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Trashing Taxpayers
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Life Imitates The Simpsons, Part CCXXXIV
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Claim of consumers’ fear of auto bankruptcy a canard in bailout debate
Eli, in answer to the blog post you phrased as a question, the argument from the individual you heard, echoed by other Big 3…
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Bureaucrats are the Same the World Over
You’ve got to love the European Union. It took the federal government decades to become so extraordinarily bureaucratic, wasteful, and out of touch. The EU…
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Abarackadabra! A 21st Century “New Steal”
JOBS, ROADS, BRIDGES, SCHOOLS, BROADBAND, ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS, ENERGY…blares the Drudge Report. It’s President-elect Obama’s weekend plan—not to produce, but to transfer yet…
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The Wonders of Socialized Medicine, Part LXVI
The Daily Mail reminds us how government health care is compassionate and efficient; So imagine my shock when I saw how some nurses recently…
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A Valid Point In Support of Auto Bailouts?
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How Not to Create Jobs
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The End of Auto Bailouts (Not.)
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Declining Market Power Means Fewer Limits on Government
With much of American finance and industry either on the government dole or desperately trying to get on it, market constraints on political abuses have…
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Celebrating 75 Wet Years
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More on the Carmakers Recovery Assistance Program
Jeremy Clarkson on the fall of the British Auto Industry:…
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The Amazonians Speak Out
I wrote recently of California’s declaration to allow tropical forestry carbon offsets so that California businesses wouldn’t have to actually reduce their…
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Carmakers Recovery Assistance Program
While lawmakers consider whether or not to bail out an industry they holed beneath the waterline, perhaps they could learn from the history on…
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Tech Policy at TechLiberation.com
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Water for the Homeless
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If Obama Rewrites NAFTA, Canada Could Hit Back Hard
As President-elect Obama fills his Cabinet and top-advisor positions, he has not yet named a U.S. Trade Representative, but, as CEI noted, he…
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Feds to Flush Billions More Down the Toilet, Destroying Jobs
The Treasury Department wants the federal government to effectively buy up all mortgage loans in America, by selling treasury bonds to buy up mortgage-backed…
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Federal Spending Without End
Heck, it’s only money, as a friend tells me when he uses his credit card to buy new collectibles which he can’t otherwise afford. That…
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Berlau on Air America today — debating deregulation on Thom Hartmann
Today at noon Eastern time, I will enter the lion's den. I will be live in the New York City studios of liberal network Air…
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The Richardson appointment was nice, but…
When was the last time the U.S.'s top trade official wasn't a strong advocate for free trade? It may happen in the new Obama Administration.
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LibertyWeek 19: Will Obama Torture the Constitution?
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The Dozen Auto Companies that Aren’t Going Bankrupt
The “Big Three”–which really should be called the “Broke Three”–have made their pitch for $34 billion in government aid. What’s a few (billion) bucks among friends?…
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Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee: Justices Confused; Constitution IS Narrower Than Title IX
It's not a good thing for a lawyer when you argue in the Supreme Court and the Justices are confused about your position. But that…
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Wealth-Creating Alternatives to Pelosi’s Destructive Infrastructure “Stimulus”
Well, who can possibly be surprised by the revelation that “The federal government's economic stimulus package will include investment in broadband Internet infrastructure and…
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This week’s Least Objectionable Bureaucrat
My occasional “Least Objectionable Legislator Award” (no prize) takes a detour today and goes to a bureaucrat instead. So the LOL Award (pun intended, I…
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LibertyWeek 19: Will Obama Torture the Constitution?
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Stimulus as if Capitalism Mattered
Those dispensing the "Bailout to Nowhere" proceeds seemingly answer to no one (here's one article behaving as if this were unexpected and surprising). Today…
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Eric Holder and Tech Policy
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The Obama Administration’s Regulatory Opportunity
Columnist Timothy Carney warns that the massive bail-outs now flowing out of Washington will give the incoming Obama administration an opportunity to impose a regulatory…
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Prepare the Money Bombing Raids!
