The Open Market Blog

• 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…

• 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…