The Open Market Blog

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/25/2008

Everyone likes generic drugs.  So do I.  Who wants to pay those shocking prices–you know, a couple bucks or even a few bucks a pill for…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/25/2008

This is an amazing story of science success, and of consumer loss. Phillip Larkin got funding from Tasmanian Alkaloids to create a more potent poppy…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/25/2008

If you think that picking up the phone book sized federal budget is a bit daunting, you might want to get the graphic version.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/25/2008

Just an interesting FYI.

• By: Michelle Minton
• 03/24/2008

Today the LA Times published an interesting opinion article that opposes health care mandates in a way I hadn’t yet heard. The authors claim…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/24/2008

Eli— Here’s another theory — fluoridation of water is very widespread in the U.S. but is very limited in England. (About 10 percent of…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/24/2008

Fran’s post raises an important point about trade-offs and the ossifying effects of mandates (why on earth don’t we have a much better system…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/24/2008

U.S. immigration authorities have denied Saman Ahmad permission to stay permanently in the U.S.  He put his life on the line for four years as…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/24/2008

To believe Democratic politicians, the U.S. has entered an era of near-laissez faire economics.  Regulatory agencies have faded away.  Uncle Sam has gone on vacation. …

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/24/2008

The suppliers, producers, and retailers in the industrial organic food chain have long lamented about the possibility of grains from plants bred with molecular plant…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/24/2008

Kate Ackley wrote a great story about the most recent attempt to create a regulatory approval process for generic biotechnology medications on the Hill.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/24/2008

I have lost the count on the number of stories I have seen about coral reefs dying out because of global warming.  A recent…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/24/2008

Fark.com, the world’s best workplace time-waster, links to a story in the Sun about a British couple that will use a 5 million…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/22/2008

In his latest Examiner column, Tim Carney looks at hedge fund manager Julian Robertson’s lobbying for cap-and-trade legislation and bet on a U.S. economic…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/21/2008

Certainly not the UN!  The debate, such as it is, over global warming has been increasingly driven by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  The…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/21/2008

I am disappointed that the X Prize did not note that there may be trade offs involved — that a zillion mph vehicle may well…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/21/2008

The Wall Street Journal comments on House leaders’ pandering to trial lawyers by blocking “liability protection for phone companies that assisted the government…

• By: Fred L. Smith, Jr.
• 03/21/2008

The X Prize is apparently underwritten in part by the Progressive Insurance company – a firm that, I believe, is active in auto insurance. I…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/21/2008

The British may love babies, but they sure don’t show it.  Maternity wards often are full and have to be closed to new mothers. …

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/21/2008

Fran, I think the Progressive Automotive X Prize is a great idea. It may work where the government has failed. Existing government programs…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/21/2008

The X Prize Foundation has announced a $10 million automotive prize: The newly renamed Progressive Automotive X PRIZE is an international competition designed…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/21/2008

“Inflation is walloping Americans with low and moderate incomes as the prices of staples have soared far faster than those of luxuries,” reports…

• By: John Berlau
• 03/21/2008

I've been withholding comment about the Federal Reserve Bank's Bear Stearns intervention until I've had a chance to appraise the deal, including the extent of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/20/2008

The politically-correct National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) has brought a disturbing lawsuit against an insurance company for an product aimed at church-goers, which provides…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/20/2008

Commodity prices plunge is the big news in the markets today. According to Bloomberg today, commodities are– . . . heading for the biggest…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/20/2008

CEI’s friends at the Liberty Institute in New Delhi have launched a new website, InDefenceofLiberty.org. Of particular interest to openmarket readers might be the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/20/2008

I was checking around for international census information at the U.S. Census Department site (useful for a lot of issues) and thought some of…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 03/20/2008

To respond to Hans’s post: in order for the government to force Geno’s to serve everyone who stumbles up to the window indiscriminately, it…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/20/2008

There’s a tendency among many liberal “civil rights” bureaucrats to assume that any practice they dislike must be “discriminatory.”  Thus, when businesses mandate the use…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 03/20/2008

James Stewart that is, in the movie Shenandoah. While considering the various angles of the DC gun ban debate, I happened to…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/19/2008

Again, a really interesting “Trade Fact of the Week” from the Progressive Policy Institute.  With all the negative talk about trade, PPI points out…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/19/2008

