The Open Market Blog

• By: Christine Hall
• 01/09/2008

House Repubican leaders, led by Rep. John Boehner (Ohio), have penned a little book on all the ways the federal government squanders the hard-earned money…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/08/2008

Lene — Paul Watson’s thuggish antics are well known and documented, so the Guardian‘s decision to honor him is beyond inexcusable. For more,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/08/2008

Norwegian author Onar Ã…m, took IPCC chairman Rajendra Kumar Pachauri to task at a debate at the University of Stavanger, Norway on Monday this…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/08/2008

My dear sister is of the worried sort, but there is usually not much to worry about down in the idyllic little corner of her…

• By: Fran Smith
• 01/08/2008

A Reuters article today quoted a range of investment officials who expressed concern over the protectionist and pro-tax rhetoric of many of the Presidential…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/08/2008

Government always has been pretty good in handling blunt, simple tasks: bombing cities into ruins, for instance. But if any nuance or sophistication is required,…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/08/2008

Americans like to believe that they are a free people, certainly freer than the Europeans. And the U.S. economy has been much more vibrant than…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/07/2008

Last week John did an excellent job of putting recent unemployment numbers in historical perspective. Some market observers seem to be freaking out because…

• By: Christine Hall
• 01/07/2008

Guess what? Now you can run out and buy some eco-friendly fashion. Today’s DC Examiner explains how some designers are trying to make clothes…

• By: William Yeatman
• 01/07/2008

European governments are paying close attention to negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, where Russian officials are trying to access the host country’s sizable natural gas…

• By: Christopher C. Horner
• 01/07/2008

There has been a subtle yet important shift in the rhetoric of some global warming alarmists, whose industry has thrived for years on a disciplined…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 01/04/2008

I appeared on CNBC earlier today arguing in favor of sovereign wealth funds. (Which are foreign government-owned investment companies.) For whatever it’s worth, you can…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 01/04/2008

CEI’s general counsel Sam Kazman was quoted in the new edition of Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Calendar. If you’ve picked one up from Freedom Forum,…

• By: John Berlau
• 01/04/2008

Today's jobs survey points to slowing growth, but we are still far from a recession. And as my CEI colleagues and I have said before,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/04/2008

In his weekly DC Examiner column, Tim Carney highlights a specific example of the “the conflicts of interest, ulterior motives and opportunities for corruption…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/04/2008

As usual, politicians are complaining about the fact that 47 million Americans supposedly don’t have health insurance. But many young people just don’t need health…

• By: Fran Smith
• 01/04/2008

In its lead editorial today, “The greening of globalisation,” the Financial Times looks at a potential new wave of trade protectionism that could arise…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/03/2008

In poor African countries like Lesotho, “H.I.V.-infected children are offered exemplary treatment, while children suffering from much simpler-to-treat diseases are left untreated, sometimes to…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/03/2008

Our old pal Jay Ambrose has a great column today on the recent decision by Congress to outlaw the sale of traditional incandescent light…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 01/03/2008

I really hate to be morbid—but I can’t help but comment on a few news items that I came across on the “greening” of…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/03/2008

You get what you pay for, goes the adage, and it certainly is true when it comes to nationalized health care. Britons thought that they…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 01/03/2008

Hans Bader, one of OpenMarket.org’s top bloggers, is now available in Spanish. The Atlantic-Pacific Alliance has translated Han’s recent post “Feds to Patients: Drop Dead…

• By: John Berlau
• 01/03/2008

On New Year's Day, the SEC suffered a defeat, and I hailed it as a victory. Nothing unusual about that scenario, except this was not…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/02/2008

It’s official, oil has broken the $100 a barrel threshold. Why are prices so high and what can we do about it? Our very…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/02/2008

The head of the Virginia bar association is concerned because Virginia, which once had the highest percentage of lawyer-legislators in America, now ranks behind…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 01/02/2008

Our fine colleagues at Bureaucrash have long sold a t-shirt reading “Smoking is Healthier than Fascism.” Now, Illinois has apparently become the first state…

• By: Fran Smith
• 01/02/2008

In yesterday’s New York Times, John Tierney in his “Findings” column has another excellent science-related article — this time about the tendency to assess…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/02/2008

Since we’ve been lamenting the incipient demise of the incandescent light (Bulb 1.0), I’d say it’s a good time to review The Simpleton’s Guide…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/02/2008

This blog gets much of its traffic and readers by being linked to by other blogs. The friendly blog that links to this one most…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/31/2007

A program in Michigan that saved 1500 lives over 18 months by maintaining checklists on patient care to prevent hospital infections has been shut down by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/31/2007

