The Open Market Blog

• 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…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/05/2008

I can’t stand awards shows, and I don’t watch the Oscars, but I do find the business aspects of Hollywood interesting — which is why…

• By: John Berlau
• 03/05/2008

What happened in Washington state is frightening. It is further confirmation of a trend in eco-terrorism I report on in Eco-Freaks. Eco-terrorism…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 03/05/2008

It is ironic that environmentalist hype about global warming and green calls for alternative fuels are undermining some of the greens’ very own programs and…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 03/05/2008

Despite that fact that most economist agree (to steal the global warming crowd’s favorite turn of phrase) that rent control has primarily negative effects, laws…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/05/2008

An important new study from the American Consumer Institute shows that consumers, on the whole, want broader choice of insurance plans. Right…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/05/2008

Cord, I couldn’t agree more with your points about Gary Gygax. I think it’s also worth noting that the game he created Dungeons…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/05/2008

In The Washington Post, Robert Samuelson explains that the government is doing more harm than good by attempting to delay the inevitable popping of…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 03/04/2008

Gary Gygax, the father of role-playing games, died today at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. As a fellow Wisconite and lover of video games–the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/04/2008

James Lovelock is the originator of the Gaia myth and convinced that the world is coming to an end, soon, because of global warming is…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 03/04/2008

Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass) has introduced legislation aimed at ridding the cell phone world of the much criticized practicies of phone subsidies, long-term contracts, and…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/04/2008

I’m a case study in complex taxes. During 2007, I switched jobs, got income from a half dozen sources, bought one house, sold another, made…

• By: John Berlau
• 03/03/2008

Hans, it’s also wrong to refer to this Supreme Court as anti-investor. Two weeks ago, as I have noted, the Court unanimously ruled in…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/03/2008

A New York Times editorial today points to the high prices of food — partly spurred by the heavy government involvement in promoting corn…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/03/2008

Mississippi’s attorney general, Jim Hood, is praising a shady prosecutor who put innocent people in jail, calling him a “straight arrow.” Mississippi’s legislature…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/03/2008

The DC Examiner editorializes against a Senate bill that would “reform” the consumer product laws by giving state attorneys general broad powers to sue…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/03/2008

Investor’s Business Daily comments on the decision by the House of Representatives to exempt an oil company controlled by Venezuela’s anti-American leftist dictator from…

• 02/29/2008

The new testimony and announcements by DOI/USFWS regarding coming Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings and changes are most interesting. First, DOI announced a…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 02/29/2008

In recent months, environmentalists have been saying that bottled water is wasteful and no healthier than tap. They are helping advance bottled water taxes, bans…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/29/2008

Candidates running for POTUS shouldn’t whine about being attacked by their opponents. Things look pretty mild in the good ole USA, especially compared with…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/29/2008

The Virginia Supreme Court today struck down a state law giving unelected bodies the power to levy taxes in Marshall v. Northern Virginia…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/29/2008

I have more posts on child-snatching by government agencies, strange sexual harassment rulings, and punitive damages for oil spills, at Point of…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/29/2008

In the Wall Street Journal today (subscription needed), Kimberley A. Strassel’s column hits the Democrats’ current protectionist stance on trade and points to the party’s…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 02/28/2008

Public policy is rife with unintended consequences. The newest is that soaring food prices caused by ethanol subsidies in the U.S. are causing food prices…

• By: Iain Murray
• 02/28/2008

More proof that wind power is no panacea for the nation’s looming electricity crisis. The wind dropped in Texas, and caused blackouts: ERCOT…

• By: Iain Murray
• 02/28/2008

It’s E-Day in the UK, a national ‘awareness’ day backed by major environmental groups and religious organizations, and the BBC, aimed at getting Brits…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 02/28/2008

These days it seems that you can slap the word “addiction” after any activity and escape personal responsibility for poor decision making. Moreover, in…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/28/2008

Does this make sense? At the same time the House thinks it’s a good idea to provide Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia with duty-free…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/27/2008

Government social workers have an incentive to overreact to erroneous allegations of child abuse, and take children away from loving parents, because they reasonably…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/27/2008

I find it ironic for Virginia State Delegate Dave Albo to decry businesses being “scammed,” when he has built a reputation for …

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/27/2008

The Virginia General Assembly last year voted to let counties increase their commercial property tax in order to pay for new transportation projects. The counties…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/27/2008

The Supreme Court decided two discrimination cases this week that confirm that the Supreme Court is not “pro-business “in discrimination cases, as liberal journalists claim.

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/27/2008

With talk of recession, inflation, and stagnation dominating financial news, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in his written testimony to the House Financial Services…

• By: Iain Murray
• 02/27/2008

Biofuels have recently come under attack from their erstwhile supporters in the liberal environmentalist movement for increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Now it’s the turn of…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 02/27/2008

William F. Buckley, Jr. passed away today. How very sad. For some libertarians, it all started with Rand. For me, it started with Buckley. WFB…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 02/27/2008

GAO FINDS FEDERAL DATA PROTECTION LAGGING “The GAO says that despite a steady stream of embarrassing computer security breaches, many major U.S. federal…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/26/2008

A new CEI paper by one of our fellows–okay, me–outlines the five dumbest product bans we could find in the United States. My personal…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/26/2008

March wheat futures went for a record $24 yesterday, while the May wheat futures rose the maximum 90 cents allowed to $11.99 a bushel…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/26/2008

