Blog
George McGovern on Card Check
Former Democratic Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern continues to speak out against the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which he has described as an…
Blog
As Washington frets over “behavioral advertising”…
Blog
90 Percent Tax Rate Proposed
Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-California) has advocated raising marginal tax rates to 90 percent. Such a tax increase on the wealthy would be necessary, but…
Blog
The 5% Bailout: Jeb Hensarling Trashes TARP
The Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), which oversees the spending of TARP funds, released its March report today entitled “Foreclosure Crisis: Working Toward a Solution.”…
Blog
“Make Mine Freedom”
Blog
Obama Bails Out Rich, Irresponsible People With LOW Mortgage Payments
Yesterday, I wrote about how high-income people with $700,000 homes, who are in no danger of becoming homeless, would benefit from the Obama Administration’s…
Blog
Schadenfreude “Two-Fer”
The New York Times reported this week that the Peanut Corporation of America plants in Texas and Georgia that were shipping salmonella contaminated peanut products…
Blog
Remaining ‘Swiss’ No Longer An Option
In a running theme, I again cover the topic of the U.S. government’s heavy-handed dealings with swiss…
Blog
New Study Shows Job Loss Data under Card Check
This week, Dr Anne Layne-Farrar, an economist with the Law and Economics Consulting Group, published a new study in which she analyzes the likely…
Blog
Yes, “Botch” is the right word.
Alex is right. “This IS one of these questions about what to do in the real world, where first-best solutions just aren’t politically possible†(emphasis…
Blog
More Big Brother Tactics Against Charity
Blog
Did the Supreme Court “Botch” Wyeth v. Levine?
I was initially going to post this as a comment to Greg Conko’s recent post arguing against the Court’s recent decision in Wyeth…
Blog
LibertyWeek 32: FCC Don’t Tread on Me
Blog
Bailing Out the Reckless Rich, Harming Our Economy
Well-to-do people will receive an unnecessary mortgage bailout, under a new federal program that will cut their payments to just 31 percent of their income…
Blog
Imagine There’s No Agency
Washington spends and regulates, and it’s hard to make it stop doing either. Government agencies and programs attract constituencies that want to keep them around,…
Blog
Good News: Already, Obama Is Backtracking on Climate Change
Blog
Distorting the News, to Obama’s Advantage: Ledbetter v. Goodyear and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Distorted press coverage of a Supreme Court decision gave a big boost to the Obama campaign, which made the decision a major campaign…
Blog
Fed’s “Beige Book” paints a bleak picture
Blog
Business + Gov. Leeching = Job loss
As I blogged about earlier many states…
Blog
Supreme Court Botches Preemption Case
Ms. Levine alleged not only that the warning on Phenergan's label wasn't strong enough, but that Phenergan was "not reasonably safe for intravenous administration," and…
Blog
CBO’s newest estimates of stimulus package’s effects
Blog
Parallel Lies
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been talking with President Obama this morning, and high on the agenda was the PM’s call for international banking…
Blog
In the Obama Era, Big Brother to Replace Private Charity (maybe?)
Blog
Hansen belittles models, carbon trading, Kyoto; calls for coal-destroying carbon tax
Last week’s House Ways & Means Committee hearing on “scientific objectives for climate change legislation” contained much grist for skeptical mills. Dr. James Hansen did…
Blog
Why Is the Chicago Tribune in Bed with T Boone Pickens?
Remove the rhetoric, and T Boone's plan is quite simple. He wants the government to (1) force taxpayers to subsidize his wind power; (2) force…
Blog
Your Loss Is My Gain, Sucker!
I am being enriched by a vast expansion of government that will impoverish you and your family, and shrink the size of the economy in…
Blog
Ironic Snowfall for Resource-Rich Greenies
Environmentalists characterize themselves as petite Davids battling gargantuan corporate Goliaths in order to grab media attention. But hundreds of green activists demonstrated today to raise…
Blog
CEI stages “Celebrate Coal” counter-rally on Capitol Hill today
Despite the fact that the DC area was just clobbered with snow last night and this morning, hundreds of left-wing environmentalists descended on Capitol Hill…
Blog
Will the “food police” be nationalized?
In this bizarre Washington world, it can’t possibly be true, but it is: a top staffer at the lobbying organization often pejoratively referred…
Blog
“Sanity is not statistical”
Blog
GM Volt may not be cost-effective for consumers, study says
A study by Carnegie Mellon finds that the Chevy Volt, GM’s rechargeable battery-driven car designed to go 40 miles on electricity, is “not cost effective in any scenario,” Bloomberg…
Blog
DC on the School Reform Front Lines, Again
Today’s Washington Post features an editorial that strongly criticizes Congressional Democrats’ rush to kill the District of Columbia’s school voucher program, which enjoys bipartisan…
Blog
What Does Norway’s Net Neutrality Mean for the U.S.?
