart Brand has a new book out in which he argues that "My fellow environmentalists have…
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Obama Administration’s Pay Caps Reward Failure and Political Connections
The federal government has no problem paying exorbitant sums of money to people who head failed government agencies like Freddie Mac. Its CEO will receive…
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New CEI Release: One Nation, Ungovernable?
Question: What do you get when you combine a $700 billion “stimulus” package, $1.1 trillion in wealth-destroying regulatory compliance costs, a mountainous non-discretionary entitlement obligation,…
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LibertyWeek 66: The War on Commerce
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Nanny State: No End in Sight?
It’s not just bottled water. It’s not just soda taxes. It’s not just fast food. There seems to be a never-ending crusade by…
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“Public Option” Is a Gimmick That Won’t Improve Healthcare
In the Washington Post, Robert J. Samuelson explains in the “Public Plan Mirage” how the so-called “public option” contained in congressional health-care reform bills…
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Sure, just what we need: yet another regulatory government agency
Here’s my letter published in the Oct. 25th edition of the Boston Globe responding to an editorial…
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Competition in Wireless Communication: Android Edition
The New York Times reports that several cell phone manufacturers are turning to Google’s free operating system, Android, to run on their upcoming smartphone…
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Obama’s swine flu “emergency” declaration
It’s a bunch of hog droppings. Watch for my upcoming article. In the meantime, read here on why we should not panic.
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Court strikes down Ameritrade settlement
$1.87 million in attorneys’ fees for a worthless settlement will not be collected; Judge Vaughn Walker denied settlement approval. From the perspective of…
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More Bad Mortgages on the Way, Thanks to Congressional Committee
Expect to see more bad mortgages as a result of a House committee’s vote Thursday to create the so-called “Consumer Financial Protection Agency.” That…
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Sweden’s CO2 Labeling: Deceptive Advertising?
A quick point to add to Fran Smith's post on Sweden's experiment in labeling food and menus with carbon footprints: don't read too much into…
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Kerry-Boxer’s not-so-hidden fangs
Next week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold three hearings on S. 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power…
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Hate Crimes Bill Passes, Eroding Civil Liberties and Double Jeopardy Safeguards
Yesterday, Congress approved a measure to dramatically expand the existing federal hate crimes law, by adding it to an unrelated defense appropriations bill. The…
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The Solution to the Government-Caused Housing Crisis? More Government!
The mortgage meltdown was caused partly by the government, which created an artificial market for bad mortgages. The Washington Examiner cites a recent study…
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Poll shows belief in man-made warming down, but why?
A new poll shows a sharp decline over the last year in the percentage of Americans who see solid evidence that global temperatures are…
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LibertyWeek 65: Your TV Violates State Law
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People: The Ultimate Resource
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CEI Weekly: Scholars Support Case Against Sarbanes Oxley
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features new "amicus briefs" submitted by legal scholars for the Sarbanes…
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Labeling food for their CO2 emissions — Sweden tries it out
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Widening a highway is both an environmental AND civil rights issue?
Was a time when “civil rights” meant things like equal opportunities in employment and schooling for racial and ethnic minorities. And “environmental” meant something affecting…
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Regulation of the Day 65: Weighing Animals
If you sell poultry or livestock, it’s a good idea to weigh them first. Makes it easier for buyer and seller to agree on a…
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Sen. McCain Introduces Anti-Net Neutrality Bill
Senator John McCain introduced a bill yesterday to combat the FCC’s push for Net Neutrality. The “Internet Freedom Act of 2009” would limit the…
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Net Neutrality at 28 kilobits per second.
Why didn’t the Federal Communications Commission impose net neutrality a decade ago? We don’t need all this multimedia and advanced services. They finally caught…
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Keeping Priorities Straight
Bjørn Lomborg, head of the Copenhagen Consensus, brings some much-needed common sense to the global warming debate. Reporting from Vanuatu, he finds that many locals…
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Shipwrecking Opportunity
Earlier this week, the Financial Times ran a story about a conspiracy between governments, Italian mafia, and industrialists to illegally dump ships containing hazardous…
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Regulation of the Day 64: Starting a Business in Sacramento, California
The human mind is capable of creating limitless, endless wealth. The human mind is nearly as adept at preventing that wealth from being created. Sacramento…
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A Cure Worse than the Disease
As I explain in a new CEI paper, which is out today, most of the alleged cost-cutting measures in the Baucus bill merely shift costs…
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Waxman-Markey: A $3.6 trillion gas tax
Senators Kit Bond (R-MO) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) have just released a report, Climate Change Legislation: A $3.6 Trillion Gas Tax, which estimates…
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Mortgage Meltdown Was Caused by Government Mandates
The mortgage meltdown was caused partly by the government, which created an artificial market for bad mortgages. The Washington Examiner cites a recent study…
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Fumento yells “Sooo-eeeee!” on Liddy
I bent G. Gordon Liddy’s ears back today on his radio show (easy to find them, given his lack of hair) on my current…
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More Hypocrisy Regarding FTC Blog Regulations
Michael Masnick at Techdirt offers up another incidence of government inconsistency in light of the FTC’s blog-watching rules, reminding us that “…
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Obama Accepts “Blasphemy” Exception to Free Speech
In USA Today, liberal law professor Jonathan Turley is criticizing the Obama administration for endorsing a “blasphemy” exception to free speech: “Around the…
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Banning Bake Sales
The American Enterprise Institute held a panel discussion yesterday on food safety. They discussed congressional proposals aimed at addressing contaminants in our food,…
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Science and the Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture
The UK Royal Society's long-awaited study on improving agricultural productivity and increasing food security was released this morning. it suggests that a healthy concern for…
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Data deflates threat-multiplier hype
The new, more 'nuanced' rationale for energy rationing is that global warming will aggravate several pre-existing environmental and health threats that cause or contribute to…
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Is Cognitive Dissonance an Insured Condition?
