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Chrysler Confronts Grim Future, Despite Billions in Taxpayer Subsidies
The federal government poured billions of dollars into Chrysler, which then went bankrupt and merged with Fiat. But Chrysler may never revive, thanks to absurdly…
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NBCC/CRA study estimates Waxman-Markey would reduce employment by 2.3 million jobs in 2015
The National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) today released a study by Charles River Associates (CRA) on the economic impacts of H.R. 2454, the American…
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Fulfilling Prophecies
CBO estimated today that unemployment will top out at around 10.5% before it recovers. Congress is doing its part to make CBO’s dire prophecy a…
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Class Warfare Against the Financially Responsible
Earlier, the Obama Administration pushed through $250 billion in mortgage bailouts, to bail out even some high-income borrowers with normal mortgage payments, and…
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Retirees, Taxpayers Ripped Off to Subsidize UAW
Obama accused critics of his decision to give control of Chrysler to the United Auto Workers Union of being “speculators.” But it turns out…
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Ivan Osorio on the United Auto Workers and the Recession
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California here we come?
As McClintock writes, “Congress is well under way toward imposing the same policies on the rest of the nation. California is just a little further…
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Happy 203rd Birthday, John Stuart Mill
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Insightful commentary by Keith Hennessey on Obama’s fuel economy rules
In this insightful, informative post, Keith Hennessey, formerly the senior economic advisor to President G.W. Bush, cautions that Obama's new fuel economy rules could destroy 50,000…
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EWaste Recycling Bans: Wasting Opportunity
Computer giant Dell Inc. has announced that it will stop sending computers for recycling to developing nations. Green groups have been fighting to stop…
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John Berlau Debates Corporate Insurance Policies
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Wasteful Stimulus Package Fails Even In Short Term
1.2 million Americans have lost their jobs since the $800 billion stimulus package was signed into law. The Congressional Budget Office predicted it would…
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Organic Food Waste … of Your Money
There is a great piece in Today’s Financial Times authored by Michael S. Kapinker, which is related to an issue raised in my…
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New fuel economy rules will make cars more costly, less safe, trigger regulatory cascade
At some point today, the EPA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) will propose a first-ever joint regulation to establish first-ever greenhouse gas (GHG)…
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Who determines good and bad gambling?
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Sam Kazman Debates Obama’s Car Mileage Regulations
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Myron Ebell on Car Mileage Regulations
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Calling All Liberty-Loving Writers
Our good friend and CEI alumna Kendra Okonski is looking for writers and journalists to enter the distinguished and lucrative Bastiat Prize Competition, presented…
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Victory for Capitalism in World’s Largest Democracy
India’s Congress Party was responsible for many mistakes when it turned India into a corrupt socialist state in the 1960s and 70s, but it changed…
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Wasteful Cleanup
What is more dangerous: Radioactive waste from a former government nuclear weapons facility or a rotting wood floor? Apparently, it’s the floor. One is hard…
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LibertyWeek 43: A House in Gross Disorder
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Waxman-Markey: What’s new, what’s old?
Today, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) released a new 932-page version of their cap-and-trade bill and a summary explaining how emission…
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Government Bullies Retirees, Banks, Rips Off Taxpayers
The Obama Administration is now seeking to give the United Auto Workers Union a big chunk of General Motors, at the expense of taxpayers…
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Save the Economy, Save the Environment
Whole Foods profit has fallen 32 percent, reflecting changes in consumer demand during economic hard times. It appears that organic food becomes a luxury…
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Stimulus Ignites Job-Killing Trade War With Canada
The $800 billion stimulus package pushed through by Obama has ignited a trade war with Canada, reports the Washington Post. In response to vague…
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Is Facebook Violating Federal Wiretapping Laws?
Facebook has been at the center of a controversy involving its moderation policies and The Pirate Bay, a popular Bittorrent tracker that was…
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Digital economy increases emissions: Mark Mills gets last laugh
Back in 1999 and 2000, a fierce debate raged as to whether digital networks and devices increase or decrease electricity consumption and emissions. Does the…
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“Bush holdover” is career civil servant hired during Clinton
Team Obama was embarrassed earlier this week when a leaked interagency memorandum acknowledged that EPA’s proposed finding that greenouse gases endanger public health and welfare could…
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Stupid and Evil Soda Tax
Nanny statists are, apparently, equal opportunity hacks. Activists on the left and their legislative team players are not only going after the bottled water…
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Adviser Admits Obama’s Tax Increases May Kill Economic Recovery
Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, warns that “the barrage of tax increases proposed in President Barack Obama’s budget could . . . kill any chance of…
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Law Professors Urge Supreme Court to Review Challenge to Powerful Agency, in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will weigh whether to decide what a federal judge called the “the most important separation-of-powers case regarding the President’s appointment…
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Ryan Radia on Intel and Antitrust
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Chris Horner on Green Propaganda in the Classroom
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Al Gore 1984
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Massive Tax Increase and Marriage Penalty from Obama
Obama's proposed tax increases create a massive financial penalty for married couples, by subjecting them to much higher income taxes than if they had chosen…
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Fred L. Smith, Jr. on Credit Cards
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Suitable for framing: Barton op-ed on Waxman-Markey
Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) hits a home run in this oped, which says everything you need to know about the Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax…
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Annual biofuel subsidies will hit $60 billion in 2022 — Earth Track
Doug Koplow of Earth Track, assisted by researchers with Friends of the Earth, has produced a new study, A Boon to Bad Biofuels, on the…
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LibertyWeek 42: Hugo Chávez, Robber Baron
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How long will Sen. Barrasso’s “hold” on Regina McCarthy hold?
