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Stopping Wasteful Spending: Better Latte Than Never
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Costa’s Confusion on Net Neutrality
As PC Magazine ends its run as a print publication and moves to an online-only model, columnist Dan Costa pens a good, yet confused, column.
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The Thaw Could Melt Our Cynical Hearts
Fans of eco-apocalyptic movies will be happy right now. The past few months have seen a veritable bonanza in human-killing eco-excellence.
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Nationalized Health Care: Growing the Nanny State
Advocates of the Nanny State have long been with us. What was Prohibition but an early manifestation of government treating everyone as children to protect…
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LibertyWeek 24: Pro-Freedom Pop Culture
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Soundbites vs. The World
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New ABC Show Glorifies Failed Immigration Policies, Drug War
ABC is debuting its new show “Homeland Security USA” tonight at 8pm eastern time. Presumably the show is intended to make us all proud…
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Krugman is No Liberal
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Ron Asheton, RIP
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Expanding Government, Corrupting Business
Tossing money at most anyone who shows up in Washington touting a sob story in the company of a lobbyist is doing more than impoverishing taxpayers. The…
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Wasn’t Sea Ice Supposed to be Disappearing?
I’m totally confused. The world was supposed to be ending, and one alleged sign was the disappearance of sea ice. But the ice is back. …
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A Nobel Low: Krugman Calls Small Government Philosophies Racist
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Card Check Loses Support, but Threat Isn’t Over
Today in The Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel dissects the shifting political prospects for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), commonly known as the…
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Obama Enjoys Bottled Water
According to news reports, the Obama family was welcomed into their temporary home at the Hay-Adams Hotel with a complementary supply of Fiji bottled water.
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Green for the Greens, Lumps of Coal for Everyone Else
Mark Tapscott, in today’s Washington Examiner, explodes the propaganda from the “Reality Campaign,” a coalition of leftist environmental groups, which has all but…
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Economy Worsens, Congress Gives Itself a Raise
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The EU Propaganda Machine
Government propaganda is always irritating, especially because that means politicians are taxing citizens to pay for a snow job for those same citizens. The European…
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More Money For Your Mattress
America's biggest maker of mattress springs has been hard at work...in Washington. After all that work, the Department of Commerce is in bed with the…
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No Money in Washington, D.C.? No Matter!
Washington, D.C. is another world. Today the company newsletter, otherwise known as the Washington Post, had an article entitled “U.S. Debt Expected to Soar…
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Prediction 2009: No Net Neutrality Regulation
Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but I think that 2009 may see the death of calls for net neutrality regulation and may even see…
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The Goldwater Century
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On Stalin’s Endurance
In a recent poll conducted in Russia on who is the “greatest” Russian ever, Joseph Stalin came in third (after Alexander Nevsky, who repelled…
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Remember, the Government Wants to Manage Your Health Care!
Just think how wonderful it would be if government guaranteed everyone health care. Just like in Great Britain! Just ask Lynne Neilson what she thinks…
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Irrational Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines
Massachusetts has long had some of the most excessive child support guidelines in the nation: for just one child, the father is ordered to…
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Carney on the “Year of the Bailout”
Following Iain Murray’s farewell to 2008’s bailout-o-rama, Former CEI Brookes Fellow Tim Carney, in his Washington Examiner column, bids farewell to “The Year…
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A Silver Lining in the Terrible Madoff Ponzi Scheme?
Point of Law carries a news item called “Left-Wing Legal Groups Reeling from Madoff Affair.” Bernard Madoff, the architect of a $50 billion ponzi…
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Gold Is Not the Enemy – Poverty Is
National Geographic magazine has published an article titled The Price of Gold focusing on the high price of gold and the…
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Thank You, 2008, and Good Riddance!
For supporters of freedom and markets, the Year of Our Lord 2008 has been close to a disaster. As D:Ream used to sing, things can…
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The End of the Global Warming Frenzy
Sunday was a beautiful day in Washington. The temperature hit the high 60s and I wore shorts. I dreamed it was spring. But as the…
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LibertyWeek 23: Madoff About You
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The New Energy Blog in Town
CEI mentor and friend Julian Simon called energy the “master resource” in his 1970 book Population Matters. He called it that because “energy enables…
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Prediction 2009: No Agreement at Copenhagen
The global warming community have suggested for a while now that, given the almost-certain change in US administration policy on global warming (remember John McCain’s…
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Peter Schiff: A Financial Prophet
Watch this great video and see the scorning and scoffing of a man predicting a financial meltdown due to the housing situation. And read…
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Al Gore, Call Your Office: Climate Alarmist Says there’s no Alarm
Global warming is a tough issue for laymen. Learned people strut about saying that the science is conclusive, done, finished. The world is destined for…
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An End to the Good Times?
Egads. Even the New York Times isn’t sure that the good times of endless government spending can go on forever. Peter Goodman writes in…
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Bailouts Aggravate Financial Crisis
In the New York Times, economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University argues that the $700 billion financial-system bailout is impeding an economic recovery. Because…
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Point/Counterpoint
Germans build “passive houses” to reduce CO2 emissions. British children fall asleep in stuffy eco-classrooms.
