The Open Market Blog

• By: Iain Murray
• 06/04/2008

A gang of the usual enviro suspects (NRDC, Blue Green Alliance, Sierra Club and Green For All) together with the United Steel Workers and the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/04/2008

The ACLU claims to exist to protect the civil liberties and constitutional rights of all Americans, but it’s really just an unprincipled left-wing lobbying group.  Recently,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 06/03/2008

Fittingly only a few days after CEI’s dinner celebrated the Great Revolutionary Ideas, it’s time to pay tribute to a music revolutionary, Bo Diddley,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 06/02/2008

Ever since Fidel Castro handed over the official reins of power to his (not that much) younger brother Raul, pundits and editorial writers have taken…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 06/02/2008

Whenever I see farmers protesting, I usually expect them to be crying out for government favors in the form of higher subsidies and trade barriers…

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/02/2008

It looks like the impasse on the U.S.-South Korea trade agreement will get worse before it gets better. A mad cow disease scare…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 06/01/2008

Via fark.com, there’s a Daily Mail story about how more than 100 homeless people live permanently in London’s Heathrow airport. There’s no clear source…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/01/2008

War-torn Afghanistan, a critical front in the war on terrorism, is being impoverished by rising food prices aggravated by ethanol subsidies and mandates, reports the June…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/30/2008

Texas’s Child Protective Services (CPS), which the state supreme court ruled acted illegally in seizing more than 400 children, repeatedly abused children, according to…

• By: John Berlau
• 05/30/2008

Last week, I discovered a bizarre requirement for a fingerprint registrty in housing legislation that had just passed the Senate Banking Committee. In an OpenMarket…

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/30/2008

Contrary to popular belief, regulators tend to be very clever people. They know the rules of the game, and they know to how to use…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/30/2008

The Greenlining Institute, which is funded by money diverted from class-action lawsuits brought in the name of consumers, is now lobbying the California legislature…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/29/2008

The Texas Supreme Court has just affirmed an appeals court ruling that Texas’s Child Protective Services (CPS) illegally seized more than 400 children whose…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/29/2008

Ethanol subsidies are contributing to worldwide hunger.  Islamic extremist groups are exploiting that hunger by tying food aid to anti-Western political indoctrination.  (Ethanol…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/29/2008

The Supreme Court made up some new laws on Tuesday because it thought they were a good idea, as the Washington Post’s editorial today notes.

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/29/2008

State Child Protective Services (CPS) are increasingly seizing children from their parents for trivial reasons or over baseless, anonymous allegations, as the Washington Examiner describes…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/28/2008

Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) illegally seized 465 children from parents in a religious sect based on an anonymous, fabricated allegation by a woman outside the sect…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/28/2008

I wonder what Matt Welch means when he accuses Czech President Vaclav Klaus of “resisting most efforts to come to public (let alone legal)…

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/28/2008

Barack Obama says he would keep in place the 47-year old Cuban trade embargo if elected President. CNN says Obama views the trade restrictions…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/28/2008

What can you say about a health care system that treats animals more quickly than humans?  Reports Macleans: Dr. Danny Joffe is only half…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 05/27/2008

The Washington Examiner has an editorial today titled “Environmentalism is not about the Environment.”  Indeed. …

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/27/2008

The Washington Examiner has an interesting editorial today called “Environmentalism Isn’t About the Environment.”  It describes how environmental measures expand and metastasize government power in ways…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/26/2008

In the Washington Examiner, Daniel Ballon and Lawrence McQuillan criticize a bill pending in Congress that would lead to credit card companies reducing their rebates to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/25/2008

The federal government massively subsidizes corn-based ethanol production, even though it consumes as much energy as it generates, thus doing nothing to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  Yet the federal government…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/23/2008

In a strong defense of international trade  and the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, President George W. Bush in a Fox interview today also worried…

• By: John Berlau
• 05/23/2008

Author’s note: See follow-up post “Are Borrowers Next?” Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/22/2008

On Reason‘s blog today, Michael C. Moynihan asks the question, “Does Yusuf al-Qaradawi Qualify as an Intellectual?” Moynihan was referring to al…

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/22/2008

Right now South Korea is working toward a free trade agreement with the U.S. It could increase trade between the two nations by…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 05/22/2008

Stuck with limited ISP choices, broadband users are increasingly angry with the growing number of providers that poke around in their customers' traffic.