The Washington, D.C. school system recently spent tens of millions of dollars to buy sophisticated new boilers to heat the schools.  Then it allowed them to break…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/31/2007

Trying to "fix" health care is not easy, since it's a bizarre amalgam of private provision of insurance and public spending and regulation, completely distorted…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/28/2007

In his Examiner column today, Tim Carney — with a nod to Bastiat — takes the company founded by Thomas Edison to task…

• By: Myron Ebell
• 12/28/2007

According to Bill McKibben in an op-ed in The Washington Post, the biggest news of the year is that Jim Hansen has spoken. According…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/28/2007

There is nothing new in a New York Times story about the GMO standoff in Europe. It is a political standoff, caused by activists…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/28/2007

A new British government report has concluded that…wait…wait…wait.. getting rid of bad teachers will improve schools. Wow. I’m amazed.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/28/2007

Yule never came to Rosia Montana, Romania, this year. With the help of activists such as billionaire George Soros and British actress Vanessa Redgrave, it…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/28/2007

Humanitarians are perplexed by the fact that, despite their hard work and the fact that it’s the epicenter of the world’s largest aid effort, starvation…

• By: Iain Murray
• 12/28/2007

Benazir Bhutto, who was murdered in a politically-motivated suicide attack, was the closest the Islamic world has yet got to a secular free-marketeer as a…

• By: John Berlau
• 12/28/2007

Anna Schwartz, longtime colleague of the late Milton Friedman and celebrated free-market economist in her own right, had some interesting things to say about…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 12/27/2007

—As CEI’s prez Fred Smith will tell you. Over the holiday, our friend Sally Pipes at the Pacific Research Institute penned a Washington Post oped…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/26/2007

Imagine you are going on vacation and you pay your neighbor to tend to the hanging plants you have outside of your house. While you’re…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/26/2007

Employers pay a lot of money for diversity training and sexual harassment training, but often the training backfires and blows up in the face of…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/26/2007

It’s Christmas Eve (although you probably won’t read this until some time after) and I’m sitting in front front of the television now watching the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

Monsanto has talked the federal government into giving farmers a break on their crop insurance if they use crops that produce pesticides. If other…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/26/2007

There may be no less appreciated industry than insurance.  We hate paying for it and hope never to use it.  If we make a claim,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

Now the Italian food police are after my cultural heritage! The Italian version of FDA is concerned that Swedish gingerbread has too high levels…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

I have an issue with this holiday fuzzy feeling piece from Marketplace, because the anchor’s intro goes as follows: “Crisco is a staple in…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

Mercury is illegal in Norway from January 1, 2008, or so they want us to think. The Minister of the Environment duly noted the…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/26/2007

The Associated Press reports that a New York state judge has dismissed an airline industry suit against the state’s newly enacted Airline Passenger Bill…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/25/2007

Most non-white Canadians suffer from Vitamin D deficiency, putting them at risk of cancer, osteoporosis, and diabetes, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. …

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/25/2007

In Saturday’s Washington Post, I have a letter discussing class-action lawsuit abuses.  It discusses how class-action lawsuit “settlements intended to benefit consumers get paid instead…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/21/2007

Earlier, I wrote about Exxon’s challenge to a $2.5 billion punitive damage award against it (in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case) that appeared…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/21/2007

It turns out that Britain's National Health Service isn't very healthy for babies or other living things. Reports the Guardian: Scores of premature babies…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 12/21/2007

Make sure to take a look today at Tim Carney’s latest Friday column for the DC Examiner, this time on the travesty of an…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/20/2007

Eliot Spitzer, 3rd worst state attorney general in 2006 according to a CEI report by Hans Bader, is showing just how incompetent he can…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/20/2007

Well, now. Europe has been lecturing the U.S. about the issue of global warming. But it appears that the EU isn’t prepared to wreck its…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/20/2007

Earlier, I wrote about the municipal bond insurance scam, in which financially shaky “insurers” receive a fee for “insuring” the bonds of credit-worthy municipalities…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 12/18/2007

The Federal Communications Commission today scored a victory for freedom of the press. In this case, the freedom to own both a newspaper and a…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 12/18/2007

We all know the Post Office is a lackadaisical and inefficient behemoth, but I never thought it was this bad!…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/18/2007

If you’re a Brit waiting for care under the National Health Service, relief may be at hand. Reports the Times of London: Patients will…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/18/2007

The American Tort Reform Association has just issued its Judicial Hellholes 2007 report, an annual summary of the nation's most unfair civil court…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 12/18/2007

Al Gore says his high-carbon life-style of private jets, limousines, and four residences--including a mansion that consumers more energy in a month than the average…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 12/18/2007

Chris gives up the straight story on what happened at those big UN global warming negotiation in Bali last week.

