The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/10/2008

Russia has invaded the neighboring country of Georgia, seeking to overthrow its government.  Initially, it claimed its troops were merely seeking to occupy an enclave in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/08/2008

The California  Court of Appeal has reversed its earlier decision that home-schooling is generally illegal in California.  I criticized the decision banning home-schooling…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/07/2008

Why is it that when a second-rate televangelist you’ve never heard of cheats on his wife, the media give it tons of coverage — but the media…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/07/2008

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial explaining how the Financial Accounting Standards Board “wants to require companies to account for the potential…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/06/2008

The House of Representatives recently passed a bill called the Paycheck Fairness Act, which is being sold to the public on false pretenses.  Its supporters claim they…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/05/2008

Banks and mortgage companies have long been under pressure from lawmakers and regulators to give loans to people with bad credit, in order to provide “affordable…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/05/2008

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated Temple University’s sexual harassment policy, which was challenged by a veteran who wished to defend in class…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/04/2008

Dickie Scruggs is reporting to prison to begin a 5-year sentence for trying to bribe a judge.  He’s the rich trial lawyer who brought…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/03/2008

In a letter today in the Washington Post, Maryland food stamp bureaucrat Kevin McGuire tried to justify more spending on food stamps (and his own job) by making misleading claims.

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

When Domino’s, a private company, decided not to deliver pizza and other fast food to certain dangerous parts of Washington, D.C., based on geographic region, not race,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, former Bush advisor Lawrence Lindsey today criticizes the mortgage bailout bill Bush foolishly signed, noting that if any other country…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer explains how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by blocking a vote to lift the ban on drilling in Alaska’s ANWR and off the U.S.

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

In “The Harry Reid Protection Racket,” the Washington Examiner yesterday explained how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid flouted Senate rules to get the bloated mortgage bailout…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/30/2008

Bush signed into law an enormously costly mortgage bailout today, turning a deaf ear to financial experts who warned about the bill’s dangers and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/28/2008

Politicians rail against “Washington” as if they were outsiders, but sometimes, Washington is their true home, and they only go to their “home” state when it…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/28/2008

The White House capitulated on the mortgage bailout bill, which now will become law, thanks to the “gullible” Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, who got Bush to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/25/2008

Even the Washington Post admits that the housing bill that would bail out Fannie Mae is “structurally unsound” and would cost enormous sums that cannot…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/24/2008

An enormously costly mortgage bailout bill passed the House 272-to-152, with strong support from liberal lawmakers.  It will soon pass the Senate by an…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/23/2008

The White House is now backing away from its threat to veto the pork-filled bills that would bail out government-backed mortgage giants…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/23/2008

A $25 billion bailout of government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae is now planned.  But Fannie Mae has such political power that its crooked managers will…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/22/2008

“The proposed government rescue of the nation’s two mortgage finance giants will appear on the federal budget as a $25 billion cost to taxpayers, the independent…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/22/2008

A stealth assault is being mounted on the Constitution’s state-action doctrine in a case pending before the Supreme Court, Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee. The Supreme…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/19/2008

Franklin Raines, a liberal power-broker, mismanaged government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae so badly that a federal bailout of it is now planned.  He received…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/18/2008

Historically, jurisdictions with judicial elections tended to be somewhat more anti-business than those that didn’t have judicial elections.  But in recent years, voters in some moderate and conservative…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/17/2008

Over a year ago, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson refused to push for reforms of fraud-ridden government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae, even though colleagues in the Bush Administration had…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/17/2008

U.S. immigration law is full of contradictions.  On the one hand, U.S. immigration laws keep out skilled immigrants who would help our economy,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/16/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins says we should get rid of the shaky, fraud-ridden government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae in its current…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/16/2008

Professor Ilya Somin explains how New York City taxpayers are being fleeced to pay for a new Yankee Stadium.  And the Washington Examiner describes…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/15/2008

Senator Charles Schumer recently triggered a massive bank failure by publicizing a letter claiming IndyMac Bank was on the verge of collapse.  That caused a run on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/15/2008

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is now pushing a multibillion dollar bailout of the government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  But as the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/14/2008

