The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/27/2007

The Senate Democratic leadership has added Ted Kennedy’s controversial hate-crimes bill to a defense authorization bill, in an effort to make it politically impossible…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/27/2007

Robert Novak has an interesting column in the Washington Post on the backroom politicking behind the SCHIP health-care bill that has passed Congress, but…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/27/2007

Seems as though the FCC can’t get enough fining done within the bounds of its legal fining regime and is now fining arbitrary 3rd…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/27/2007

GlobalWarming.org was relaunched two weeks ago by CEI and has enjoyed hundreds of thousands of views since.  I want to thank those who have…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/26/2007

Playspan dubs itself “The Game Industry’s First Publisher-Sponsored In-Game Commerce Network.” What does that mean? To put it more simply, welcome to Wall Street…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/26/2007

The Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal aptly describes the cynical posturing of Lee Bollinger, Columbia University’s president, who first invited the oppressive Iranian despot Mahmoud…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/26/2007

A startling Reuters article today was titled “Gorbachev warns Russians against rise of Stalinism.” As reported, the former Soviet president made his…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/26/2007

CEI analysts appeared twice today on CNBC (so far), enlightening the financially astute and debating their fellow guests. First up, Editorial Director Ivan Osorio takes…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 09/26/2007

Trade—voluntary exchange—is the essence of economic activity. Trade leads to specialization, which increases productivity. As trade expands so does the arena of economic competition, which…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/26/2007

The District of Columbia is currently defending Washington, D.C.’s gun ban before the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. It argues that the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/26/2007

A thought-provoking opinion piece in the Financial Times today by Michael Schrage, an MIT researcher –“Science must be more political.” That title is a…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/26/2007

The Hummer is the bane of the greens’ existence. It is big and loud, so it makes an easy target for those so keen on…

• By: Gregory Conko
• 09/26/2007

The Supreme Court decided yesterday to grant cert in a pharmaceutical products liability case to determine whether federal regulation of pharmaceuticals preempts state tort…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/26/2007

“Rock ‘n’ roll is about rebellion” may be one of the world’s most tired cliches, but in the case of the Czech art-rock outfit Plastic…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/25/2007

Check out Bureaucrash’s latest video on drug lag at the FDA — with real people affected by those delays. Just released on Friday,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/25/2007

You can’t board a plane or enter many courthouses without having some form of photo identification. But you can vote in many states without identification…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/25/2007

Congress may be on the verge of increasing tobacco taxes to expand the federal SCHIP health care program so that it covers not only low-income…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/25/2007

Finally, some Democrats have come out strongly in favor of the pending Latin American trade agreements. Though don’t give them too much credit for…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/24/2007

Organized Labor made its intention clear to reverse the National Labor Relations Board's "Kentucy River" decision, which clarified the definition of "supervisor" in the context…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/24/2007

The BBC reports that despite some government prodding — though subtle by Chinese standards — Beijing drivers largely ignored “National No Car Day,” China’s…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/24/2007

Yellow Day Brigade is a punk band that takes a decidedly unfashionable pro-freedom political stance, or as they call it, “Music consistent with the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/24/2007

In the current issue of The Economist, the anonymous Charlemagne column outlines the fundamental differences between the regulatory philosophies that guide the United States…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 09/24/2007

The Globalization Institute, a Brussels based think tank, has recommended the EU require all PCs to be sold without preloaded operating systems such…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/24/2007

This Thursday, September 27, Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi will talk about his new book, Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/24/2007

NASA’s James Hansen has called those who are skeptical of his alarmist predictions about global warming “court jesters.” But he himself apparently used to believe…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/24/2007

The Washington Post reports today that Unisys Corporation is under investigation for its failures to detect intrusions into government networks. I’m not surprised. Prior…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/24/2007

Motions to dismiss a lawsuit against God by Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers have been filed. Lawsuits against God have tended to be dismissed…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/24/2007

I saw In the Shadow of the Moon, Ron Howard’s new documentary about the Apollo program, yesterday evening and have done some looking into…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/24/2007

A Columbia University dean, John Coatsworth, has defended his university’s invitation to Iran’s anti-American ruler, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, by saying that it would have been equally…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/24/2007

If you happen to catch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech to the U.N. on climate change today, please remember as you listen that the governator is full…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 09/24/2007

The government wants you to go deer-hunting. Go ahead. Take a day off. It’s on your employer. Well, Uncle Sam doesn’t quite put it that…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 09/24/2007

Government is a lot like a second marriage, the triumph of hope over experience. We create a program. Thieves loot it. Special interests manipulate it.