Hopefully nothing. But international policy has a way of making waves on our shores; sort of a “Look what they’re doing in Europe, we should…
Blog
Saving Us from Ourselves=lolprez
Blog
Obama Administration’s trade agenda released
According to President Obama’s 2009 Trade Policy Agenda, trade policy in his Administration will be used to promote “social accountability” and make…
Blog
Alarmism Has Consequences
In a magnificent display of self-delusion, the green movement is holding a demonstration at the Capitol’s power plant today to protest the continued use of…
Blog
Soft Toilet Paper: Mankind’s Doom?
The NRDC's Allen Hershkowitz says that "People just don't understand that softness equals ecological destruction." I had to chuckle after reading that last sentence (it…
Blog
CEI at CPAC – Fred L. Smith, Jr.
CEI President Fred L. Smith, Jr. dropped by CPAC today to speak on a panel about government bailouts. He also made appearances on Radio Row…
Blog
GDP drops sharply — not a time to raise taxes
Blog
An open auction for price clarity?
In today’s Financial Times, Gillian Tett addresses the opaqueness of determining the “price” of collateralized debt obligations backed by mortgage…
Blog
Obama’s Corporate Environmental Income Tax
Tucked into the EPA budget proposal the Obama administration revealed yesterdays are plans to reinstate the Superfund taxes which expired in 1995 as a way…
Blog
Bottled Water Hypocrisy
Apparently, Mayor Newsom–one of the first lawmakers to condemn bottled water and bar government agencies from buying it–has a separate standard for himself! A partially…
Blog
Myron Ebell on Obama’s Green Energy Plan
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8oWwGqU4XY 283 234]…
Blog
The Energy Tax Budget
“Not one dime,” said President Obama in his address to Congress, referring to how much extra tax people earning under $250,000 a year will have…
Blog
Wayne Crews Considers the Cost of Regulation
From RealClearMarkets.com: Removing burdensome regulations on businesses, both large and small, hasn’t figured much into the economic recovery program thus far. But alternatives to “porkulus 
Blog
lolprez Strikes Again
Blog
Green Scheme Is a Lobbyists’ Dream
Lobbyists love cap-and-trade because of its complexity. At every step of the process, there are myriad nooks and crannies into which they can stuff special…
Blog
Nobody Messes with The Dow
Last night a charismatic President Obama delivered a forceful speech to a joint session of Congress, promising that his plan “will rebuild, will recover, and…
Blog
Stars Come Out for House and Senate Hearings
The House and the Senate held competing A-list hearings on global warming on Wednesday at 10AM. Testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works…
Blog
Obama Scores Zero on Econ 101
In his first address to Congress, President Obama said that the “stimulus” legislation and other short-term economic policies were necessary to prevent a decade-long…
Blog
Dambisa Moyo: Zambian Author Takes on Foreign Aid
The celebrity parade calling for more foreign aid to poor countries has become so ubiquitous — and accepted — these days that critiques of it…
Blog
SOTU watch: Farm programs
Ten words in the SOTU address last night could presage some modest reform of wasteful agricultural programs: “. . .end direct payments to large…
Blog
Obama’s Bankruptcy Math Has to be Wrong
President Obama claimed in his speech tonight: “For that same reason, we must also address the crushing cost of health care. “This is a cost…
Blog
Foreclosure and the ‘forgotten man’ in Obama’s SOTU speech
Perhaps with the popular reaction to Rick Santelli’s ‘tea party’, in which the CNBC commentator elicited cheers for saying that the thrifty should not…
Blog
Zero-Based Governing and Improving the State of the Union
Removing burdensome regulations on small business hasn’t figured much into the economic recovery program thus far. Too bad. Alternatives to “spendulus” and the “Bailout to…
Blog
SOTU Watch: New Labor Secretary
The Senate confirmed Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor this afternoon. It will be worth watching whether President Obama acknowledges her confirmation…
Blog
SOTU Watch: Energy Prices & Hidden Taxes
While President Obama focuses on short-term economic recovery, he proposes long-term energy and global warming policies that will lead to economic decline. Federal subsidies for…
Blog
When it Comes to Climate Change, Errors Abound
“A Matter of Fact,” a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, challenges the Washington Post to correct George F.