Both the House and Senate have passed similar mortgage bailout bills by lopsided margins, although Bush has threatened to veto them.   But the American…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/14/2008

Following in the wake of Friday’s massive bank failure, and the Senate’s passage of an economically destructive and pork-filled mortgage bailout bill that…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/14/2008

The Washington Examiner today pointed out on page 17 that thanks to advances in drilling technology, it’s now far safer to drill for oil off…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/12/2008

IndyMac Bank was seized Friday by federal regulators after the “second largest US bank failure in history.”  (The bank had $32 billion in assets).  But rather than…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/11/2008

The Senate has passed the bloated mortgage bailout bill by a 63-to-5 vote, over objections from Senators like Jim DeMint (R-SC) who say it will rip…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

The mortgage bailout bill sailing through Congress gets weirder and weirder.  It turns out that in order to circumvent the Constitution, which says that tax…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

Ted Frank explains in the Wall Street Journal just how feeble courts are at reining in excessive punitive damages awards, contrary to what…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

The Virginia House of Delegates rejected a Democratic plan to raise several taxes to pay for transportion.  The proposal was the same as one earlier…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

The Religious Left and liberal groups are currently defending the “Red Lion” doctrine, under which judges allow the government to restrict speech on the radio because of the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

The Senate has passed the FISA reform bill by a 69-to-28 vote, providing the phone companies with immunity from the multibillion dollar lawsuits against them…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

ACORN is a radical left-wing group with ties to liberal politicians that will receive taxpayer subsidies through the Congressional mortgage bailout legislation nearing passage.  (Bush has expressed…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

Congress is poised to enact the ADA Restoration Act.  That law is based on the unfounded notion that the federal courts have too narrowly interpreted…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/08/2008

Even longtime ACLU leader Morton Halperin is endorsing the FISA bill, which authorizes and regulates federal antiterror surveillance programs.  Halperin says that the “bill…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/08/2008

Congressional mortgage bailout legislation would create a costly “affordable housing trust” that would spawn new slums at taxpayer expense, and enrich the politically-connected developers…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/07/2008

Since ethanol mandates cause deforestation and skyrocketing food prices, the European Union is now reconsidering its biofuel mandates.  Ethanol subsidies have many bad effects. …

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/07/2008

Washington, D.C. recently tried to put cheap private buses out of business, by preventing them from picking up passengers anywhere but the inconvenient, forbidding location…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/07/2008

An “excess profits” tax on oil companies — which liberal Congressional leaders support — may well harm you by taking money out of your retirement fund,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/06/2008

A global food crisis has resulted in skyrocketing food prices, riots, and starvation in many poor countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, Egypt, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/04/2008

The Washington Post cites Colombia’s dramatic rescue of American hostages to endorse passage of the free trade agreement between Colombia and the U.S.   (The…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/04/2008

Researchers are discovering that Vitamin D cuts deaths from a host of illnesses.  Exposure to the sun provides crucial Vitamin D, especially for lactose-intolerant people.  Yet…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/03/2008

Fairfax County, Virginia, is going to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to try to prop up the housing bubble a little longer.  They’re planning to buy…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/03/2008

A law called NEPA requires costly and expensive environmental assessments before the government does a lot of things — even if what the government is…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/03/2008

The Washington Examiner argues that recent proposals to increase federal tax rates to 55 percent on households making over $250,000 per year would result…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/02/2008

A New York appellate court has ruled that former state attorney general Eliot Spitzer lacked the authority to challenge the huge pay package of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/01/2008

The Rhode Island Supreme Court overturned a trial court ruling against paint companies sued by Rhode Island’s attorney general in a huge lead-paint lawsuit.  The companies had been found…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/30/2008

Congress is now pushing for the creation of a taxpayer-subsidized “affordable housing trust” in mortgage bailout legislation nearing passage.  The Boston Globe has a story…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/30/2008

Taxpayer-funded AIDS subsidies are being used to subvert successful anti-AIDS programs in African countries like Uganda that succeed by instilling a politically-incorrect truth: fidelity saves lives.  That’s what Sam…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/27/2008

Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, the crooked trial lawyer who helped orchestrate multibillion dollar settlements between the States and the big tobacco companies, was sentenced today to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/27/2008

Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia’s gun ban in a 5-to-4 vote in District of Columbia v. Heller.  What was most…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/26/2008

The Supreme Court voted 5-to-4 to strike down Washington, D.C.’s municipal ban on handguns, ruling that the ban violated the Second Amendment, as…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/25/2008

The Wall Street Journal explains how federal and state regulations block competition with the rating agencies that fueled the mortgage crisis by giving ridiculously rosey ratings…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/25/2008

The Supreme Court today struck down Louisiana’s law allowing courts to sentence convicted child-rapists to death.  The facts of the case are horrific: the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/25/2008

The Supreme Court cut, but did not eliminate, the punitive damage award against Exxon in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case, as I…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/24/2008

The Senate voted by a lopsided 83-to-9 vote to expedite passage of a bloated, pork-filled mortgage bailout bill.  The president has threatened to veto it, although…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/24/2008

Private lenders, chastened by the mortgage crisis, have stopped issuing risky mortgage loans requiring little or no downpayment from subprime borrowers.  But the federal…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/24/2008

NASA’s James Hansen, Al Gore’s shrill advisor, is advocating the prosecution of people in the energy industry who disagree with him about the scope, cause, or existence of global warming. …

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/24/2008

Alex Harris notes that hypocrisy can affect obscenity prosecutions, at the expense of free expression.  He quotes a lawyer who observes that  “Time and time again you’ll have…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/23/2008

A big tax increase is likely during the next administration, with self-employed people in many areas facing marginal tax rates of “60% or higher”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/23/2008

In today’s Wall Street Journal, CEI’s John Berlau explains how the mortgage bailout bill contains ominous provisions that would create a vast fingerprint database.  The bill also contains…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/22/2008

Congress’s mortgage bailout bill perversely rewards the irresponsible federal agencies and politically-connected companies that caused the mortgage crisis, as the Wall Street Journal explains in an…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/20/2008

The House has overwhelmingly passed, by a vote of 293-to-129, a FISA reform bill that would kill multibillion dollar lawsuits brought by the ACLU and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/20/2008

Congressional leaders have apparently struck a deal that “would strengthen the ability of intelligence officials to eavesdrop on foreign targets.”  Such eavesdropping to fight terrorism has…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/19/2008

Congress has banned drilling for oil in much of America, even barren, desolate Arctic land, cutting our domestic oil supply.  The ban harms the environment…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/19/2008

A Richmond businessman lost 86 pounds eating only at McDonald’s.  Former CEI adjunct scholar Soso Whaley lost 18 pounds over the course of 60 days…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/19/2008

The Supreme Court ruled today that federal labor law bars a state from curbing the rights of employers to speak out about union organizing by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/13/2008

Locally-grown and produced food isn’t necessarily better for the environment, or more economical for society, than food produced elsewhere.  It often costs more and results in more…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/12/2008

A New York judge has ruled that his own pay should be raised, and ordered New York’s legislature to increase the pay of every state judge in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/12/2008

The Supreme Court today ruled that Guantanamo Bay detainees in the War on Terror can bring habeas petitions to challenge their confinement.  But as Chief…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/12/2008

The militia of Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe is burning to death the wives of his critics.  Rulers of most neighboring African countries continue to support Mugabe…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/11/2008

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who used the Fair Housing Act as a pretext to restrict speech critical of housing projects back when he was Bill…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/10/2008

Ethanol subsidies, which have contributed to hunger, riots and environmental destruction across the globe, are now contributing to slave labor on sugar plantations in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/10/2008

“In 2004, as regulators warned that subprime lenders were saddling borrowers with mortgages they could not afford, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/05/2008

In a blistering attack, the Wall Street Journal today criticized the Federal Reserve’s inflationary easy-money policy, which aims to bail out mortgage borrowers through low interest rates, but…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/05/2008

“U.S. and British diplomats were attacked Thursday as they tried to investigate political violence in Zimbabwe and a U.S. Embassy staffer was beaten,” reports…

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/05/2008

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System suffered “more than one billion in lost investment returns” after it divested from tobacco company stocks in 2001, reports…

• 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: 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: 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…