Maybe forever! On April 30, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) placed a hold on the nomination of Regina McCarthy as Assistant Administrator of the EPA Office of Air and…
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Chemical Blacklist Growing
Apparently, not only are state lawmakers in Minnesota as noted earlier today blindly banning useful consumer products. International bureaucrats are working on misguided bans…
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Lincoln Remains Opposed to EFCA
The possibility of parts of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), specifically EFCA’s binding arbitration provision, coming back into the political arena has focused…
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BPA Ban: Minnesota First in a Line of Fools
Usually California’s cast of political characters leads the way in the passage of stupid and counterproductive consumer product regulations. Yet last week, legislative clowns in…
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Deficit Skyrockets to $1.8 Trillion
The White House predicts the budget deficit will top $1.8 trillion, four times 2008’s record. Obama has sought to blame the deficit on Bush.
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Klaus vs. the Eurocrats
In The American Spectator, former CEI Bastiat Scholar Doug Bandow (now at the Cato Institute) describes how “[o]nly the Irish people and Czech President…
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Taxing Away American Jobs
Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the foreign operations of U.S. businesses may destroy management and professional jobs in the U.S., will put American business…
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Purpose of Hate-Crimes Bill Is To Promote Double Jeopardy and Shred Civil Liberties
On April 29, the House voted 249-to-175 to pass the federal hate crimes bill, which the bill’s supporters explicitly want to use to prosecute…
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Citizen Showing Gadsden flag ‘Stopped and Detained’ by Louisiana Police
Louisiana police stopped and detained a U.S. citizen for displaying the Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flag on his car. This lead G. Gordon Liddy…
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“Gangster government gave Chrysler to the UAW”
So reads the Washington Examiner’s editorial today about how Obama effectively gave ownership of Chrysler to the United Auto Workers Union (which spent…
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Obama Breaks Yet Another Promise
Obama promised to end the military’s ban on gays, but his Administration has not done so. In fact, it recently kicked out a West Point…
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The Road to Serfdom
On Hayek’s brithday, the following brief speech from internet megastar Daniel Hannan MEP should remind us that there are all too many paths leading to…
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George McGovern on Binding Arbitration
With Democrats just shy of the 60 votes they need to end a filibuster, the fate of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act remains in…
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New York State Jumps on Anti-Bottled Water Wagon
New York Gov. David A. Paterson has jumped on anti-bottled water bandwagon by issuing an executive order halting state-agency purchases of bottled water—claiming…
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Another Postage Hike on Monday
Postage rates will go up on Monday. Thanks to the forever stamp, most of us won’t have to bother with those infernal 2-cent stamps this…
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Cockroaches Win
If New York regulators get their way, the only other option will be for people to hire an exterminator. So basically, if your income is…
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Eco-sailors rescued by oil tanker
“An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth [England] on a 5,000-mile carbon-emission free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker,”…
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So, Mr. Waxman, how much global warming will your bill avert?
MAGICC reveals that an 83% reduction in U.S. emissions “will only produce a global temperature ’savings’ during the next 50 years of about 0.05ºC.”…
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Destabilizing Afghanistan: the Quagmire Expands
The anti-American Taliban extremists are resurgent not only in Afghanistan, where they once sheltered Osama Bin Laden, but also in neighboring Pakistan (which has nuclear…
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LibertyWeek 41: SCOTUS Scurry
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Chris Horner on the White House Energy Summit
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A funny take on people’s resistance to new technology
"Meet Bronze!" "Bronze is Your Friend!" "Bronze is Brilliant; User-Friendly; and Multi-Purpose!" "Stone is Dead, Prepare for the Age of Bronze!"…
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Cato on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
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Flex-fuel mandates: throwing bad regulation after bad
Rent-seeking–the whoring after market-rigging rules and subsidies–is a true addiction, an appetite that grows with feeding. For the ethanol lobby, it’s not enough that government props up…
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David, Goliath and Chevron
How is little Ecuador going to collect from big Chevron? In 2007, investigative reporter Greg Palast posed the question to Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa regarding…
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RIP Jack Kemp
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Bed Bugs Bite
Don’t let the bed bugs bite was always a frightening thought when I was a kid. But today, it’s even scarier since bed bugs are…
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Bye Bye, Justice Souter
Liberal Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring. On social issues, this makes little difference: whoever replaces him will satisfy liberal litmus tests,…
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Congress to Tackle College Football
Having solved all of America's other problems, Congress is turning its attention to how college football's national championship is decided.
