The Open Market Blog

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/21/2008

At a press briefing with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak at Camp David on April 19, President Bush announced that Korea will reopen its…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/21/2008

The European Union finally is doing something useful.  It is defending people against noisy bagpipes. Reports the Sunday Times: THEIR high-pitched skirl has put…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/20/2008

The Washington Post has an editorial debunking false claims made by House leaders against the proposed trade agreement with Colombia.  “There are two important…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/19/2008

Last fall I spoke on globalization at the John Locke Foundation, a state-based think tank headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s a great group. Of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/19/2008

As chairman and CEO of taxpayer-subsidized mortgage giant Fannie Mae, Franklin D. Raines promoted reckless lending policies that helped cause the housing bubble and mortgage crisis.  …

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/18/2008

The Washington Examiner has a must-read editorial called “Baby Snatching by Arlington County.” It shows that if County social workers seize your…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 04/18/2008

Today’s Wall Street Journal carries a front-page story by Ann Davis and Russell Gold on the surge in natural gas prices. The subtitle reads, in…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 04/18/2008

  In An Inconvenient Truth (AIT), Al Gore, recalling the sudden break up of the Larson-B ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002, implied that the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/18/2008

At a time when liberal condescension is an important issue in domestic American politics, we shouldn’t forget that it is extremely important in the global…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/18/2008

With negotiations stalled on the 2007 Farm Bill, President Bush is expected to sign a one-week extension of the current law so that lawmakers…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/18/2008

As the ethanol disaster gets more and more apparent, the liberal left is trying to wriggle out of any responsibility for it, blaming it on…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 04/17/2008

The FCC is continuing its desperate search for a reason to exist. This year it's decided to assert its relevance by reengaging an issue that…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/17/2008

Point of Law reports on an appeals court hearing Tuesday over the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.   (The PCAOB, which produces tons of red tape…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/17/2008

A global warming lawsuit by Eskimos seeks to impose conspiracy liability on oil and power companies for giving money to groups that question the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/17/2008

Meanwhile, British grocery chain Sainsbury’s has rejected the idea, proposed by the British government as its major (yes…) environmental initiative, of charging shoppers for…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/17/2008

This, from British Tory leader David Cameron, who has made his name as a conservative promoter of green issues, is very interesting: Launching the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/17/2008

British Conservative Party finance spokesman George Osborne seems to have a blinkered approach to certain aspects of the economy: “An economic strategy for the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

So much foreign-aid money is being spent on costly AIDS treatment in Africa, compared to other diseases, that “H.I.V.-infected children are offered exemplary treatment, while…

• By: Jonathan Tolman
• 04/16/2008

Following up on Angela’s post: What is even more egregious about the Post article on Bisphenol A (BPA) is that it fails to put…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 04/16/2008

Reading the headline of a Washington Post story today, you would think that government researchers have made a new and major finding on a…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

International courts and “human rights” bodies issue rulings that purport to have the force of law.  But much of their reasoning is based not on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

House leaders blocked the House from even voting on a trade deal between the U.S. and Colombia that would have cut America’s trade deficit…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/15/2008

Ethanol and biofuels have been wrongly depicted by politicians like Al Gore as a solution to global warming.  But in reality, subsidized ethanol production gravely harms the environment, and also…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/15/2008

We’re hearing some very bad things about the President’s likely unconditional surrender on global warming tomorrow. One senior source suggested that the last line of…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 04/15/2008

Doug, Obviously, stories like the one you related show that socialized medicine is a bad idea. In this context, it’s worth noting two things:…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 04/15/2008

With all the recent talk of net neutrality, it's easy to lose sight of the fundamental problem with broadband in America: the…

• By: Christine Hall
• 04/15/2008

I know, I know, the French are targets of easy ridicule here in the USA. But still. Seems French lawmakers passed a bill making it…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/15/2008

It’s really hard being Bill and Hillary Clinton.  They are good liberals, but have collected an incredible $109 million since leaving the office.  So…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 04/14/2008

I don’t visit ATMs much anymore. Instead, I mostly rely on credit cards. Credit cards are now accepted by all kinds of stores, from small,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

