The Open Market Blog

• 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…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 09/12/2007

In her August 31st post titled “Bush pulls a Hillary on Housing???” with its gratuitous punctuation, Michelle…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/12/2007

Well, someone had to do it. UnlikeWayne I don’t mind the freegans. Yes, they’re annoying and self righteous. But they do practice what they…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/12/2007

A federal judge has struck down a bossy New York City regulation that ordered restaurants to list calorie-counts on their menus for each menu…

• By: John Berlau
• 09/12/2007

I recently returned from my first visit to Columbia, Mo., since I graduated from the University of Missouri there 1994. I am a graduate of…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/12/2007

William, before air conditioning the British in India would cool their offices by means that did not involve electricity. They hooked up a large ceiling…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/12/2007

Swedish-style snus, a smokeless tobacco product, are much less hazardous to your health than cigarettes. Yet in most of Europe, they are banned, supposedly on…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/12/2007

That’s what Time magazine seems to think: Uh-oh. Here comes trouble. Let’s stipulate that the Model T did everything that the history books say:…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/12/2007

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today about how “low green card quotas have left the U.S. with an undersupply of nurses that…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 09/12/2007

Is it a preponderance of scientific evidence or an inundation of media coverage that, like a feedback loop, spurs on the theory that global warming…

• By: John Berlau
• 09/12/2007

Angela, Thanks for noting the cite on why the SEC “reforms” of Sarbox would still mandate that companies be suggested to broad reviews for…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/12/2007

Richard dissected them below. Simple living is one thing, but Free-lunch foragers seem irretrievably ridiculous and hypocritical. The dripping contempt for capitalism, while…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/11/2007

Anita Roddick, the hyper-politically correct founder of the Body Shop chain of cosmetics stores, has died. She is being widely lauded as a…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/11/2007

Today's New York Post reports that a medical center funded by the federal government to research potential health effects of the World Trade Center…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/11/2007

The FDA tobacco regulation bill poised to pass Congress may trigger a trade dispute with Indonesia, according to the Asia Times. Indonesia objects to…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/11/2007

Spiked Online’s Brendan O’Neill has a thoughtful, and interesting, take on Osama bin Laden’s latest video, in which he denounces the current U.S. administration for,…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/11/2007

Of course, the study that Wayne cites isn’t the first of its type. One that comes to mind is Frank Sulloway’s study that…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/11/2007

A lot of large mammals in Africa and Asia are currently threatened with extinction because the products into which they can be made into are…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/11/2007

Wayne passes along a link today to a story about my favorite urban subculture of the moment: the freegans. Los Angeles Times staff writer…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/11/2007

Today John Tierney — while visiting Lower Manhattan — discusses global warming with Bjorn Lomborg in his science column in The New York Times.

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/11/2007

A study in the journal Nature Neuroscience finds evidence of differences in the way information is processed in the brains of test subjects of…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/11/2007

Subsidies for biofuels are leading to food price inflation and will cause environmental damage, so says the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/11/2007

Business leaders in the land of the rising sun have gone kamikaze on energy efficiency. According to a front page story in the Wall Street…

• By: Myron Ebell
• 09/10/2007

In the weekend Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Smith reports that, As shareholders of TXU Corp. approved a $32 billion buyout, the private-equity buyers' pledge…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/10/2007

Hans, I have three comments about what you say here. First, on paratransit. The paratransit service (MetroAccess) in this area is already run by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/10/2007

The New York Times has a story today on how a woman with breast cancer is dying in agony without any pain relief because…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/10/2007

Canadian politicians are worried. News reports say that several politicians had recently given some of their blood to the greens, who examined it for…

• By: Myron Ebell
• 09/10/2007

USA Today has listed its editors’ choices for the 25 biggest news stories of the past 25 years. Surprisingly, global warming doesn’t make the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/10/2007

A teenager’s lawyer falsely claims he raped and killed his sister because he was high on marijuana. Amazingly enough, his gullible mother believes this…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/10/2007

According to a story in today’s Financial Times, Europeans are buying more SUVs than ever. Evidently, European consumers don’t care that larger cars emit…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/10/2007

Washington, D.C.'s subway and bus system, Metro, is weighing a 29-percent fare increase for its riders, to overcome a multimillion-dollar operating deficit. Part of…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/09/2007

The Economist indicts the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as “unwieldy,” laden with perverse incentives, unnecessary, and designed to grow out of control. When the Endangered…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/09/2007

I count myself amongst those who think Damien Hirst — he of the shark-in formaldehyde — a first-rate artist. His work is shocking, interesting, stimulating,…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/09/2007

A new Parents Television Council report bemoans the supposed demise of the TV “Family Hour.” This response essay by Adam Thierer sets the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/07/2007

Very often, people think that if something offends them, it must be unconstitutional. Exhibit A is the Washington Post's editorial today on the Town…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/07/2007

Even if a Supreme Court decision is correct and well-reasoned, it can still be overturned if the plaintiff's bar comes up with good soundbites…