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The Greens Can Take Away My Steak the Moment They Pry It from My Cold, Dead Hands
I have been a steak snob ever since I apprenticed under a master butcher in Ojai Valley, California a few years back. Indeed, I'm the…
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Michigan Steps Aside for Stimulus
Oregonian brewers looking for a new home may want to consider moving to Michigan where a state authority may just understand the principle…
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Inflation Fears Propel Gold Prices
As the Dow Jones Industrial Average approached record lows, gold prices shined on a seven-month peak, on Tuesday. Details of President Obama’s new stimulus package…
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Chapter 13 could be your lucky number
Today President Obama announced his homeowner bailout plan. While that plan will spend huge sums of money helping “renters” stay in homes…
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Obama, Waxman to Square Off on Free Speech
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Why Is HuffPo Pimping Ethanol?
Yesterday's edition of the internet news juggernaut ran an ethanol love song written by Bob Dinneen, who is identified in his Huff Po biography as…
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Obama’s Futile Attempts at Foreclosure Avoidance
If the government wants to spend $75 billion to help troubled homeowners, it would be better off giving a tax holiday to families subject to…
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Can prediction markets help value toxic assets?
Can prediction markets – virtual markets – play a role in valuing toxic assets? A critical obstacle in evaluating the health of financial institutions…
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Marlo Lewis on the Costs of Ethanol
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Flawed Plan Relies on Consumer Spending
After President Obama signs the controversial stimulus plan, which will add on average $8 per week to most paychecks, his administration will have to cross…
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Bad McCarty! Bad!
Will regulators never learn? You can’t force businesses to actively pursue a business model that is unprofitable. Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist and Insurance regulator Kevin…
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Craft Brewers leeched by Oregon Regulators
Why legislators think it is a good idea to put their heels on the neck of the most productive industries is beyond me. Perhaps following…
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Null Government
Well, the Spendulus/Stimulus will be signed into law within minutes. We’ll soon learn that even this Leviathan-In-A-Box is only the beginning of the Age…
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Drill, Baby, Drill! (To Save the Environment)
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LibertyWeek 30: Whole Lott-a Love
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What would it mean to have no “environmental footprint”?
Maybe to have no life. As this article over at the Ayn Rand Institute points out, the more “eco-friendly” you try to live, the…
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More Libertarian Lolcats!
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NADA report proves California waiver would create regulatory patchwork
A front-burner issue facing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson is whether to grant a waiver under the Clean Air Act allowing the California…
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Chairman Tom Price with 1,073-page Non-Stimulus Text
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“Spendulus” conference report has passed the House
But thought you might be interested in one congressman’s last-minute appeal to sanity. You, dear reader, are a person things are done to.
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The Juche Weather Idea
North Korea’s official propaganda organ, the Korea Central News Agency, reveals the real cause of global warming: The snow in the area of Jong…
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Who Cares About the Consumer?
Electricity consumers beware! The so-called-stimulus bill includes provision for something called “decoupling.” E&E Daily reports: Also included in the final version is a requirement that…
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Wyeth v. Levine: Policy Arguments Regarding Preemption
The Wyeth v. Levine case presents a narrow set of facts in which the Food and Drug Administration had, for many years, known about the…
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Has anybody read the text?
There ain’t no way any of the lawmakers voting for the $790 billion stimulus package today could have read, comprehended, and analyzed the…
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Preemption in Wyeth v. Levine: Broader Implications
The legal arguments of the parties, and the incremental approach typical of the Supreme Court, strongly suggest that the Court will issue a narrow legal…
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Uber-Attorney Bert Rein to Guest Blog on Federal Preemption Case
Back in November, I wrote about the pending Supreme Court case Wyeth v. Levine, the decision in which will have a huge impact on the…
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The Birthday of an Entrepreneur
February is an important month in the history of American commerce. In a few days will be the birthday of one of the country’s earliest…
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What unlimited government means to you.
Ran across this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal piece that I thought I’d pass along. And this was before the Anti-Stimulus added…
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The “Stimulus” and the Broken Window Fallacy
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Just How Much is $13 Trillion?
The magnitude of the growing stimulus package and continuing bank bailouts is truly amazing. Add those amounts to the already huge national debt and you…
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CEI Commends Sen. Judd Gregg
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Bottled Water “Myth Buster” Ill Informed
A piece in the LA Examiner online shows how incredibly misinformed the bottled water debate has become. The report is called “A Few Facts…
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A matter of principle — Commerce nominee steps down
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Cheers to the B.E.E.R. Act
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Travesty–Rep. Inslee’s behavior at Energy & Commerce hearing
I just watched the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee hearing on “The Climate Crisis: National Security, Public Health, and Economic Threats.” Committee rules allow the…
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Stimulus Guts Welfare Reform, Is Deceptive
The stimulus package will gut welfare reform even more than previously feared. That’s the conclusion of Mickey Kaus, a moderate Democrat who now…
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Coming to a Pharmacy Near You: One Size Fits All
Tucked away in the stimulus bill is $1.1 billion to fund a new agency modeled after the UK’s NICE, which has repeatedly denied Brits access…
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“Porkulus” has no relation to economic recovery; But other reforms do.