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/17/2007

It’s nice to work at a place where the budget is no object. That isn’t the case at most businesses. Sadly, it isn’t the case…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/17/2007

This past weekend, I watched Juno. It’s the best film I’ve seen this year. (I’m not alone: Roger Ebert also loves it.) The film…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/17/2007

The standard left-wing argument against tax rate reductions is that doing so will starve government of needed revenue. That, of course, is the best reason…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/17/2007

In the D.C. Examiner, Mark Tapscott has an interesting column about class action lawsuits. A common outcome of such suits is that the lawyers…

• By: John Berlau
• 12/16/2007

While much of the media attention has focused on National Review‘s recent editorial endorsing GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, another of the magazine’s editorials may…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/14/2007

Google Policy Fellows will have the opportunity to work at public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation,…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 12/14/2007

“‘Tomorrow is Christmas! It's practically here!' Then he [the Grinch] growled, with his grinch fingers nervously drumming, I MUST find a way to keep Christmas…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/14/2007

Tim Carney continues to expose the ways in which some businesses seek rents from government, in his DC Examiner column. In this instance, he…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/14/2007

Inadequate exposure to the sun kills at least 50,000 to 60,000 people per year in the United States alone, university researchers say. We’ve all…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/14/2007

During the course of promoting the recent paper I co-wrote with Eli Lehrer, I have come across the same question/complaint from gamers: Why have two…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/13/2007

This week, CEI published a study written by me and Eli Lehrer on entertainment ratings. The paper covers six forms of media: movies,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/12/2007

Earlier, I wrote about the racist "diversity" consultant Glenn Singleton, who is hired by school officials, like the Arlington, Virginia schools, despite…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/12/2007

Chicago's Health Committee is set to vote on a measure this afternoon that would prohibit residents from owning chickens as pets. Alderwoman Lona Lane,…

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/11/2007

In its lead editorial today, the Wall Street Journal cited Environmental Working Group’s farm subsidy database to show the vast amount of farm subsidies…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 12/11/2007

Just in time for the multi-holiday shopping season, Bureaucrash is here to solve all of your gift-giving needs. Tell that special someone how much you…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/11/2007

Former New York Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders has settled her sexual harassment case against Madison Square Garden for $11.5 million. A jury found…

• By: William Yeatman
• 12/11/2007

Richard McGregor reports in today’s Financial Times that the China’s energy demand continues to skyrocket, growing at an annual rate of 16.2 % so…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/10/2007

The mortgage bailout proposed by the Treasury Secretary will just makes things worse in the future, explains Bill Fleckenstein at MSN’s Money Central. Similarly,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/10/2007

Sunday’s Washington Post contained a story about how current congressional leaders, who have belatedly criticized the Bush administration for using degrading interrogation techniques tantamount to…

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/10/2007

Today, as the Senate is scheduled to continue consideration of a new farm bill, The Washington Post features an editorial criticizing the bill and…

• By: William Yeatman
• 12/10/2007

According to the Daily Mail, Al Gore left a London audience wanting more after one of his $6,000/minute climate speech. To be sure, the…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/10/2007

Al Gore is in Oslo to receive his Nobel Peace Prize for misinforming the rest of us about global warming. Doesn’t he understand that…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/10/2007

I blogged about Greenpeace’s quarterly report on Green-Tech last week, noting that the way they display their data is manipulative, but…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/10/2007

Air travel accounts for about three percent of greenhouse gases, so even if you think the planet is warming out of control, grounding all planes…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/10/2007

The myth of nationalized health care is that it provides everyone with equal and inexpensive care. Alas, in the real world the only way…

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/07/2007

CEI’s John Berlau in USA Today had the opposing view on the Bush Administration’s plan to bail out some subprime borrowers. John’s article, which…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/07/2007

In his Examiner column today, 2005-2006 CEI Brookes Fellow — and Big Ripoff author — Tim Carney highlights the rent-seeking potential of renewable…

• By: Iain Murray
• 12/07/2007

I agree completely, Eli. In fact, a pirate could probably take out 30 ninjas, given their legendary inability to attack together. This is probably due…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 12/06/2007

The Wall Street Journal has an insightful article today about web-based advertising on the front page of the Marketplace section. The technology it's using…

• By: John Berlau
• 12/06/2007

“Wall Street Falls on Mortgage Unease” read the headline of an Associated Press story posted on Yahoo Finance just after the markets closed on…