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Status Report on International Climate Treaty
There are only seven months until the global community plans to adopt a successor climate treaty to the failed Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen, but negotiators…
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Obama’s pending cybersecurity overhaul should heed the “Cybersecurity Commandment”…
Not many details have appeared, but the Atlantic reports on a speech given by the administration’s Melissa Hathaway in McLean, VA: In her speech,…
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Censoring Critical Blogs as “Harassment” Would Violate the First Amendment
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LibertyWeek 40: Keepin’ It on the CL
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Advice for Conservatives
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Chrysler bankruptcy an opportunity to reject Obama nationalization
Is 48 hours enough time to save Chrysler from being nationalized?…
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Detroit, D.C.
Today’s Wall Street Journal further drives home the difficult position in which the United Auto Workers, Chrysler, and General Motors are likely to find themselves…
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Civil Rights Commission Members Urge “NO” Vote on Federal Hate Crimes Bill
Four members of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission urged Congress not to pass the federal hate crimes bill (LLEHCPA) . . . pointing out that…
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Washington Swallows Detroit, Gives UAW a Piece
The United Auto Workers’ (UAW) loud complaining that they’re being asked to bear a disproportionate share of the costs of restructuring the Big Three begs…
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Fix Social Security; Unleash Capital
In RealClearMarkets.com, Fred Smith and I explain how the seemingly forgotten — but still important — goal of Social Security reform can help unleash capital,…
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Fed Policies Contradict Each Other
Low-inflation monetary policy and low-unemployment monetary policy contradict each other. The results speak for themselves.
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Specter Switches Parties, Cementing Liberals’ Filibuster-Proof Control of Senate
Contradicting earlier claims, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has switched to the Democratic Party, cementing the liberals' filibuster-proof majority on most issues in the Senate.
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The Economics of Pirate Deterrence
How can we stop pirate attacks? By applying the law of demand. If something becomes more costly, people consume less of it. How to do…
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Specter Switches, Says He’ll Still Oppose Card Check, Then What?
There’s nothing worse for an economy than uncertainty. Today, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has thrown large swathes of America’s struggling economy into a guessing game,…
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Strange Priorities: Government Fights “Indecency,” But Not Shoplifting
The prosecutor in Contra Costa County, California won’t prosecute shoplifters anymore, citing budget cuts. It’s open season on retailers in that large suburban…
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Well @#$%&, Supreme Court Upholds Ban on “Expleetive Deleetives.”
In FCC v. Fox today, the Supreme Court upheld regulation of “fleeting expletives” on broadcast television. What should be “fleeting” is the nearly century old…
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Farewell Union Transparency
Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis repeals vital reporting regulations which allowed union members to know how their hard earned dues money was being spent…
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Federal Hate Crimes Bill Will Erode Civil Liberties and Undermine Constitutional Safeguards Against Double Jeopardy
On April 23, the House Judiciary Committee voted 15-to-12 to approve a dramatic expansion of the federal hate-crimes law. The bill, H.R. 1913, would…
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Enron-like Fraud by Government in Bailouts
The federal government is perpetrating Enron-style fraud against investors in its bailouts of Merrill Lynch and Freddie Mac. The Treasury Secretary and Chairman of…
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North Korea Adopts Floral Basket-Based Economy
Isolated from the rest of the world, Kim Jong Il’s bankrupt North Korean regime appears to have stumbled upon a new gimmick to stay afloat:…
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Is Texas the new California?
Texas, once known for its oil tycoons and cattle barons, is now a stage on which renewable-energy moguls preen and strut. But whereas demand for Texas oil…
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Obama: 100 Days of Lies and Broken Promises
Obama has asked the big three networks to give him a free hour of air time on his hundredth day in office. They have…
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When Government Spending Gets Really Obscene
My good friend and Bureaucrash ally Xaq Fixx recently altered me to an interesting story on the intersection of politics, technology and free…
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Celebrating the Bard’s birthday
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Torture Prosecutions for Thee, But Not for Me
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Bush Administration officials prosecuted for facilitating torture. Fair enough. But if they get prosecuted, she should get prosecuted,…
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Comedic highlights of the Waxman-Markey bill hearing
File these vignettes among the endless list of political inanities that would be uproariously funny if the potential economic fallout were not so toxic. Yesterday, in…
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General Growth Properties (GGP) — Bankruptcy the way it ought to be
On the surface, given the economic turmoil we’ve had, there was nothing that remarkable about the bankruptcy of shopping mall owner General Growth Properties (GGP).
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Obama credit card meeting — should meet with economists instead
Instead of meeting with the executives of credit card issuers and sactimoniously lecturing them about not raising rates, as he is doing…
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Diamond in the rough?
Hmm. A Papua New Guinea tribesman is suing the The New Yorker magazine over an article penned by MacArthur “Genius” and Pulitzer…
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Unions Disunited — and Fighting
The civil war between the two factions that until recently made up the union UNITE-HERE heated up further this week. Yesterday, the leadership…
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“We don’t need no stinking baseload,” FERC Chairman
Okay, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff didn’t actually say America doesn’t need coal-fired and nuclear power plants. He stopped short of openly embracing the …
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¿Can We Be Amigos?
The Fifth Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago on April 17th shed light on America’s new role in the Western Hemisphere. The…