Michigan’s Proposition 2, which bans racial preferences and set-asides in government contracts, state jobs, and public university admissions, was upheld yesterday by a federal…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 03/18/2008

James Hynryshyn condemns the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) as “enemies of reason and democracy” and, worse (in his estimation), “liars.” What provokes his ire…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/18/2008

Anthony Minghella, a film director adored by critics and liked by audiences, has died at 54. Minghella (link goes to his IMDb page),…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/18/2008

Under the Sarbanes-Oxley law, regulators have imposed incredibly expensive requirements for auditing American businesses, costing our economy $35 billion annually, and reducing the…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/18/2008

It’s good to know that the administrators of Sheridan Middle School in New Haven are on top of their game. When two students engaged in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/17/2008

The Federal Reserve is trying to save irresponsible borrowers from themselves by cutting interest rates to ridiculously low levels, even though that will trigger increased…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/17/2008

A U.S. carbon-trade exchange opened up for business today, amidst the financial chaos created by the Fed bail out of Bear Stearns. It…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/17/2008

There are a lot of reasons for believers in limited government to be discouraged. But sometimes that discouragement can be turned into triumph. Truth be…

• By: William Yeatman
• 03/17/2008

It was a big weekend for the delicate diplomacy of climate change.In Brussels, EU ministers met to try to figure out how to slash greenhouse…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/17/2008

Re-watching Dirty Dancing — a movie far better than its reputation — last night inspired me to do some Internet research. I was pleased…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/17/2008

The Washington Post runs a very interesting story about things on their way out. The list includes “truly blind dates” (we now have Google),…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/17/2008

The Cultural Revolution has finally made it to Norway. The Labor party’s Minister of Culture has spent the summer traversing the music festivals of the…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/17/2008

Today, of course America woke up to news that JP Morgan Chase has bought out Bear Stearns for $2 a share. (It was trading…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/13/2008

Over the last year, we’ve heard a lot about rising food prices because of the federal government’s mandates and subsidies for corn-based ethanol. Here’s…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/13/2008

A new five-dollar bill debuts today — and it’s prettier and more secure than the last version, according to the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/13/2008

Do cold and snowy winters lead to “snow rage”? So says the police spokesperson in Quebec, where winter has been bad this year, leading…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/13/2008

The Europeans are threatening to impose tariffs on the U.S. if it fails to knuckle under and accept some international climate regulatory system–undoubtedly drafted to…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/13/2008

Today’s Washington Post runs a story about the services provided by high-priced call girls. According to the story, high class prostitutes provide “a pledge…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/12/2008

The media keeps reminding us that there is a consensus not only that the climate is warming (and it is), but that mankind is to…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/12/2008

In the Wall Street Journal this morning, the inimitable Kimberley A. Strassel points to Governor Eliot Spitzer’s misuse of his power as New York’s…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 03/11/2008

Tomorrow the House Natural Resources Committee will be holding a markup on H.R. 2016, the National Landscape Conservation System Act. Naturally, our adjunct fellow…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/11/2008

When I said Elliot Spitzer shouldn’t resign as governor I was wrong. His use of public accounts, efforts to cover up his activities,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

The newly elected government of Thailand is continuing the previous government’s disregard for international patent law and for the health of its citizens. Now the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

While demand for the healthier low-lineolic acid soybean is soaring, because everyone and his mother wants food with healthier fats, the EU is…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/11/2008

Known for his pro-trade stance, Senator John McCain took his views to the campaign trail and blasted his Democratic opponents for their isolationist rhetoric:…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

Sweden is no longer the country with the highest tax burden, Denmark has unseated it from that throne.

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/11/2008

The New York Times today focuses on economic stimulus in its “Times Topics” section — and CEI’s Wayne Crews’s recent paper was at…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 03/10/2008

“Recycle or Go to Hell, warns Vatican,” reports Malcolm Moore in the UK Telegraph. Is this a spoof? Is Moore playing fast and loose…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/10/2008

I’ve previously called attention to stupid product bans around the nation. Now, with Elliot Spitzer — a member of CEI’s list of The…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 03/10/2008

The latest attack on anonymous online speech comes from Kentucky State Rep. Tim Couch (R), who proposed legislation last week to ban posting anonymous…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/10/2008