Today CEI and other free-enterprise analysts and advocates are making one last pitch to stop the anti-stimulus package that President Obama is likely to…
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Iain Murray on the Anti-Stimulus
On behalf of my distinguished colleague Iain Murray, who is busy speaking at a very important press conference this morning, let me present his…
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State AGs Give EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (recycled) bum advice
In a letter dated 5 February 2009, 17 state attorneys general (AGs) plus three other non-federal officials urge EPA Administrator…
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OJ Bigger Villian than Fiji Water!
Environmentalist activists must certainly mean well. But, at times, some are so silly that all you can do is laugh. Consider a recent Tree…
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European Environment Agency–stuck in a mental rut
In a report titled “Beyond Transport Policy,” the European Environment Agency (EEA) bemoans the fact that European transport sector CO2 emissions increased by 26% during…
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Bottled Water Helps Wildlife Too!
We know that bottled water is helpful to humans during a natural disaster, but did you know it’s an aid to wildlife? Today’s Washington Express…
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USDA Pushing EPA for More Ethanol in Gasoline
On Tuesday (Feb. 10), USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack urged EPA to increase the quantity of ethanol blended into gasoline from the current amount–10% ethanol per…
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“Regulatory forbearance” in today’s context
Harking back to the much-maligned concept of “regulatory forbearance” that was a hallmark of the S&L debacle, Holman W. Jenkins Jr writes in…
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Environmental Policies Kill – Again!
One of the main themes of my book, The Really Inconvenient Truths, is that misguided environmental policies often lead to humanitarian and environmental disaster.
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Sirius XM Bankruptcy: Thank Washington for the Delay
Sirius XM Satellite Radio—the company born from the merger of Sirius Satelllite Radio and XM Satellite Radio—has “been working with advisers to prepare for a…
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Stimulus Package Shrinks Economy, Expands Welfare Rolls
The Stimulus Package passed by the Senate will encourage people to stop working and go on welfare, undermining the 1996 welfare reform…
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Championing Economic Liberty in a Time of Crisis
From CEI’s Agenda for Congress: Fred Smith, President and Founder of CEI on the economic crisis, the threat of bad policies, and the real change…
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Geithner’s “bad bank” is a big bad idea: fix bad mark-to-market accounting instead
The Obama’s administration $1 trillion plus bank bailout plan — on top of the $800 billion stimulus that just passed the Senate — will explode…
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Everything I Know About Construction I Learned In Business School
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No Florida Insurance Bailout
It seems that the state of Florida has overpromised insurance coverage to its citizens in the case of a catastrophic storm, and now is…
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Book-Banning, 21st Century Style
Remember the fuss when it was revealed that Sarah Palin had enquired about removing books from her town library? It would have been so much…
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Tucker 1 Lovins 0
Those who have been following the “alternative energy” fantasists for a while will recognize the name of Amory Lovins, the so-called “sage” (yet another pseudo-religious…
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UNITE-HERE to Disunite?
UNITE-HERE, the 450,000-member textile and hospitality union, is embroiled in a “civil war,” according to its president, who is now openly considering breaking up the…
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Stanford Economist Blames Government for Crisis
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LibertyWeek 29: The Mother-in-Law of All Debts
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TARP Challenged in Federal Court
Three businesses and five individuals recently brought suit against the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in the Eastern District of New York. The case,…
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The COPs are back
Today has seen much activity and media coverage of the TARP’s Congressional Oversight Panel. Today the Panel released a number of reports on their…
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Dickie Scruggs Back in Court
But, alas, not as a litigator – the role that made him rich and famous – but as a defendant. According to Legal Newsline,…
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Usage Caps and the DLC Model
I just read an intriguing post by Mike Masnick over at Techdirt. Masnick points out that ISPs keep changing the definition…
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More Economists Sign On to Cato’s Anti-Stimulus List
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Amid Recession, Congress Forces Thrift Stores to Close
According to statements from the National Association of Retail & Thrift Shops and the National Association of Manufacturers, a law designed to protect kids…
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Eileen Norcross on the Stimulus Bill
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The Prince and the Paupers
I still regard myself as a loyal subject of Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, but it’s hard not to come over all Cromwellian when…
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Stimulating Comment
Comment from a friend watching Obama’s Indiana town hall promoting the stimulus: “Some chump just told Obama to mail a check to the people who…
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Spending Money Isn’t Bold, New and Certainly Isn’t Change
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Tilting at Food Safety Windmills
Unfortunately, as long as the world's food production system continues to be highly decentralized and fragmented, there will continue to be foodborne illness outbreaks like…
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Why “doing nothing” is something really big: Stopping the Anti-Stimulus
Robert Higgs, he of the famous “ratchet effect” theory of government growth (up but never down in answer to a crisis), has…
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Broadband Stimulus Cut
Bloomberg is reporting that an agreement on a stimulus package has been reached in the Senate. Included in the compromise was…
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Should the Anti-Stimulus Package be tan or beige?
