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Towards a More Transparent Fed
Iain Murray and I have a piece in today's American Spectator breaking down the new paper we co-wrote with John Berlau.
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CEI Podcast for October 30, 2013: Bringing Transparency to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
George Mason University law professor and Mercatus Center senior scholar Todd Zywicki discusses his paper, "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Savior or Menace?"…
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Questions for Janet Yellen
Even if it is nominally independent, the Federal Reserve is arguably the government’s most important agency. It has control over the price system, the most…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from energy-efficient urinals to interstate turtle requirements.
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CEI Podcast for October 24, 2013: The Social Cost of Carbon
Like anything else, carbon emissions have both costs and benefits. Marlo Lewis, a Senior Fellow in CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, discusses a new…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Shutdown edition: 3 new regulations. Two Coast Guard safety zones and a catch limit for herring.
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CEI Podcast for October 17, 2013: Supreme Court to Review EPA Carbon Emission Regulation Lawsuit
CEI is a co-petitioner in the case.
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The Shutdown Is Over: What Now for Regulation?
The next day or two will also be slow ones for the Federal Register. But then there will be a flood of new rules as…
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How Is the Shutdown Affecting Regulation?
Short answer: not much. Over at the Daily Caller, I go over some data from this shutdown, as well as the two Gingrich-Clinton showdowns.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Shutdown edition: 6 new regulations, from Basel III to bridge repair.
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CEI Podcast for October 10, 2013: CEI Files FOIA Requests Over Park Closures
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
113 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to viticultural areas.
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CEI Podcast for October 3, 2013: The Federal Shutdown
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Regulatory Transparency Is Decidedly Lacking
The Office of Management and Budget reviewed a grand total of 47 regulations last year, or a little more than 1 percent of the total.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from bird hunting to fluted kidneyshells.
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CEI Podcast for September 26, 2013: “The Cupboard Is Bare”
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The Regulatory Improvement Commission
Senators Angus King (I-Me.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are introducing a bill that would create just such a commission. Over at The American Spectator, Wayne…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
76 new regulations, from pet stores to food containers.
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CEI Podcast for September 20, 2013: The EPA’s Latest Attempt to Ban Coal
A proposed rule issued today by the EPA would effectively ban new coal-fired power plants from being built. According to William Yeatman, Assistant Director of…
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CEI Podcast for September 19, 2013: A Controversial FERC Nominee
Ron Binz is President Obama's choice to head FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. William Yeatman, in a new report, shows why Binz's disregard for…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
61 new regulations, from banned avocados to sweet corn insurance.
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CEI Podcast for September 11, 2013: Ronald Coase, 1910-2013
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
58 new regulations, from foreign tax credits to growing dates in Riverside County, California.
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CEI Podcast for September 5, 2013: A New Energy Drink Scare?
Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton puts a scary new study about energy drinks and children into its proper, non-scary context.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
81 new regulations, from “shared responsibility payments” to Segelflugzeugbau sailplanes.
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CEI Podcast for August 29, 2013: Consequences of Net Neutrality
Have a listen here. In 2010, the FCC issued regulations to implement net neutrality. The resulting legal challenge is about to hit the D.C.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from hunting migratory birds to grading avocados.
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CEI Podcast for August 22, 2013: Germany Legalizes Bitcoin
Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray discusses Germany's decision to legalize Bitcoin, a controversial digital currency. With the euro's future up in the air, competing…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
71 new regulations, from D-Day reenactments to bio-fuel usage.
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CEI Podcast for August 15, 2013: Justice Department Blocks Airline Merger
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner thinks the charges are overblown, and has ideas of his own for increasing competition.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
83 new regulations, from sweet cherries to air.
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CEI Podcast for August 8, 2013: CEI Appeals Dismissal of Dodd-Frank Lawsuit
CEI general counsel Sam Kazman discusses plans to appeal the case.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
82 new regulations, dairy import licenses to information sharing.
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CEI Podcast for August 1, 2013: Is Washington the Next Detroit?