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A Price on Carbon is No Panacea
Environmentalists hate coal. The recent This Is Reality campaign also seeks to point out that Clean Coal technology doesn’t exist yet. And they…
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Davis-Bacon from the Pork Barrel
In today’s Wall Street Journal, the Brookings Institution’s Clifford Winston points out some critical pitfalls likely to face the infrastructure spending element of President-elect…
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Are the Golf Carts Made with Union Labor?
Throughout the Detroit automakers’ bailout saga, the United Auto Workers’ leadership has claimed that the union has made enough major concessions to date, and…
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Jail Time for Conflict of Interest?
David Bruggeman at Prometheus has what I think can only be described as an extreme view of conflict of interest: An Emory University Researcher…
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Legal Terrorists on the Loose
One can appreciate the difficulties faced by people with disabilities when they attempt to navigate streets and stores. But government legislation has unfairly turned a…
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Madoff: Hiding in Plain Sight, Thanks to SEC
Contrary to popular belief, Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme was subject to to a variety of financial regulations, something he actually used as a selling…
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So Who is Getting All of the Taxpayers’ Cash?
Amazing. Not only are trillions of dollars being passed around to bail out any business with at least a couple congressmen on its side. But…
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Seeking Accountability–After Handing out $350 Billion!
Oops. Congress finally has bestirred itself after the administration used $350 billion in ways different from what it originally promised, and then required nothing of…
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A Christmas Present for the Labor Lobby?
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No holiday cheer here
If you’re looking for holiday cheer, you might not want to read Holman Jenkins’ article in the Wall Street Journal today, even though…
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LibertyWeek 22: It Sure Is Looking Christmasy
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Trillion is the new billion
When you get calls from your friends specifically to talk about their zany ideas on how to reduce the national debt you know that the…
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Stimulus Plans: Economic Failures, But Sometimes Political Successes
So-called “stimulus packages” don’t revive the economy, but that hasn’t stopped President-elect Obama from pushing a budget-busting $850 billion stimulus package. Japan…
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More Criticism for Unconstitutional Auto Bailout
Andrew Sullivan, George Will, Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the Heritage Foundation, and many others have joined CEI in calling the auto bailout Unconstitutional.
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Fewer Toys for Christmas
Small toy manufacturers may go out of business thanks to the “Consumer Product Safety Act of 2008,” which Congress hastily passed in response to…
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Bush Auto Bailout Illegal, Bailout Supporter Admits
Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who supports bailing out the Detroit automakers (whose unionized workers are paid $70 an hour), nevertheless points out…
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Drew Edmondson’s Prosecution of Paul Jacob Is Unconstitutional
The federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has declared unconstitutional an Oklahoma law banning non-residents from helping to collect signatures for ballot initiatives…
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The Real Auto Bailout: A Six Point Plan for Regulatory Relief
Here’s what the auto companies really need – a reduction in the regulatory burden placed on them by Congress. These burdens have placed Detroit at…
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GM-Chrysler Merger Likely Blocked by Antitrust
General Motors & Chrysler could be strengthened by a merger, an option that wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. But, the idea has been pushed aside,…
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“Calling all economists . . .”
Supposedly President-elect Obama’s transition team has been calling up economists and asking for their views on a possible $1 trillion stimulus spending plan. …
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A loophole wide enough to drive a GMC truck though
The Bush administration’s outline of its automaker bailout package lists some seemingly sensible changes in labor practices that GM and Chrysler need to…
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An Insult to the American People
Thumbing its nose at the American people, who have opposed a bailout for automakers by a two-to-one margin in public opinion polls, the Bush…
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Ron Kirk’s Texas origins may temper trade stance
Selecting former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as the nominee for U.S. Trade Representative sends a signal that perhaps President-elect Obama will temper his anti-trade…
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Bush Bailout Beggars Belief
If there’s one provision in the GM/Chrysler bailout that I just don’t get, it’s the suggestion that the automakers must be financially viable by…
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Killing Without the Smile
The National Health Service loves to save money. Too bad that means denying essential medical care and killing patients. But what’s a bureaucracy for? The…
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Mortgage Madness
Here is a letter I fired to the Wall Street Journal: December 17, 2008 Editor, The Wall Street Journal 200 Liberty Street New…
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Likely Obama Appointee Includes Climate Change Alarmist John Holdren
On the heels of creating a new position for the scandal-plagued and therefore, presumably, unconfirmable Carol Browner to lord over Senate-confirmed cabinet officials in pursuit…
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Minnesota Vote Manipulation Likely Overturns Key Senate Election
The Minnesota Senate election was very close: GOP incumbent Norm Coleman led liberal ex-comedian Al Franken by just 725 votes. As a result, Franken demanded a recount. …
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How Do Regulations Stack Up as a Small Firm Grows?