Cato’s Dan Griswold and Juan Carlos Hidalgo had an excellent article yesterday in the Latin Business Chronicle defending the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/26/2008

Today, I have two posts at Point of Law. One is about how a recent Supreme Court decision may preempt state regulations on vehicle…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/25/2008

American immigration law is utterly dysfunctional. Legal immigrants who fight for America in Iraq and Afghanistan wait years to become citizens. Skilled workers needed…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/25/2008

In the Washington Times today, Donald Lambro focuses on the recent primary in Wisconsin and questions the attacks on trade by presidential hopefuls Hillary…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/25/2008

This week, I am guest blogging at Point of Law. My first blog post is about ideological and sexual double standards, which are…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/25/2008

Today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page exposes the cozy relationship between Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and the state’s trial bar. Should state Attorneys…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/25/2008

I recently came across Tumbleweed, the self-styled “tiny house company.” The houses that Tumbleweed builds in California and delivers to any site in the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/22/2008

Today in Reason, Michael Moynihan offers an appropriate epitaph to the useful idiots in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America whose knees have long…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/22/2008

The Duke lacrosse players are now suing Duke, its president, and various government officials. They were belatedly recognized as innocent after months of being…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/22/2008

In the Detroit Free Press today, Gary Shapiro, the head of the Consumer Electronics Association, has a really hard-hitting op-ed pointing out how free…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/22/2008

In a 6-to-3 decision, the Washington State Supreme Court has upheld a state-enforced garbage monopoly even though Washington State has a state constitutional “equal…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/22/2008

I was intrigued today when I read the Man Booker Prize announcement of a new award to celebrate 40 years of prizes for the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/21/2008

Earlier, we wrote about a bill (S. 2045), the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act, that would impose criminal penalties on company executives, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/21/2008

Virginia is facing serious problems, like a budget deficit and unanticipated shortfalls in transportation funding, despite mushrooming taxes in recent years. So what…

• By: John Berlau
• 02/20/2008

A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court’s decision in Stoneridge v. Scientific-Atlanta was denounced by shareholder activists and much of the media as “anti-investor.” Why?…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/20/2008

In a speech today in Geneva, the World Trade Organization’s director-general Pascal Lamy noted the significant achievements of WTO members in opening up telecommunications…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/20/2008

The Supreme Court has just decided three cases ruling that federal law preempts contrary or conflicting state laws. It limited the ability to…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

Al Gore had to take the two biggest spin words of 2007 and combine them into a really scary scenario at a UN meeting with…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

Food prices are going up. Since the green revolution in the 1940s-1960s food prices have been going down, but now they are on an…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

Two groups release reports about the same topic at the same time, their conclusions are diametrically opposed to each other. What is a poor reporter…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

I’ve been saying the 147 million pound beef recall will lead to calls for more regulation and better regulation, even though the regulatory regime in…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/20/2008

Today, I will be on “Leave Us Alone” radio on RightTalk, discussing general labor issues and my upcoming article in Labor Watch (co-authored with…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/20/2008

Via fark.com comes an I-can’t-believe-she-wrote-this memo telling journalists to be nice to Castro. One particularly delicious passage: Please note Fidel did bring…

• By: Fran Smith
• 02/19/2008

Almost unnoticed in the sweeping energy bill enacted late last year was a provision that restricts federal government agencies from purchasing fuel that has…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/19/2008

The Supreme Court has refused to revive the ACLU’s lawsuit against the government for warrantless surveillance of communications with suspected terrorists. Ironically, the ACLU’s…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/19/2008

Harvard, my alma mater, discriminates against Asians in admissions. Asians are less likely to be admitted at any GPA or SAT score than members of…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/19/2008

Fidel Castro officially stepped down as Cuba’s head of state this morning, allegedly for health reasons. This will fuel speculations over whether he’s already dead…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/19/2008

The USDA started off this week with a historic recall after an investigation revealed violation of food safety regulations in a California meat processing…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/18/2008

I’m an eBay fanatic: clothes, shoes, furniture, razor blades, makeup for my wife, books and even a car — I’ve found them all on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/18/2008

Helen Smith writes about how California privacy laws kept police from searching for potential suspects in the killing of a psychologist.  Overlawyered discusses the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/15/2008

To pay for transportation spending, Virginia’s legislature and governor gave regional transit authorities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads the power to levy a new…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/15/2008

House leaders blocked consideration of a bill that would extend the federal government’s power to monitor overseas terrorists and communications with them from the U.S.,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

Privacy deserves protection, but not to an extreme — particularly when it comes at the expense of civil liberties, public safety, and the rights of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

“In a test of the American Dream, Adam Shepard started life from scratch with the clothes on his back and twenty-five dollars. Ten months later,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

Ordinances that ban smoking in commercial establishments increase drunk driving fatalities, apparently by encouraging smokers who want to go out drinking to travel further…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/14/2008

A Weather Channel segment on compact fluoresecent light bulbs that aired today makes the point that because compact fluorescents emit less heat, they can save…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

The Wall Street Journal applauds the Senate’s passage of a bill that would continue to allow the government to use warrantless wiretaps to monitor…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

At Hamline University, a college student who expressed conservative views on gun control and affirmative action was recently suspended and ordered to undergo a “…

• By: William Yeatman
• 02/14/2008

CEI has long warned that the fuel-from-food craze threatens the world’s poorest citizens by making it harder for them to feed themselves. If you…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

The District of Columbia justifies its complete ban on handguns and functional firearms (even for self-defense), which is being challenged in the Supreme Court, as…