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Regulation of the Day Update: Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
The USDA is temporarily suspending its magician's rabbit-license regulations "in order that we may undertake a review of their requirements."…
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CEI Podcast for July 31, 2013: REINS Act Hits the House Floor
Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews talks about the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which is expected to pass the…
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REINS Act to Hit House Floor Tomorrow
The bill would add some oversight to a regulatory process that has far too little of it.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from turtle-killing to felon financiers.
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Ronald Coase on Blackboard Economics
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CEI Podcast For July 25, 2013: The UAW And Chattanooga
The United Auto Workers union is campaigning to organize a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Senior Fellow Matt Patterson talks about his recent trip to…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
68 new regulations, from Topeka shiners to room air conditioners.
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The Million-Dollar Bus Stop Breaks
A new cooling fan should arrive in the next two weeks. Until then, the super stop will be a bus stop like any other, unless…
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CEI Podcast for July 18, 2013: The NSA Gets Sued
In the wake of the NSA’s spying scandal, several groups are filing a lawsuit challenging the NSA’s actions as unconstitutional. Associate Director of Technology Studies…
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Regulation of the Day 232: Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
Marty Hahne has put on children's magic shows for almost 30 years. USDA regulations require both a license and a written disaster plan for his…
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The FTC’s Uneasy Relationship With Innovation
The Sherman and Clayton Acts form the backbone of U.S. antitrust policy. But another piece of legislation gives the government the power to regulate business…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, from apartment building energy usage to when truckers have lunch.
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The Apple E-Book Ruling and Antitrust Absurdity
A recent ruling against Apple over its e-book pricing policies highlights the absurdity of antitrust laws, as I point out in the Daily Caller:…
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CEI Podcast for July 11, 2013: Farm Bill Controversy
Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith breaks down the controversy surrounding this year's farm bill.
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Regulation Causes Inflation
Over at the American Spectator, I show why an unintentional and unavoidable side effect of regulation is inflation:…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from energy efficiency standards for imports to the California Desert Grape Administrative Committee.
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CEI Podcast for July 3, 2013: The EPA’s Assault on State Sovereignty
William Yeatman discusses his new study, "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Assault on State Sovereignty."…
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CEI Podcast for July 2, 2013: The True Story of European Austerity
A new study by Warren Brookes Fellow Matthew Melchiorre finds that only 4 European countries out of 27 have actually cut taxes and spending.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
80 new regulations, from school lunches to the legal definition of “ski area.”…
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CEI Podcast for June 26, 2013: TSA Full-Body Scanner Transparency
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner discusses the TSA's lack of transparency and the scanners' ineffectiveness in deterring terrorism.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
96 new regulations, from fireworks shows near water to handling FOIA requests.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
93 new regulations, from tanning taxes to wine labels.
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CEI Podcast for June 13, 2013: Deirdre McCloskey Wins CEI’s Julian Simon Award
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
72 new regulations, from federal pecan insurance to avoiding collisions at sea.
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CEI Podcast for June 7, 2013: National Donut Day
June 7 is National Donut Day. General Counsel Sam Kazman is urging Americans to eat not one but two donuts—one for themselves, and one for…
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CEI Podcast for June 6, 2013: Making Passenger Rail Affordable
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner discusses a new CEI study arguing that regulations make passenger train cars unnecessarily expensive.
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Two Decades of Regulatory Growth
Over at The American Spectator, Wayne Crews and I marvel at how much the regulatory state has grown over the last twenty years. We also…
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George Will on Ten Thousand Commandments
George Will's latest column highlights the main findings of Ten Thousand Commandments.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
61 new regulations, from Cotton taxes to endangered Hawaiian plants.
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CEI Podcast for May 30, 2013: The Politics of Caffeine
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced plans to investigate, and possibly regulate, caffeine consumption. Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton prefers separation of…
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Regulatory Opacity
In today’s Investor’s Business Daily, Wayne Crews and I make the case that one of the biggest obstacles to regulatory reform is a lack of…
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More than Taxing and Spending
The cost of government is far more than it taxes and spends. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s editorial board agrees, as they opined yesterday:…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
68 new regulations, from Potato Administrative Committees to Segelflugzeugbau sailplanes.