Blog
SOTU Watch: Energy Claims
The President might make various remarks relating to energy tonight. These are likely to center around grandiloquent claims as to the effectiveness of “green jobs”…
Blog
SOTU Watch: Card Check
In President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight, one thing to watch for is mention of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) —…
Blog
Despite lack of warming, alarmists predictably predict warming worse than predicted
As you may have heard, there has been no net warming of the planet since 2001, and no subsequent year was a warm as 1998…
Blog
More Behavorial Advertising Adventures
Back in January I wrote about several advertising industry trade associations coming together to impose self-regulation in an attempt to deter…
Blog
Coming Soon: A Predatory, Anti-Business Federal Trade Commission?
Even an economy in shambles shall not sway the elevation to Federal Trade Commission chairmanship of Jon Leibowitz, an interventionist-minded commissioner who, like all…
Blog
More on Environmental Policies and Protectionism
Marlo made three interesting arguments yesterday contending that cap-and-trade would generate protectionist outcomes. I want to add another, pervasive, yet oft-neglected reason.
Blog
Carney Takes on Stimulus on Liddy, Osorio Takes on Card Check
Today, I was on the G. Gordon Liddy Show, to discuss the current prospects of the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which, as…
Blog
Next Internet Phenomena=lolprez
Blog
Is cap-and-trade inherently protectionist?
Yes, for three reasons. (1) Companies in carbon-constrained countries will demand carbon tariffs to “level the playing field” vis-a-vis firms in non-carbon constrained countries. (2)…
Blog
Will carbon market woes tilt U.S. pols towards carbon taxes, CAA regulation?
In today's Guardian, Juliana Glover reports that carbon permit prices in Europe's Emission Trading System (ETS) have crashed from €31 last summer to €8…
Blog
LibertyWeek 31: What in Dodd’s Name?
Blog
A Gamer Win For Parenting
If you’ve followed my posts here at OpenMarket.org or at my personal site, you’re well aware of the fact that I…
Blog
End Run to a Regulatory Morass
In today's DC Examiner, former CEI Warren Brooks Fellow Jeremy Lott and Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman explain a round-about route to a regulatory nightmare—the…
Blog
Top Ten Federal Rules to Jettison — According to Small Businesses
The Small Business Administration’s Regulatory Review and Reform initiative (r3) has a new compilation of rules that need reform, according to small businesses across…
Blog
Nationalizing the cars and bikes of rock collectors — Pending Omnibus land bill’s forfeiture provision has broad reach
At the same time there has been so much talk of government nationalization of troubled big banks, a bill quickly snaking through Congress would allow…
Blog
Gold is King Among Investors
Gold prices are skyrocketing—recently closing at over $1,000 an ounce, the highest in almost a year—while inflation fears continue rising and the dollar weakens. This…
Blog
TARP in Pictures
We've talked a lot about the TARP or Troubled Assets Relief Program over the past several months here on OpenMarket.org. But perhaps the entire…
Blog
More Grand Theft Common Sense
I used to think that the groups and individuals that sat around eagerly anticipating the launch of a new Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game were…
Blog
John Berlau on Obama’s Mortgage Rescue Plan
Blog
So What Does He Think of Cap & Trade?
Good news and bad news for drivers from federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The good news is: LaHood said he firmly opposes raising the…
Blog
Some Interests Are More Special Than Others
Blog
More protectionism on the horizon?
Good article today by Bloomberg columnist Michael Sesit, who lays out the protectionist actions many countries are taking in the midst of…
Blog
The Auto Bailout We Need
The automakers have come back for more taxpayer money, which is exactly what we warned would happen when the first bailout was granted…
Blog
UBS agrees to deal with the devil
I revoke my previous apology to the Swiss, and reiterate my previous disapproval. As evidenced by the…
Blog
CNBC’s Rick Santelli on Obama’s Mortgage Plan
Blog
To Know Card Check is to Hate it
A recent survey of 1,000 likely voters, conducted in January by the consultancy McLaughlin & Associates, finds an overwhelling majority opposed to the so-called…
Blog
Obama in Canada — where U.S. protectionism is an issue
President Obama is in Canada today to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a range of issues – chief among…
Blog
Fraud in More Ways Than One
The news of the federal fraud charges against billionaire Texan financier Sir Allen Stanford (he got the knighthood from his dual citizenship from Antigua)…
Blog
Will Lisa Jackson turn the Clean Air Act into a gigantic de-stimulus package?
Earlier this week, in a letter to Sierra Club climate council David Bookbinder, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the Agency would reconsider, via…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Obama, Waxman to Square Off on Free Speech
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Marlo Lewis on the Costs of Ethanol
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…