In the Washington Post, David Ignatius writes about the long-run economic costs of mortgage bailouts, which infantilize voters.  Through bailouts, we are “creating a system of transfer…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

“Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving” soon, the International Monetary Fund says.  Government officials and food relief agencies quoted in the story…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/11/2008

You’ve got to love socialized medicine.  You have to wait for appointments.  You have to wait when you call to schedule appointments.  And you’ve got…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/11/2008

Former Open Market editor Peter Suderman emailed this week with a new FreedomWorks video on the mortgage bailout. The message is simple – people…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/11/2008

Last night, I watched an ABC News segment on the latest batch of canceled airline flights.  Hundreds of American Airlines flights have been canceled, stranding…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

The Senate has just passed a bad, pork-laden “foreclosure relief” bill that would actually increase foreclosures, as the Washington Post earlier noted.  House leaders are…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 04/10/2008

For several weeks, General Electric, as part of its “Eco-magination” campaign, has been running a tv commercial in which a tree uproots itself, shuffles down a hill, crosses the street,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

We previously wrote about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban private-sector employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and how the bill’s requirements regarding “conditions of…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/10/2008

Our good friend Steve Milloy gets some ink today in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, where columnist Jack Markowitz profiles the Free Enterprise Action Fund:…

• By: William Yeatman
• 04/09/2008

Last Saturday, Hans wrote a blog post about unrest in Egypt sparked by inflation in the price of food, which, in turn, is caused…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/09/2008

This excerpt from an upcoming book called the Animal Research War by P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker. Both are affiliated with National…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Ron Bailey writes about the “global food crisis” that has resulted in food riots across the world, in countries like Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, Yemen, Haiti, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Previously, we wrote about how the Senate “foreclosure relief” bill will actually increase, rather than reduce, foreclosures, while costing taxpayers a bundle, and how…

• By: William Yeatman
• 04/08/2008

It’s been a bad week for China’s global image. French police had to extinguish the Olympic torch three times due to “Free Tibet” agitators, who…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/08/2008

As I noted yesterday, the Bush Administration on April 7 sent to Congress a transmittal letter and implementing legislation for the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman debunks the idea that converting from oil to ethanol will cut global warming: “The subsidized conversion of crops into…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 04/07/2008

Today, the new green badge of honor appears to be going to people who build and live in “green homes” that meet standards set by…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/07/2008

President George Bush today sent a transmittal letter to Congress with the implementing legislation for the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  Under trade rules, Congress…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

Most housing discrimination laws don’t prevent you from living with roommates of a particular sex (not surprising, given than women generally don’t want a male roommate).  But…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

The Washington Post today editorialized against the Senate housing bill, the so-called “Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008,” noting that it is actually “A Pro-Foreclosure Bill”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

In an effort to help borrowers and some overextended big banks, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to very low levels, triggering a fall in…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/06/2008

And so film legend and freedom lover Charlton Heston has left us, at age 84. There are already hundreds of obituaries and tributes,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Wheat production is down in the world’s breadbaskets, like the United States, as farmland shifts away from wheat to ethanol production.  Ethanol production has increased because of government ethanol mandates…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Liberal reporter Darryl Fears, who covers racial and civil-rights issues for the Washington Post, has a truly odd perspective.  In an article on the declining membership…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd is preparing a bill that would bail out mortgage borrowers who borrowed so much, and made such small…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/04/2008

On the topic of Rep. Campbell’s innovative new addition to the tax code, it seems strange that any serious people are really complaining…

• By: Christine Hall
• 04/04/2008

This is a thing of beauty. For all those liberals who complain that government needs to siphon off more of our money to squander, my…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/04/2008

The federal appeals court in New York City killed a $200 billion class action lawsuit against the tobacco industry brought in the name of America’s…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

The Wall Street Journal warns taxpayers to “hold onto your wallet.”  Why?  It cites Congressman Barney Frank’s multibillion dollar mortgage bailout bill, which may pass the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

Voters have replaced a liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Louis Butler, with a moderate judge who ran against him.  Butler’s appointment to fill a vacancy…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

The bill fashioned by Senate leaders to supposedly “help” homeowners struggling with their mortgages contains tons of left-wing pork, such as money for “mortgage counseling”…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 04/02/2008