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Regulation of the Day Update: Olive Oil Victory
I recently posted that new EU regulations would require restaurants to use factory packaged and sealed bottles of olive oil. This would put small…
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CEI Podcast for May 22, 2013: Twenty Years of Ten Thousand Commandments
The twentieth anniversary edition of Ten Thousand Commandments was released this week. Author Wayne Crews discusses the study, and how regulation has evolved over the…
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Possible Unintended Consequences in New Obamacare Regulation
The PCIP program gives health care providers an incentive to refuse treatment to people who desperately need it.
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Ten Thousand Commandments Released Today
Over at the Daily Caller, Wayne and I briefly summarize of few of the report’s findings.
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Regulation of the Day 231: Serving Olive Oil
Starting January 1, 2014, any olive oil served at EU restaurants “must be in pre-packaged, factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labelling in…
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10KC in WSJ
The Wall Street Journal editorial board weighed in this morning on the issue of regulation, citing a few numbers from the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
This week in the world of regulation: Last week, 71 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 64 new final…
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IRS Abuse of Americans Is Nothing New
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Regulation Roundup
Height limits for flying witches on broomsticks, mandatory street musician auditions, and more.
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CEI Podcast for May 16, 2013: A Controversial EPA Nominee
According to Myron Ebell, the deeper cause of this political fight is a startling lack of transparency at the EPA that McCarthy is unlikely to…
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Regulation of the Day 230: The Temperature of Beer
The state of Indiana regulates the temperature at which convenience stores may sell beer. Specifically, they must sell it at room temperature. Cold beer is…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
64 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to official seals.
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IRS Apologizes for Targeting Conservative Groups
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CEI Podcast for May 8, 2013: The Debate over Undocumented Immigration
CEI Immigration Policy Analyst David Bier is critical of a new Heritage Foundation study that estimates that giving legal status to America's undocumented immigrants would…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
62 new regulations, from the federal flood insurance to California olives.
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CEI Podcast For May 2, 2013: Small Business Owners Sue Over IRS Obamacare Power Grab
Small business owners and individuals in six states, with help from CEI, are suing the IRS over what General Counsel Sam Kazman calls a flagrantly…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
66 new regulations, from the federal Processed Pear Committee to desert buckwheat.
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Regulation Roundup
From adjustable headlights to going on strike over tight pants.
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Margaret Thatcher Vs. Today’s GOP
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CEI Podcast For April 25, 2013: Regulations Are Less Than Transparent
Every year, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) releases a report on the costs and benefits of the previous year's new regulations. Wayne Crews…
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Earth Day: The Greener Side Of Growth
Over at Topix.com, my colleague Geoffrey McLatchey and I argue that the biggest factor for improving environmental quality is wealth creation.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
86 new regulations, from sorghum ethanol to training miners.
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CEI Podcast For April 18, 2013: CISPA Is The Wrong Approach To Cybersecurity
Today, the House passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2013 (CISPA). Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia opposes the bill.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
67 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to wireless signal boosters.
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CEI Podcast For April 11, 2013: Reining in Unfunded Mandates
Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews warns that the higher the deficit goes, the more tempted the federal government is to resort to unfunded mandates,…
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Time To Rein In Unfunded Mandates
In today's Investor's Business Daily, Wayne Crews and I point out that the higher deficits go, the more tempting it becomes for Congress to resort…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
56 new rules, from school lunches to studying landfills.
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Regulation Roundup
Man avoids jail time for falsely yelling out "Bingo!" during a game, plus more.
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CEI Podcast For April 4, 2013: Reining In The CFAA
Under the CFAA, it is currently a federal crime to enter an incorrect age on your Facebook profile or an incorrect weight on a dating…
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The Origin Of Interest Groups
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
100 new regulations, from collisions at sea to electronic forms.
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CEI Podcast For March 28, 2013: The TSA’s Illegal Body Scanners
Despite a court order, the TSA is still dragging its feet on complying with the law. Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner has…
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The Red Tape Challenge
Over at the Daily Caller, Christian Rice and I take a look at a successful regulatory reform model in the UK: the Red Tape Challenge:…