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/22/2008

“An appeals court has ruled that Texas had no right to seize hundreds of children from a polygamous sect.”  The children were seized after someone pretending to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/21/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins explains why mortgage bailout proposals would reward greedy and foolish borrowers and speculators in certain regions at…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/21/2008

The Wall Street Journal criticized yesterday’s appeals court ruling that paper money discriminates against the blind.  Even the National Federation of the Blind…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/21/2008

In an editorial today, the Washington Times skewers the 35 Republican Senators and 100 representatives who voted for what the WT called the “odious”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/21/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, economist and former Carter Administration official Fred Bergsten chides Congressional leaders for blocking votes on trade agreements with friendly countries like…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/20/2008

According to their press release today, the Business Roundtable convened a policy meeting with CEOs of major companies and members of Congress to urge…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/20/2008

A divided D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled 2-to-1 that paper money discriminates against the blind in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, in American…

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/20/2008

All data are not treated equally on the Internet. There is only so much bandwidth to go around, so service providers…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/20/2008

David Brooks’ column today in the New York Times discusses the Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s positions on the bloated Farm Bill in…

• By: William Yeatman
• 05/20/2008

E&E News has an advance copy of Senate EPW…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/19/2008

Genetically-modified (“GM”) crops help the environment in many ways.  They reduce the need for pesticide use by engineering plants to be more blight-resistant.  And by reducing the amount of land…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/19/2008

Ala Don Boudreaux’s style at Cafehayek, below is a letter I sent to the Wall Street Journal last week: Jason…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/17/2008

Remember, the answer to our health care problems is to turn over health care decisions to the government.  Everyone will have access to health care. …

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/16/2008

This story reveals a startlingly obvious fact: immigrants help American intelligence agencies. “The intelligence agencies lack people who can speak the languages that are…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/16/2008

The new Farm Bill is a done deal — with both the House and the Senate passing the conference report with huge numbers:…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/16/2008

Tim Carney continues exposing the politically motivated pork that politicians dole out to buy support and campaign contributions. This week, in his DC Examiner…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/16/2008

This Wall Street Journal article about Ben Bernanke’s “Bubble Laboratory” is a fascinating look at economic bubbles and the changing nature of the…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 05/16/2008

I’m looking for examples of effective tech lobbyists. We’ve seen a lot of people moving from the Valley to the Hill lately. Microsoft has gone…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/16/2008

The Manhattan Institute study about immigrant assimilation attempts to measure civic values of immigrants. Participation in the naturalization process and military…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 05/16/2008

Gas prices have climbed to record highs for many reasons, including expensive oil…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/15/2008

Here’s a common question I hear when debating immigration and globalization: “If the world is becoming so much wealthier due to globalization, then…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/14/2008

The falsely praised THE FISCAL COST OF IMMIGRATION by Edwin Rubenstein doesn’t even mention “patents” or “entrepreneurship” anywhere in his study. This oversight…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/14/2008

These comments made yesterday have prompted me to write a series of blog posts. I only hope that zeezil or other commentators…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/14/2008

On the floor this morning, U.S. House of Representatives is considering the House-Senate conference report on the new Farm Bill, which the White…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/13/2008

The Manhattan Institute released a fantastic study called Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States. As the title suggests, it sets forth a clear…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 05/13/2008

Many of the problems affecting America’s modern pro-immigration movement were evident during the recent May Day rallies. Unless addressed, they will…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/13/2008

OK, so say we accept the premise that CO2 causes global warming, is there any case where energy use will be beneficial for the planet?…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/13/2008

Humane Society of the US just released another expose video on animal cruelty in the meat industry. They argue for more…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 05/12/2008

Wayne Crews and I have a new C:Spin discussing a proposed New York law aimed at protecting consumers…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 05/12/2008

Broadband Reports ran an opinion piece by Karl last week discussing the…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 05/12/2008

As most ethanol watchers know, the Renewable Fuels Association ran a full-page ad in The Hill magazine last week (May 6, 2008) titled: “Without ethanol, we’d be…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/12/2008

New Scientist recently mentioned a really cool method for cellulose based ethanol in their daily 60-second science podcast. During the second…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/12/2008

Great Britain’s vaunted National Health Service denied a 61-year-old woman a heart operation because she was too old.  Can’t waste the money! But then the…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 05/09/2008

