The Open Market Blog

• By: Fran Smith
• 01/15/2008

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is great at getting publicity for its animal liberation activities.

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/15/2008

Over the past decade, property taxes in Northern Virginia have skyrocketed along with assessments. Taxes have increased to the point that taxes in Northern…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/15/2008

What will the world look like in a century? Imagine asking that question in 1900. And in 1800. The world would have changed in so…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/15/2008

Access to health care has become a big political issue in the U.S. And it’s a legitimate issue. The American system is a bizarre mish-mash…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/15/2008

One of the most reprehensible hours in TV history occurred on March 18, 2001 -- the airing of the fourth episode of "The Lone…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/15/2008

Monday’s episode of The History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” focuses on that most essential of elements, without which not even life is possible: carbon. The show kicks off…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/14/2008

The Toronto Star recently summarized the Top 10 false health scares outlined by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Many such…

• By: John Berlau
• 01/14/2008

For the past few political seasons, diehard political buffs will frequently visit one site to get the latest info on various races and campaigns:…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/14/2008

Andrew Walker for “Asking for pet care advice from Michael Vick.” A signed copy of The Big Ripoff will soon be making its…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/14/2008

The American Bar Association has never been reluctant to urge the Supreme Court to overturn existing precedent, if the precedent at issue offends politically correct…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

Norwegians have been shooked to their core as the queen of the Labor movement and former Norwegian prime minister has been caught receiving free…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 01/14/2008

A recent article on a garbage crisis in Naples Italy confirms what I’ve always believed—such trash crises all have roots in government planning. Nations…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 01/14/2008

I never knew there were so many shades to a light bulb! But since Congress has basically banned incandescent light bulbs in favor of “energy-efficient”…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

The Netherlands is officially on my list of countries with cool research and development of alternative energy sources. I have previously written about nightclubs…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

I doubt eco-terrorist Jose Bove’s decision to hunger strike earlier this month actually had an impact, but the French have now imposed a…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

Climate change is used to justify the most insane political decisions, but for once it is used for a sensible decision. Although there is no…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/14/2008

State legislatures recently banned the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The net result, according to The New York Times, is that rather than…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 01/13/2008

A recent New York Times article reads:  “If you’re one of the many New Yorkers who worry about throwing away plastic bags but seem…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 01/11/2008

Yesterday's Washington Post featured a great piece, "Human Dignity Also Needs to Be Preserved," from columnist Marc…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 01/11/2008

Christine, I agree with the intentions of Rep. John Boehner and company in issuing the Little Book of Big Government that you wrote about.

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/11/2008

A highly-publicized gun lawsuit has bitten the dust. Earlier, the D.C. Court of Appeals allowed Washington, D.C. residents to sue out-of-state businesses under D.C. law…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/11/2008

USA Today hammers state governments for using money from the 1998 multistate tobacco settlement on everything but tobacco-related illnesses and smoking prevention: “With news…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/11/2008

Early this morning, I became aware of something called “The Lou Dobbs Financial Report,” which is syndicated on radio across the nation. My immediate…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 01/11/2008

I couldn’t resist posting this gem from a Radar magazine article speculating that Ron Paul has Asperger’s syndrome (a mild form of autism):…

• By: Fran Smith
• 01/11/2008

The New York Times yesterday carried an article on the reopening of the Mu$eum of American Finance, the only public museum in…

• By: William Yeatman
• 01/11/2008

I see a silver lining to Angela’s post about the ambiguous environmental benefits of banning plastic bags in China. The news story she references…

• By: William Yeatman
• 01/11/2008

Indian automaker Tata today unveiled the “People’s Car,” an inexpensive, compact designed to bring automotive travel to the masses in the developing world. The…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/10/2008

School officials in Greenwich, Connecticut have decided that the kids under their charge are in danger, and they’ve moved to ban the offending substances that…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 01/10/2008

The Chinese have allegedly decided to “clean up their act” environmentally speaking. Their solution: ban plastic bags at supermarkets and make shopping less convenient.

• By: Fran Smith
• 01/10/2008

Lene— I know a bit about another of the Guardian‘s 50 People Who Could Save the Planet. That’s Tewolde Egziabher, who runs Ethiopia’s environmental…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/10/2008

Let’s see. The U.S. Constitution gives the Congress the power to raise armies, regulate interstate commerce, and … control snack machines in local schools. Apparently…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/10/2008

It’s terrible. We all know that global warming threatens the planet’s future. Everything is getting worse. More people are dying. Or they are supposed to…

• 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.