The Open Market Blog

• 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…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/05/2007

Earlier this year, CEI recognized Talk Like a Pirate Day. Today, December 5, many will mark The Day of the Ninja. For reasons…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/05/2007

The Washington Times has an editorial today, “No Bailout,” explaining why the Treasury Secretary’s plan to freeze mortgage interest rates for people who borrowed…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/05/2007

As the first significant snowfall blankets the Washington, D.C. area, a word of warning: Be careful at whom you aim any snowballs. Hit the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/05/2007

Holman Jenkins, in his Wall Street Journal column today, coins a new term, “global warmism,” to describe the blind fealty which climate alarmism seems…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/04/2007

For patients dying from a terminal illnesses, sometimes the only comfort they have is being able to choose the manner in which they ‘check out’.

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 12/04/2007

The “Green Hanukkia” campaign is urging Jews to burn fewer candles this Hanukka to help the environment, since–yep–candles spew carbon dioxide (15 grams!). But…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/04/2007

I agree with most, but not all, of what Eli has to say below in his thoughtful post about the costs of divorce, such…

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/04/2007

The Senate shortly before 3 p.m. today voted 77-18 in favor of the U.S. Peru Free Trade Agreement. Earlier today and yesterday the Senate was…

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/04/2007

The World Trade Organization on November 30 published texts of proposed rules to prohibit some of the worst subsidies on fisheries, which provide incentives…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/04/2007

I don’t know the ins and outs of Wikipedian politics, but according to The Register, trouble is brewing at Jimmy Wales’s social knowledge project.

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/04/2007

Greenpeace has released the latest edition of its quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics. While I haven’t read the study in full and I don’t…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/04/2007

Two scientists have found that divorce. . .wait…wait. . .wait. . .HURTS THE ENVIRONMENT. (In fact, they really didn’t find that directly, only that…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/03/2007

Earlier, we described the antics of Glenn Singleton, the San Francisco "diversity" trainer who is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/03/2007

Andres Oppenheimer, The Miami Herald's Latin America columnist, offered some interesting insights into the Venezuelan referendum and other regional matters, in an online forum…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/03/2007

Eli, I agree with you wholeheartedly on Hugo Chavez’s open contempt for democracy, and that his taking a Putin-style power-behind-the-throne route is likely…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/03/2007

The title of this New York Times article today says it all: “Truckers in Maine, Feeling High Costs of Diesel Fuel, Urge State to…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 11/30/2007

In an unexpected announcement on Tuesday, Verizon Wireless announced that it will allow any device or application to access its network starting in mid-2008.

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/30/2007

In recent years, conservatives and libertarians have gone up in arms over the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). CEI's own take on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/30/2007

Yesterday, I wrote about the “Massive Bond Rating Scam,” and how irresponsible bond-rating agencies, shielded by regulation against competition, have contributed to the mortgage…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/30/2007

Overlawyered has more coverage of the indictment of Dickie Scruggs, the rich trial lawyer who helped bring about the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement that…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/30/2007

McAffee, a company that makes cyber security software, has released a report warning of a new “cyber cold war.” I’m skeptical of how big…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/30/2007

The Brady Campaign has spent years trying to convince the courts to strike down a federal law, passed with bipartisan support, that bans suits…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/29/2007

A new report today warns that increased use of CT scans and subsequent increased exposure to radiation could account for nearly 2 percent of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/29/2007

Dickie Scruggs, one of the lawyers who helped bring about the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, has just been indicted on bribery charges. Under…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/29/2007

Even the most poorly-run state has less chance of defaulting on its debts than a typical well-run company. That's because states, unfortunately, have the power…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/29/2007

Apparently California attorney General Jerry Brown believes that bureaucracy is the answer to alleged environmental woes. He and ten other state attorney generals have launched…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/28/2007

The Financial Times today has a very perceptive article, “Too much safety in America’s playrooms,” by Patti Waldmeir. Waldmeir points to the current…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/28/2007

A new bill proposed in Massachusetts would make it illegal for parents to spank their children. Much of the discussion centers on spanking and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/28/2007