Andrew Grossman of the Heritage Foundation recently released an important paper on a Senate…

• By: Christine Hall
• 05/09/2008

In today’s fluff news, CEI Warren Brookes journalism fellow Lene Johansen got a nice mention in the Washington Post (Amy Argetsinger’s Reliable Source) and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/08/2008

From The Onion. (Yes, it’s ironic. )…

• By: William Yeatman
• 05/08/2008

The media is supposed to watch the government, but who monitors the media?…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/08/2008

This year’s corn crop is being planted much later than normal because of cool, wet weather in the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/07/2008

President Bush has threatened to veto the bloated federal housing bill pushed by House leaders, saying it would reward special interests  As John Berlau has…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/07/2008

At Slate, Eric Posner explains why the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act is a bad idea as a basic concept.  The law nevertheless recently passed the Senate 95-to-0…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/07/2008

The Scientist has research grants as a theme this month, and the cover story tries to figure out what happens when…

• By: John Berlau
• 05/07/2008

Many commentators, such as CEI’s Hans Bader, have done a diligent job tracking the costs to taxpayers of the mortgage bailout scheduled to be…

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/06/2008

Hans– Glad you posted about the bloated farm bill and how…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/06/2008

Say bye bye to more American manufacturing jobs.  The Washington Post editorialized today about sugar import quotas and price supports contained in the bloated federal…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/06/2008

Something is wrong with the FDA. They doubled their staffing at the beginning of the 1990’s, which lead to a temporary decrease in processing speed,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/06/2008

As reports of food prices going through the ceiling are trickling in, some of the countries that traditionally reject plants bred with molecular plant breeding…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/06/2008

As a science writer with a liberal arts/ social studies background, I frequently run into brick walls where I do not have detailed enough knowledge…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/05/2008

Eli Lehrer has an editorial in today’s Washington Examiner about how ill-considered legislation to create federal “national catastrophe insurance” could lead to American taxpayers shelling…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/05/2008

Earlier, we wrote about how the economic “stimulus package” passed by Congress contained pork for left-wing groups like “La Raza” (Spanish for “the race”).  Now, House banking committee…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/05/2008

How long should it take to lift an import ban, when all the parties agree that there are no health safety or science issues involved?…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/05/2008

EU was supposed to have an authoritative discussion on plants bred with molecular plant breeding techniques (PMB’s) in May. The organization has been fined by…

• By: John Berlau
• 05/05/2008

Many commentators, such as Open Market’s Hans Bader, have done a diligent job tracking the costs to taxpayers of the mortgage bailout scheduled to be…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/05/2008

Many people I know are passionate about eradicating poverty. Out of all the ailments that humans suffer from, poverty is one of the cruelest and…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/05/2008

Not only has the planet not warmed over the last decade, but new peer-reviewed research suggests that it might not warm over the coming decade. …

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/05/2008

Airplanes emit CO2.  Ergo people shouldn’t fly.  To do otherwise is, well, sinful in the view of some people  Reports ABC News: Moral authorities…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/02/2008

Should you be able to sue your employer because your co-workers listen to raunchy radio programs?  The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Reeves v. C.H.

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/02/2008

Leave it to a Brit who used to be a communist to support relying on the profit motive to improve health care.  Writing in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/02/2008

A story in the Wall Street Journal suggests it is time to once again eat kangaroos, to protect the environment, and cope with Kangaroo overpopulation…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 05/02/2008

By now, of course, everyone has heard the story of Elisabeth Fritzl and the seven siblings/children she gave birth to while her father Joseph…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 05/02/2008

Iain, I believe you that congestion pricing has not worked in reducing traffic during London’s rush hour. Here’s my question: how can Virginia’s just-started…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/02/2008

You don’t have to be a free market ideologue to realize that markets are the best means of saving endangered plants and animals.  Reports…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/02/2008

Who would have thought it?  Gas prices go up, and the demand for smaller cars rises.  Some cynics might even think that arbitrary regulations like…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/02/2008

Politicians are always looking for the easy source of money.  New Jersey legislators hoping to pay for health care want to tax fast food. …

• By: Iain Murray
• 05/01/2008

Almost five years ago, I argued that London’s Congestion Charge was merely a wealth transfer from London commuters to the administrators of the charge.

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

The Fed has cut interest rates again, reducing its key rate to 2 percent — a real interest rate of less than zero, after taking into account…