Tomorrow, electric utilities and green groups team up at the National Press Club to ask for billions of new spending on what they term energy…
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Solis: Could have been worse…but not much
According to the Associated Press, President-elect Barack Obama is about to name Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor. If Rep. Solis’s voting…
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Taylor Tells of Tol’s Ton Toll
Jerry Taylor of Cato has an excellent summary of what the scientific literature tells us about the social cost of carbon emissions, drawing on…
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What’s $50 Billion Among Friends?
Bernard Madoff defrauded investors out of an unprecedented $50 billion, in a massive Ponzi scheme that was perhaps the vilest swindle of the century. But a…
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From CEI’s President: Remembering Paul M. Weyrich
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Fed Chairman Uses Incompetent Ratings Firms for Bailout
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is basing hundreds of billions in emergency lending on credit ratings from companies that gave AAA grades to toxic…
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Credit Card Price Controls Harm Consumers
The Wall Street Journal editorial got it exactly right: The Federal Reserve cut rates to historic lows Tuesday, but today it…
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Paul M. Weyrich, RIP
[Since I wrote this, Paul Weyrich’s last column was published the day of his death, “The Next Conservatism, A Serious Agenda for the Future”…
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The Value of a Dollar
Yesterday the dollar reach a 13-year low against the Euro as the Federal Reserve continues to pump new money into the system. All of this…
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Yahoo! vs. the Obama Justice Department
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Coming to an ISP Near You: Google Servers
Over at the Tech Liberation Front, the Internet’s premier free market technology blog, we’re discussing the implications of Google’s OpenEdge program. The program plans to…
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China’s Economic “Boost”
Recently, the Chinese government released a plan to “boost” the Chinese money supply and stimulate the economy. Unlike Americans, people in China actually save…
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Bailouts Unconstitutional Failures
Jacob Sullum’s recent column argues that Bush’s auto bailout plan is an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers. We earlier argued that it was…
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LibertyWeek 21: We Clear Ourselves of All Wrongdoing
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VIDEO: Fred Thompson on the Economy
In a great satire of today's political doublespeak, Fred Thompson tells us why the sophisticated policies coming out of Washington defy common sense. How do…
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Paulson’s Bailout Was a Scam
National Review editor Rich Lowry, who mistakenly supported the financial system bailout because he trusted the Bush Administration, now realizes that he was deceived by…
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Iain Murray on Obama’s Energy Team
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUVzVXz19I8 285 234]…
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No Regrets Greenery for Kids
In recent days I’ve been heavily exposed to commercials featuring the Nickelodeon network’s teen stars advocating The Big Green Help, including, Lord help us,…
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Fed Cuts Rates, Punishing Thrift, and Impoverishing Savers
The Federal Reserve has just cut the federal funds rate for loans to banks to an unprecedentedly low rate — ranging from 0.0% to…
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Auto Bailout Would Kill Jobs, Impoverish Taxpayers
A bailout would be worse for the auto industry than automakers filing for bankruptcy, explains banking and bankruptcy expert Todd Zywicki, a law professor,…
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Broken Windows, Broken Logic
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The Cloverfield Monster of the Internet
Earlier posts today dealt with the hoo-ha over Net Neutrality. By coincidence, an anonymous colleague put the following old 1996 quote by Sen. James Exon…
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EU Climate Agreement All Smoke and Mirrors
So if the EU has just put together an agreement to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, why are the climate alarmist groups calling it…
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Stupid v. Evil
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Stupid v. Evil
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“Net Neutrality,” RIP? Well, One Can Hope
Net neutrality has long been a threat to Internet users. Despite the rhetoric and appeals to “openness,” it was always an anti-consumer enterprise, irretrievably and…
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Why Not a Wal-Mart Bank?
Seems like every business these days is becoming what’s called a “bank holding company” — seeking the shelter of the federal government’s deposit insurance and…
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Bush’s Auto Bailout: Illegal or Unconstitutional
The Bush Administration is planning to bailout the Big Three. It's using part of the $700 bill financial sector bailout package by seizing on TARP's…
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Lawrence Lessig and Fighting Corruption
Lawrence Lessig has recently shifted his focus away from intellectual property and technology policy and toward tackling the larger issue of political corruption. It’s quite…
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Antitrust Liberalization May Avert Need for Bailouts; Outdated Laws Deter Efficient Mergers
In early 2007, the economy was humming along and General Motors was considered to be in the process of a turnaround. To help stabilize itself,…
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Jimmy Carter Disowns the Dictator Mugabe, His Frankenstein
After years of criticizing supposedly “unilateral” American military intervention in places like Iraq (where the U.S. was actually acting in concert with other countries, like…
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Deregulatory Bailout
There are hundreds of regulations that Congress and agencies have imposed on the auto industry, driving up their costs unnecessarily. As an illustration, these are…
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U.S. and Latin America need closer ties
Four former presidents of Latin American countries and the former president of Spain joined in an ardent plea for the U.S.
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Jay Leno Riffs on the Bailout
A new viral email, claiming to be jokes written by Mr. Leno, adds a bit of humor to the financial crisis. As business and government…
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The UAW’s Three-Year Emergency Response
Last night, the Detroit Big Three bailout package crashed and burned for the best of reasons. To their credit, Senate Republicans refused to abide…