This week's C:\Spin (#197), CEI's tech policy newsletter, casts net neutrality in the appropriate light. Calling out proponents of neutrality for what they are--political…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 04/02/2008

The Bush Administration has decided that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is too bureaucratic to follow when it comes to building a fence along…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/02/2008

The Senate is poised to pass a foolish mortgage bailout for certain borrowers.  Robert Samuelson explains in the Washington Post why a similar House…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/01/2008

Senate leaders of both parties are hammering out a deal to pass a “foreclosure relief” bill that would apparently contain a mortgage bailout for certain borrowers who…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/01/2008

Congratulations are in order to our friend Steve Milloy, who is celebrating the 12th year of his flagship website, Junkscience.com. Ever since 1996 he’s…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/01/2008

At a press conference today, House and Senate conferees negotiating the 2007 Farm Bill said that they had decided to scrap the bloated $287…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/01/2008

Maryland legislators are inflicting a moronic new “diversity” mandate on Maryland colleges. Legislation to force institutions of higher learning in Maryland to create…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

The Fed has cut interest rates to ridiculously low levels to try to bail out mortgage borrowers and prop up the U.S. economy.  But that has led…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

The Supreme Court turned away the Justice Department’s appeal of a ruling that will make it harder to prosecute New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson, who was…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

Recently, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down regional taxes to pay for transportation improvements, such as the perverse grantor’s tax on homeowners, based on the principle…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/31/2008

Business incubators have long been a place where small companies can get help that makes them grow to the next level. A non-profit in Hyderabad…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

Yahoo Finance discusses how mortgage bailout measures turn Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper on its head, rewarding irresponsibility and punishing thrift…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/30/2008

One of the most ignorant and gratingly common complaints about American politics is that of their being bland, uninteresting, and failing to engage large segments…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/30/2008

In his latest column, former CEI Warren Brookes Fellow Tim Carney looks at how rent-seeking opportunities based on  feel-good environmental campaigns, which are currently…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/29/2008

Bailing out mortgage borrowers is a bad idea that most Americans oppose.  Yet the “Bush administration is finalizing details of a plan,” “backed by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/28/2008

“U.S. capital markets again lost ground against global competitors last year, highlighting the need to streamline regulation and crack down on excessive securities litigation,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/28/2008

Most Americans oppose a mortgage bailout, both for borrowers and for lenders.  They oppose bailouts for homeowners by a roughly 2-to-1 margin (53 percent…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 03/28/2008

The National Center for Public Policy Research has a new study, and Internet ad, on the proposal to list the polar bear under the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/28/2008

Mark Tapscott writes about disgraced New York politician Eliot Spitzer’s hypocrisy in the Examiner.   Spitzer flouted the rules while loudly berating others for real or imaginary transgressions,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/28/2008

In today’s New York Times, a feature story profiles a project to create a national economic planning supercomputer by the socialist government of Salvador…

• By: Gregory Conko
• 03/28/2008

Courtesy of Todd Zywicki at the Volokh Conspiracy, I’ve just learned that President Bush will be appointing William Kovacic to chair the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/28/2008

Morning edition had an amazing story about the government race to patent the atom bomb this morning. The patenting process actually jeopardized the secrecy…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 03/27/2008

Today, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson announced that EPA would respond to the Supreme Court global warming case, Massachusetts v. EPA, by issuing an Advance Notice of…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 03/26/2008

The US government is no stranger to ridiculousness. As Eli pointed out in his recent study on dumb product bans, the logic (I use…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/26/2008

“Lawsuit Abuse Kills Puppies,” reports Ted Frank at Overlawyered.  “Rogier von Bakel is furious at his local SPCA because they would rather put a…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/26/2008

American lawyers, who are overwhelmingly liberal, cite foreign law when it is politically inconvenient, and ignore it when it isn’t.  They like to cite it to argue…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/26/2008

Prodded by the President, Congress belatedly moved to curb abusive class-action lawsuits through the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005.  But when one door to extortionate…

• By: Gregory Conko
• 03/26/2008

Courtesy of Ivan, I’ve been directed to this press release from the Weston A. Price Foundation decrying a U.S. FDA and California Department of…