At CEI, we like to celebrate inventors, innovators, and those bold souls whose unyielding curiosity help make the world better. Such a person was…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/27/2007

The Seattle School District says that celebrating Thanksgiving is racially insensitive.  This is the same school district that claimed for several years that “individualism” is a form of “cultural…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/27/2007

Writing from Beijing, New York Times columnist David Brooks in his column today notes how American sentiment is increasingly against trade and globalization and…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/27/2007

An interesting article in today’s Washington Post highlights the trade-offs and market realities associated with green products. It addresses the packaging challenges faced by…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 11/27/2007

The FCC today is going to consider expanding its authority to saddle cable TV with many of the same regulations as broadcast. That, to…

• By: John Berlau
• 11/26/2007

As the joke goes, there’s good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first? Upon hearing no answer from the readers of…

• By: Iain Murray
• 11/26/2007

It is often suggested that global warming and/or the environment is becoming more important in deciding how Americans vote. The latest poll figures, from…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/26/2007

Men’s Health magazine has released its latest list of what it’s editors believe are the “worst” items on chain restaurant menus. Yawn! Unlike, say,…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/26/2007

Nearly everyone has an opinion about Sen. Trent Lott (who, the Associated Press reports, plans to resign from the Senate today.) My off-the-cuff judgment…

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/26/2007

My brother in Denver is very much the everyman. He’s blue collar-John Melencamp-middle America, and I value his opinion as a bellwether of the nation’s…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

Poverty, the horrendous poverty so common in most of the world, can only shock the average Westerner.  But we in the West once were that…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

There’s a lot of bad news in the world these days.  A bit of good news is the approach of trials of several leaders of…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

It's enough to make the average Canadian cry.  The decent folk up north fervently defend their health care system from attack.  But, it turns out,…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

“Consumer advocates”–who spend their time demanding that everyone toss money at anyone who “consumes” a product or service, are on the march, this time against…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

Government regulation almost always is biased towards inaction and prohibition.  Making a "mistake" and allowing something to happen will usually get you into far greater…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

There may be no better evidence of change in China than the fact that the government now occasionally admits that problems exist in the country. …

• By: Richard Morrison
• 11/21/2007

Bureaucrash has decided to take the anti-capitalist mentality to its natural extreme in a new video, just in time for the holiday season. What would…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/21/2007

Earlier, I wrote about the Seattle Schools’ bizarre and racist definitions of racism, which branded all whites (and only whites) as racists, claimed that…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/21/2007

For my Thanksgiving treat, here’s my list of five “Turkeys on the Hill” — legislation that is particularly onerous for consumers, taxpayers, and citizens —…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/21/2007

Oklahoma attorney general Drew Edmondson’s latest outrage is chronicled today in an editorial in the D.C. Examiner. The paper points out that he is…

• By: Julie Walsh
• 11/21/2007

Should we be turning our turkey drippings into fuel for our cars instead of gravy? Though a great idea, it’s still not cost competitive.

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/21/2007

A Saudi Arabian court originally sentenced a victim of a gang rape to six months in jail and 90 lashes, after she reported her…

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/21/2007

It looks as if environmentalists have finally turned against biofuels. Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, many remained faithful to the illusion that biofuels are…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/21/2007

The Wall Street Journal, in a front-page article today, points to the anti-trade, anti-globalization sentiment in Iowa, even though the state “is a…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/20/2007

The school system in my county, Arlington, Virginia, certainly knows how to waste taxpayers' money. Like several school districts, they've hired an infamous race-baiting…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/20/2007

For years the American Council on Science and Health has featured their "Holiday Menu" at Thanksgiving time. Their menu features "natural" foods that contain natural…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/20/2007

With the trial bar hovering around your house, ready to file an obesity lawsuit on behalf of the guests on whom you have forced slices…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/20/2007

The Supreme Court has just decided to hear an appeal of the federal appeals court ruling striking down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban,…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/20/2007

CEI’s Angela Logomasini and Ryan Radia focus on the bottled water issue in California country. Their op-ed in the Modesto Bee yesterday took on…