The stock market continues to tank, but have no fear. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Is considering new bail-outs! Reports the Wall Street Journal: Treasury…
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Doug, I think you’re partly wrong
Doug, The situation you describe in the UK here is outrageous however one looks at it. Indeed, it provides a strong case why the…
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Banks Sued No Matter What They Do
Banks get sued for discrimination no matter what they do. If they don’t make enough loans in low-income, predominantly minority neighborhoods, they get accused of “redlining,”…
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Stimulus Follies
President-elect Obama wants a massive stimulus package of $700 billion or more. But previous attempts to artificially stimulate the economy have generally been failures. …
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Health Care Bureaucrats Take Care of Themselves
For years observers have noted the phenomenon of public school teachers sending their kids to private schools–especially in cities with the worst and deadliest public…
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You’ve Just Got to Love Britain’s Health Care Bureaucrats
First the National (Un)Health Service said if you wanted a drug that it wasn’t willing to provide–too expensive for the purpose of saving your miserable…
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DeLorean disproves domsayers in debate over auto bankruptcies
In the debate about bailing out the Big 3 automakers, it is said that we just can’t allow a bankruptcy. Despite the fact that Chapter…
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Imagine that: More Research Suggests that More Research is Needed
It seems that methane hasn’t been behaving as the climate models suggest. Hmmm … another problem for the alarmists who believe that the world is…
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Wasteful “Stimulus” Packages by Government Don’t Work
Only in Washington could politicians and bureaucrats dump more than $2 trillion into bail-out money holes and then claim that the federal government needs to…
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Filling the Federal Money Hole
The Onion explains Washington, D.C. to those Americans who still have a naive civics class view of government. Why is it important to continue filling…
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Holiday foods and natural carcinogens
I always enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday Dinner Menu from the American Council on Science and Health. It lists the natural carcinogens…
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Credit Spiral
So, say you've had a good relationship with a credit card company and been paying off substantially more than minimum payment over recent months. You've…
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Will Obama go after farm bill pork?
Cutting some of the pork in the 2008 farm bill may be on President-elect Obama's plate. In his press conference November 25 to…
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Load Up the B-52s with Dollars!
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Barack Obama Wants to Cut the Budget
Like, oh, maybe 40 of the presidents before him, Barack Obama says that he wants to cut out wasteful programs. At least George W. Bush,…
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World Toilet Day Passed Me By
I was traveling last week and missed World Toilet Day. You didn't notice it either? Too bad. The toilet is a humble creation, one that…
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LibertyWeek 18: The LOST Episode
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Legal High-Seas Hostage Taking?
Ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) would mean a loss of sovereignty and burdensome extraterritorial regulation of U.S. extractive industries. In…
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Holder for Attorney General: Bad, But It Could Be Much Worse
President-elect Obama is poised to appoint Eric Holder as the next attorney general. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, Holder…
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Slowdown may affect green investment, says NYT
An article today in the New York Times notes that the worldwide economic slowdown may hold up investments in clean energy projects to…
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IHT profiles Václav Klaus
The International Herald Tribune takes a look at the in-coming president of the European Union, Václav Klaus, the president of the Czech…
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America the Ungovernable
With respect to the ongoing series of bailouts, my colleague Iain Murray pointed out that some sensible British commentators note that one of the ways…
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Bailout Turning All Banks into Freddie/Fannie
Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae were the catalyst for our current financial crisis. By buying up risky sub-prime mortgages, Freddie & Fannie encouraged banks…
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EFCA’s Unambiguous Language
A recent Washington Times editorial rightly calls the bluff on organized labor’s dubious claim that millions of American workers would eagerly join unions if…
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Socialize Medicine, Kill Cancer Patients
Any American who travels to Europe as I just did is likely to get hit with the argument that the United States is inhumane because…
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Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee: School Board Virtually Concedes Vast New Liability
There's an interesting case pending in the Supreme Court, Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee, that could make Title IX irrelevant in many cases, by creating…
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FT says “nay” to Hillary choice for State
As pundits bet that Sen. Hillary Clinton is a done deal for Secretary of State, today’s editorial in the Financial Times calls it a…
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Geithner choice is ‘more of the same’ — was Paulson’s bailout cohort
If news accounts are true, and Presidet-Elect Barack Obama has indeed decided on Timothy F. Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary nominee, it represents a…
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Student Eye Opener
Cheers to Dewey Crowley for his eye-opening article in the Bowdoin College paper The Bowdoin Orient. His piece on bottled water should be…
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Free Speech Free Zone
Ithaca: Where the 1960s Never Ended. Ithaca, New York, home to my noble alma mater, has long been considered a place where…
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America’s Other Auto Industry, the Successful One
CNN has a great story about the successful auto companies in America, namely those that aren’t named “GM,” “Chrysler,” or “Ford.” Turns out, folks…
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Happy Anniversary, Big Tobacco
In the 1990s, state attorneys general launched massive, unprecedented lawsuits against major tobacco companies, claiming the companies owed the states for the past costs of…
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Hollywood Rep. to Wield Power Over Copyright Law
My colleague Cord asked me about proposing a tech agenda for Congress given the ascendancy today of Henry Waxman to Energy and Commerce Chairmanship;…
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More on Waxman and Tech
As Cord mentioned earlier, Henry Waxman has been named incoming Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which the Subcommittee on Telecommunications…
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Too Bad Daschle Isn’t at SEC — Backed Sarbanes-Oxley Relief
President-Elect Barack Obama just nominated former Senate Democratic Leader Tom to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. Much is being written about Daschle…
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Chairman Waxman on USF & Net Neutrality
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Daschle: Good, Wrong, and Terrible
President-elect Obama has named Tom Daschle to head the Department of Health and Human Services. By some measures the largest department in the government,…
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Celebrate Coal (or, How I Just Tripled My Carbon Footprint)
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Is Beer Next?