President Obama more than once last week called it “inexcusable” for Congress to get “bogged down in distraction, delay or politics as usual” over the…
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Today’s Gift to Big Labor
Even as the nomination of Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary remains stalled due to tax and potential ethics rules troubles, organized labor got a…
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More Questions about Solis
Today’s Washington Examiner proposes some questions which Senators should ask Obama Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis. Solis is treasurer and a member of the…
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SEC penalty policy change could harm innocent investors
In one of her first actions as SEC chairman, Mary Schapiro announced today that she was getting rid of a policy that required SEC officials…
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Senate Broad Stimulus & Avoiding Federal “Strings”
Aside from the fact that the Senate lacks the necessary votes to pass its version of the stimulus, the bill does…
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Smoke On in California?
A liberty loving person could almost applaud the proposed roll-back of anti-smoking legislation in, of all places, California. The city of Long Beach,…
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Obama’s New Appliance Efficiency Mandates, Consumers Better Run For Cover
President Obama today announced that he is pressuring the Department of Energy (DoE) to speed up some long-delayed efficiency standards for appliances. His move…
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Stimulus Plan Harms Economy, Congressional Budget Office Admits
The bloated $800 billion “stimulus” package would not only create a mountain of debt, it would harm the economy in the long run.
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For Obama, No Solace in Solis
This afternoon, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee abruptly canceled a session to consider the nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) for Labor…
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Stimulus Bill Is Full of Pork
The $800 billion stimulus bill contains billions of dollars in pork and wasteful spending on items that have nothing to do with stimulating the…
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Chris Horner Explains the Hype Behind Global Warming
Our very own Christopher C. Horner explains the hype behind global warming and talks about his new book, Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming…
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Support for Stimulus Collapses Internationally
Rasmussen reports that support for the borrow-and-spend plan is falling rapidly: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the…
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Obama’s defense of weatherizing homes as “stimulus” with Anderson Cooper on CNN is priceless
The President actually said: –it puts people to work –it saves families on their energy bill –it reduces dependence on foreign oil.
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Marlo Lewis Debates Global Warming on CNN
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Palaces For The Bureaucrats
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Expensive Energy Does Not Stimulate the Economy
Last week the House of Representatives passed HR 1, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocates $816 billion to stimulate the economy. Environmental policy…
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The Smart Way to Provide Power
It’s not often I disagree with Ron Bailey, but his article about the “Smart Grid” today glosses over the main reason why electric companies…
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Should the U.S. Government Nationalize “Broken” Banks?
Such is the title of the latest BusinessWeek.com debate. Taking the “con” side is CEI’s own Eli Lehrer, who argues (in part): Long-term…
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LibertyWeek 28: Don’t Forget Your Limousine Tax
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Stimulus Plan Repeats Mistakes That Spawned Great Depression
The European Union is threatening a trade war over provisions in the $800 billion “stimulus” package backed by Obama and Congressional leaders. The Great…
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Appetite for Creative Destruction
Duff McKagan of Guns n’ Roses fame is going to be writing on financial matters at Playboy.com. What makes this more interesting than the…
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Stimulus Watch Launches Today
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Springsteen clashes with Obama advisor on Wal-Mart
In between playing at the Lincoln Memorial for Barack Obama’s inaugural concert and performing the half-time show last night at the Super Bowl, Bruce Springsteen…
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Renewable Energy Jobs Will Have To Wait
The porcine stimulus bill passed by the House contains $15 billion in capital investments and loan guarantees for renewable energy projects and new electric transmission…
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English Arch-Druid wants to limit you to two children
Two children should be limit, says this British green “guru.” What makes him a guru? Saying outrageous things that others should do, but not…
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Opposition to “Stimulus” Package Rises
Opposition to the $800 billion stimulus package continues to rise, and polls show support for it has fallen to 42%. Independent swing-voters oppose…
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Activist Jim Boulet RIP
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All Pregame all the Time
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Len Nichols of NAF on Incentives in Health Care
12:52pm Len Nichols of the New America Foundation is driving down the same “Middle Road” that the last panel plotted out. So far,…
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Ranking geo-engineering strategies, or “climate hacks” to cool Earth down
Numerous approaches have been described to cool what some insist is a warming world (though not over the past few years). In any event, not…