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/23/2007

Check out this great cartoon about the virtues of capitalism. Turns out that at one point Americans (or at least American animators) knew that…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/21/2007

Fran – I certainly agree with your response to the promotional video for Naomi Klein’s new anti-capitalist manifesto – loco indeed. At one point…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/21/2007

Mining giant Barrick Gold has recently announced a fascinating challenge to would-be mining engineers of the world: if you can think up a new…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/21/2007

While Columbia University and its president, the pompous Lee Bollinger, were giving a big welcome to Iranian despot (and former hostage-taker) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/21/2007

You have to see this video to believe it — it’s a YouTube promo for Naomi “No logo” Klein’s new book,…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/21/2007

Fans of Sid Meier’s classic video game Civilization are framiliar to the challenge of designing an entire society, God-like from above. Fans of energy…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/21/2007

Cécile Philippe of L’Institut économique Molinari in Brussels has a new article — “Sommes-nous sur la bonne voie pour répondre aux défis environnementaux?”—or…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/21/2007

I don’t know what to make of it but DeSmog Blog–which seems pretty alarmist–reports that Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte’s analysis of Global Warming journal articles…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 09/21/2007

All you Columbia rejects out there dig out your “we regret to inform you” letters and plaque them up on the wall. Take it as…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/21/2007

Despite ICANN’s protests, the .su top-level domain remains for sale. That’s right you can still get a Soviet Union top-level domain and now the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/20/2007

This year’s “World Carfree Day,” the sanctimonious ritual of environmentalist Lenten self-denial, is on a Saturday.

• By: Michelle Minton
• 09/20/2007

The FDA wants your money—it needs your money if it is to continue poorly regulating the safety of drugs and killing citizens by stalling the…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/20/2007

If you’re an Australian Labour Party supporter with more money than sense, it appears that the answer is yes. By the way, one wonders…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/20/2007

Wall Street Journal science columnist Robert Lee Hotz has a fascinating profile of epidemiologist John Ioannidis and his view that because of unacknowledged biases…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/20/2007

The House has just passed a bill to increase the size and expense of the federal Food and Drug Administration. The bill would impose…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/20/2007

Both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson cautioned today that steps to raise conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/20/2007

The Santa Cruz, California, City Council is waiving its ban on smoking in public parks on September 29 so that marijuana can be smoked…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/20/2007

USA Today reports that Municipal Wi-Fi plans across the nation continue to collapse under the pressure of economic reality. Schemes such as those proposed…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/20/2007

Following the EU Court of First Instance decision in the Microsoft antitrust appeal I appeared on Mark Carbonaro’s radio program on 1460 KION in Monterey,…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/20/2007

Cheers to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Yesterday, it released a…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/20/2007

Eli’s post on internet co-ops referring to Wayne’s post about broadband infrastructure got my mind whirring about other examples of cooperatives — housing…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/20/2007

Arrr. Shiver me timbers! Why hasn’t CEI done more t’ celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day? Only one post? Although Seafarin’ heartys be, fer…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/19/2007

At the movies this week, during the previews before the excellent The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, I watched the trailer for…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/19/2007

As the US and EU regulators bear down on Google we’re already seeing changes in the marketplace where the Googlers currently have the lead. Yahoo!…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/19/2007

A New York Times editorial today (free access began today) points out some of the unintended consequences of corn ethanol subsidies and restrictive tariffs…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/19/2007

Like seemingly ever other magazine these days, Parenting is going green, with an essay contest in which parents describe changes they’ve made at home…

• By: Julie Walsh
• 09/19/2007

Over six and a half billion dollars were given to environmental groups in 2006, according to the June 28, 2007 issue of “Chronicle of…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/19/2007

Wayne’s post got me thinking. Yes, of course, its absurd for Sen. Byron Dorgan to say that consumers somehow own fiber “pipes” that clearly…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/19/2007

Wayne has reminded us here at Open Market that today marks the observance of an important holiday, Talk Like a Pirate Day (if…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/19/2007

I don’t think it would lessen the car’s horsepower any. Anyhow—enjoy The Six-Volt Battery Hack.