In my prior post on bottled water bans on campus I asked: If greens can get water banned, what next? Students over 21…
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John Berlau on the Auto Bailout
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Academic Nanny State
Both universities and elementary schools are going after bottled water, as if that were the greatest threat facing students today! At the grade and…
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The Least Objectionable Legislator Award
My occasional "Least Objectionable Legislator Award" today goes to Michele Bachmann (R-MN) for a solid statement at today's hearings on the Bailout on Wheels,…
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The Big Tobacco Deal’s 10th Anniversary
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LibertyWeek 17: One New Cabinet – Some Assembly Required
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LibertyWeek 17: One New Cabinet, Some Assembly Required
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University of Socialism to be Founded by Iran, Venezuela
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Obey GE
This is “Green Week,” NBC's annual effort to show you how to “green your routine.” It sounds innocuous enough, but “Green Week” is actually part…
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From Each According to his Profitability…
That seems to be the motto of Illinois, at least of those legislators who decided to tax casinos in order to prop up…
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Hillary at State — not good for trade
Controversy continues over the strong possibility of President-elect Barack Obama naming Sen. Hillary Clinton as the new Secretary of State. Politico today notes…
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The Auto Industry Has a Rich History of Failure
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GM Fiction & Scare Tactics
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Pure Hype about Bottled Water
The company producing Pur Filters is touting the fact that its filters can remove trace pharmaceuticals and even some (but they don’t guarantee it…
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The Government Money Hole
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To Blame Laissez-Faire, Anti-Market Media Must Do Better
Like many of us at CEI, it looks like my former boss Phil Gramm isn't interested in helping anybody pretend that today's financial crisis was…
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Are We Socialists Yet?
The term socialist got tossed around a lot in the recent presidential campaign. But Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute says we’re already there. And…
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Brits Say Care More Expensive, Lower Quality than in Estonia
Ah, socialized medicine. Everyone is guaranteed care, right? And the government saves so much money that is wasted in America. Well, so much for the…
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President Bush — In defense of free markets and capitalism
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Were Lada factories this bad?
As the Senate prepares to debate the proposed $25 billion bailout bill for the Big Three Detroit automakers, it’s worth pointing out — as…
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Championing civil liberties — mostly
I’ve been a closet admirer of Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) since he singlehandedly opposed the Patriot Act in the Senate. According to…
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Will the G20 Only Make Matters Worse?
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How Not to Solve a Crisis
…is the title of a useful contribution to the discussion from the International Policy Network in London and the Lion Rock Institute in Hong…
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Bureaucrash’s Pete Eyre in the DC Examiner
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Interesting headline
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VIDEO: Understanding the Financial Crisis
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Tories Retreat From Green Taxes
A major part in the rebranding of the British Conservative Party following a traumatic election defeat (sound familiar?) in 2005 was a turn to environmentalism.
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Battling Bail-Outs: A Little Backbone at Last?
After having voted for or passively accepted some $2 trillion in federal bail-outs, a few congressmen seem be growing uneasy with the lengthening soup-line. The…
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Ugly Vegetables and Fruit Again to be Sold in Europe!
Amazing. The European Union actually responded to criticism. About one-fifth of European produce has to be dumped because it doesn’t mean minimum EU standards, which…
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BusinessWeek Cites CEI on the Auto Industry Bailout
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More on Deflation
Good stuff from Joseph Lawler at the American Spectator, defending Robert Samuelson from, err, Robert Samuelson. He concludes: No reasonable observer of government…
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Lame Duck Flies in the Face of Americans’ Rights
The Bush administration is arguable one of the most wildly unprincipled in the history of the white house. They have acquiesced to or…