Rep. Diana DeGette is proposing: 1)That health insurers' antitrust exemption be removed. 2) Require, by law, that people buy health insurance. What one hand giveth,…
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Bank of America to Impose Annual Fees on Some Credit Cardholders, Thanks to New Credit Card Law
Bank of America recently announced that it will impose annual fees on some of its cardholders. This is in response to the CARD Act…
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American Society Now Responsible for Saving Journalism
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Regulation of the Day 63: Sports Agents in New Hampshire
It is illegal to be a sports agent in New Hampshire without a Secretary of State-issued certificate. Don’t forget your biennial renewal!…
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Franken Uses Inflammatory Rape Claim to Destroy Arbitration of Employment Disputes, Including Disputes Totally Unrelated to Rape
Recently, the Senate voted to ban defense contractors — that is, much of American business — from contractually mandating arbitration of employment discrimination disputes. The…
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Hot time in EU
The first half of Fall 2009 was a busy season in European politics. On September 27, the general elections took place in Germany. The results…
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Surprising comments on NYT article on climate treaty
Today’s New York Times carries an article, “Hopes fade for comprehensive climate treaty.” It’s not that important an article about the lead-up to Copenhagen. …
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Health Insurer Competition and Democratic Saber Rattling
Last week, after the industry association America’s Health Insurance Plans released a study showing that premiums would rise 18 percent under the Senate Finance Committee’s…
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Bill Gates Says Africa Needs GMOs
On Friday, Bill Gates announced at the World Food Summit in Des Moines that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would be redoubling its efforts…
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FTC Sets its Sights on Bloggers
In the past, guidelines have determined the kinds of research claims companies or celebrity endorsers can make about products in advertising. With the recent update,…
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SuperFreakonomics generates heat on global warming
Even before publication, the book SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance is the topic of hot debate…
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WashPost buries coldest day in 138 years
It’s got a good lede that should have won at least a front-page Metro slot. Instead, buried in Saturday’s Washington Post’s Metro Section amid…
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Congress Moves to Reinflate the Housing Bubble That Caused the Financial Crisis
Veteran political commentator Michael Barone reports that liberal congressional leaders are pushing policies to “inflate the housing bubble again.”…
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Regulation of the Day 62: Government Employees and Texting while Driving
Executive Order No. 13513 prohibits federal employees and contractors from texting while driving while on duty.
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Weekly Flu Watch IV – What swine flu ISN’T doing
Total deaths since Aug. 30 from “Influenza and Pneumonia-Associated” illness are 2,029 reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web site…
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“The Pandemic Is Political,” my article in Forbes Online
As evidence continues to mount that swine flu is more of a piglet than a raging razorback, why isn’t curiosity mounting as to why the…
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Deficit Hits $1,400,000,000,000
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California federal court dismisses global warming common law nuisance lawsuit
My weekend is starting out fine, thanks to this happy news. Peter Glaser, an environmental attorney with Troutman Sanders, just sent around his analysis. Here it…
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Obama administration promotes junky, risky mortgages at taxpayer expense, ignoring history’s lessons
George Mason University Professor Ilya Somin explains how the Obama administration is expanding the awful policies that caused the mortgage crisis, like having taxpayers…
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Happy 90th Birthday to Nobel Laureate James Buchanan
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CEI Weekly: John Berlau Criticizes Proposed Consumer Protection Agency
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week's feature is John Berlau's appearance on C-Span talking about ways to…
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Socialist International Meets, but Carol Browner Can’t Make It
The Socialist International’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society has sent an interesting account of their recent meeting and release of their report, “From…
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Regulation Not Worth Its Salt
A recent study by University of California, Davis nutritionists concludes that it may not even be possible to reduce salt intake through regulation.
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Reps. Issa and Sensenbrenner issue report on the politics of EPA’s endangerment finding
Updated 10/16/09 Today [Oct. 15, 2009], Rep. Darrell Isa (R-CA), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner,…
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Defending free trade: the pending FTAs
The pending U.S. Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia are languishing in limbo, despite the fact that all three agreements will improve…
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Robert Reich Gets It
Some of the consequences of increasing government’s role in health care are easy predict.
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Free-market commentary on the Kerry-Graham cap-and-trade oped
Updated 10/16/09 Over the weekend, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) co-authored an oped in the New York Times titled, “Yes We…
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New Version of Obama Health-Care Plan Relies on Imaginary Savings, Costs More Than $2 Trillion, and Will Explode Federal and State Budget Deficits
Health-care “reform” always costs more than predicted, as ObamaCare provisions have at the state level. So the claim that the new, cheaper version…
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Regulation of the Day 61: Big Screen TVs – Mankind’s Doom!
On November 4, California regulators may vote to ban big-screen televisions. The large sets use more energy than they would prefer.
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Web help wanted for Fumento.com
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Eliot Spitzer Wants your Pension
Today, Slate features a rant by disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer that includes distortions and falsehoods so blatant that they wouldn’t merit…