• By: Julie Walsh
• 09/18/2007

A September 18, 2007 article by Troy Lennon in the Daily Telegraph, Sydney about the Northwest Passage, the “trip that caused the toughest to…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/18/2007

Surprise, surprise. Farmers can do better without federal government subsidies, price supports, quota systems, and other Depression-era programs that constrain competition and expansion. Today, the…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/18/2007

From the “nut neutrality” department. At the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit yesterday (very excellent events, by the way), Sen. Byron Dorgan had…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 09/18/2007

What’s a paternalist to do? The American people are getting fatter, but they ignore warning labels, as well as increasingly shrill advice from their nutritional…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 09/18/2007

Markets are wonderful. If there is a demand, markets will arise to fill it. Including the desire to feel good about oneself. How else should…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 09/17/2007

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently assigned to deregulate special access rates, a service provided by traditional incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/17/2007

It’s official — buying carbon credits to offset CO2 emissions is like doing penance for sins, according to a high-level Vatican official. An article in…

• By: John Berlau
• 09/17/2007

D.C. Councilman and former mayor Marion Barry, as well as some of his colleagues on the City Council, have a novel idea on how to…

• By: Myron Ebell
• 09/17/2007

Who recently made the following statement? [T]he life of all mankind is in danger because of global warming resulting to a large degree from the…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/17/2007

Curve-aceous economist Arthur Laffer (and his colleague Wayne Winegarden) have a new study out this week, estimating the costs to the U.S. economy…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/17/2007

As the health care debate heats up in Congress, in the media, and on the campaign trail, proposals to fix America’s health care system have…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/17/2007

Activists on the left don’t seem to mind expanding bureaucracy and red tape when it hits businesses, consumers, property owners, and taxpayers in general. They…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/17/2007

A very interesting USA Today story points to investors’ flight from actively managed mutual funds largely in favor of index funds. In general, mutual…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/17/2007

The Indian government is finding out something that most of us have known for a long time: that measures aimed at dealing with global warming…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/17/2007

In an interview in the weekend Wall Street Journal, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has some choice words for the environmental fanatics trying to hobble…

• By: John Berlau
• 09/17/2007

Last night, in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that on his first date with Andrea Mitchell, now…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/15/2007

The New York Times highlights the pro-capitalist literature of Ayn Rand today, citing several prominent businessmen influenced by her. The title above is her…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 09/14/2007

Julie’s post today included a link to the May ’07 Vanity Fair article focusing on CEI’s own Myron…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/14/2007

The University of California, Irvine, has just made what appears to be a truly boneheaded move by withdrawing a left-wing law professors’ nomination to…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/14/2007

Shocking allegations, from the New York Times by way of Editor & Publisher: In their regular “Freakanomics” column which will appear in this Sunday’s…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/14/2007

Saudi Arabia continues to demand that American tobacco companies pay it billions of dollars for its smokers’ health care costs. Saudi Arabia is demanding…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/14/2007

The Dominican Republic has joined Nicaragua in objecting to a proposed increase in the tax on some premium cigars from 5 cents…

• By: Julie Walsh
• 09/14/2007

As a girl, I had a poster of a polar bear cub on my bedroom wall. Global warming alarmists often use this same image…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/13/2007

Not the freshest news in the world, but I found it interesting when I discovered today that that Ask.com offers a service called AskEraser…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/13/2007

Here’s an idea; have your kids pick up trash and play with it. Gadget site hizs.com says this little plastic octopus “reinforces environmentalism in…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/13/2007

CEI analysts are frequent guests on TV news programs, and this week has been no exception. See below for a taste of recent interviews and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/13/2007

I'm baffled by Eli's contention that Mark Warner, as governor of Virginia, controlled government spending. Warner became a champion big spender after initially practicing fiscal…

• By: Jody Clarke
• 09/13/2007

For several years now, environmental activists have been fighting to keep a gold mine from reopening in Romania: a mine that would bring much needed…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/13/2007

The Washington Post has more coverage and commentary on the unconstitutional D.C. voting rights bill, which would give the District a Congressman even…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 09/13/2007

Treehugger.com’s quote of the day comes from Grist.org’s April ’06 interview with Elizabeth Kolbert—the lit. major-turned armchair scientist…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/13/2007

When the sun swells into a red giant in about 5 billion years, “Earth Might Survive Sun’s Explosion,” observational evidence of other star systems…

• By: Sam Kazman
• 09/13/2007

At my temple last night the rabbi’s sermon started off beautifully, examining Rosh Hashanah as the birthday of the world.  But it quickly turned into…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 09/13/2007

I am always cautious when someone utilizes the “do it for the children” argument. Usually it signals a lack of rational justification and the necessity…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/12/2007

In the current issue of Commentary, City Journal contributing editor Kay Hymowitz criticizes libertarianism as fatally flawed by some internal "cultural contradictions" (this essay…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/12/2007

OK going off topic. I just learned from a friend that one of my favorite musicians died Sunday nite, September 12. The great Hughie Thomasson…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/12/2007

In The Washington Post, several Congressmen argue that although the Constitution says that Congressmen and Senators must represent “states,” it does not really mean…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/12/2007

A story in today’s Washington Post highlights the fact that with all the news about Chinese toy recalls, regulators are ignoring other, more serious…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/12/2007

Good news from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today. Life expectancy in the U.S. is at an all time high…