We ridiculed Eliot Spitzer’s ham-handed tactics when he was still New York state attorney general — his ambition to become governor then plain to…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 03/10/2008

Funny how the biggest beneficiaries of combustion often like to get behind laws that will hinder the rest of society, but them–not so much.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The British Prime Minister’s incoming science adviser, Professor John Beddington, says that food crisis will take hold before climate change. One of the problems…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The Interior Department’s Inspector General has started preliminary investigations into why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is delaying its decision on whether polar…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/10/2008

Eliot Spitzer, the sanctimonious New York Governor and former state attorney general, has been linked to a prostitution ring. CEI earlier rated Spitzer as…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/10/2008

Reacting to a California Court of Appeal decision declaring that there is no constitutional right to home-school one’s child, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The battle over recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBST) continues, and it seems like Monsanto has finally learned how to fight the policy battle. Although…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/10/2008

Why on Earth should Congress bail out subprime borrowers who took out bigger mortgages than they could afford (especially since some of them exaggerated their…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/10/2008

As usual, the paternalists are making people worse off by trying to “save” them. Payday loans are expensive — not something I run off and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/09/2008

The weekend Wall Street Journal features an interview with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who will be the keynote speaker at this year’s CEI dinner…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

Although Great Britain is not normally where one would think to look for ideas on health care reform, the government is going to experiment by…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

My friend Paul Jacob, the long-time term limits activist and head of the Citizens in Charge Foundation, continues to face charges in Oklahoma for…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

Let’s see. The U.S. is supposed to follow Canada in nationalizing health care because it’s such a wonderful success. NOT! A  former Liberal Party health minister in…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

Canadians like to dismiss America’s health care system, claiming that their system ensures coverage for everyone.  Apparently everyone except those sent to the U.S. to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/09/2008

Washington, D.C. spends more per student in its public schools than does any state, for worse results in educational achievement than that of any state.  D.C. schools are literally falling…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/07/2008

Eli, I’ve never watched “The Wire,” so I’m agnostic on the show itself, but after attempting to read The Atlantic‘s recent interview with…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/07/2008

At long last, David Simon’s grossly overrated, overwrought, overwritten, television series “The Wire” is getting the bad reviews it deserves. [Full disclosure: I’ve…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/07/2008

The final verdict in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) trial for the arson of the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture is finally in,…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/07/2008

An excellent commentary on Bloomberg.com today on the wave of protectionism spurred on not just by U.S. presidential candidates but by other rich countries.

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/07/2008

Congress is now so bent on overregulation that is that it’s getting a plea for restraint from George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee.

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/07/2008

California doesn’t think much of home-schoolers. A state court ruling recently held that a couple had no constitutional right to home-school their children, and…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/06/2008

The United Kingdom has a culture of heavy drinking, one that goes back hundreds of years at the very least. This has been an object…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/06/2008

Apocalyptic global warming scenarios peddled by people like Al Gore seem increasingly far-fetched, as Bearing Drift notes. “A recent article from Canada’s National Post…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 03/06/2008

I want to thank my fellow Tech Liberation Front contributor Tim Lee for pointing out that Open Market RSS feeds should feature full articles,…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 03/06/2008

Environmental activists want to regulate bottled water out of existence because they say that it is a waste of resources because the alternatives–such as filtered…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/06/2008

When parents object to political indoctrination and sexually intrusive questions aimed at their children by public school officials, the courts insist that they have no…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/06/2008

Trade critics, sensing blood from the populist success in the presidential primaries, are moving beyond NAFTA to call for a crackdown on investment provisions in…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/06/2008

I adore Matthew Nisbeth’s research but he is off his rocker in this comment he posted on his blog and that he presented in…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/06/2008

Last night I got home from an exhausting and exhilarating trip to New York City. During my stay, I barely got out of the hotel…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/05/2008

Few federal agencies irritate these days like the Transportation Security Administration, which brought all airline security screening under federal control. Now thanks to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/05/2008

Virginia’s governor, Tim Kaine, plans to call the state legislature into special session to try to come up with new taxes to replace the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/05/2008

This week, half of CEI's staff, it seems, decamped to New York City for the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change, organized by the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/05/2008

Today, National Review’s editors endorse passage of the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, which, in addition to creating greater economic opportunities through increased commerce, would…