The Open Market Blog

• 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…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/07/2007

Today’s very modest reported decline in overall employment, 4,000 jobs, appears to stem from the loss of about 6,000 mortgage industry positions. Most of…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/06/2007

As an opera lover, I have to take note of the death of Luciano Pavarotti today at the age of 71. One of the leading…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/06/2007

Thousands of children have committed suicide after federal regulators discouraged taking drugs that combat depression, such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil, by hyping health risks associated…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/06/2007

Judging from a bizarre Washington Post story today on the closing of a government-subsidized day-laborer center, a constitutional right to welfare must just have…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/06/2007

Endorsing a bill of dubious constitutionality, The Washington Post urges the Senate to join the House in passing a bill that would give Washington,…

• By: Christopher C. Horner
• 09/05/2007

Yesterday’s Washington Post ran a letter from the Central Valley (CA) program manager for a National Parks Conservation Association, titled “How to counter…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/05/2007

Leonardo DiCaprio’s eco-doomfest The 11th Hour has bombed at the box office: His environmental documentary, “The 11th Hour,” has been a total bust at…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/05/2007

The British government continues to steal newborns from their mothers, including a rape victim, according to the London Telegraph.  Hexham Children's Services in Northumberland…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/05/2007

Yesterday NPR’s All Things Considered took up the 2007 Farm Bill again and focused on the clout that sugar producers enjoy in both the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/05/2007

With free trade under attack by just about every POTUS hopeful, it’s encouraging to note that most economists are still stalwart in their defense of…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/04/2007

In its current issue, The Economist reports on the failure of municipal WiFi. [T]he networks that have been completed have attracted few users…America’s biggest…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/04/2007

Cigarette taxes could be reformed in a way that discourages underage people from starting to smoke, while also relieving the financial burden on poor people…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/04/2007

Two weeks ago, I wrote “about convicted felon Teressa Turner-Schaefer, who spent a mere 11 months in jail for killing her husband after an…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/04/2007

The District of Columbia has filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking review of a federal appeals court decision striking down the District’s…

• By: Christopher C. Horner
• 09/04/2007

A couple of weeks ago The Washington Post ran a story about the recent correction of surface temperature measurements the wonderful…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 09/04/2007

Government social engineering doesn't work. It's rarely just. It is even less likely to be effective. That is the lesson of just about every government…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/03/2007

The Washington Post carries a very interesting story about the growth of a Roman Catholic Religious Order. Two things I find interesting from a…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 09/03/2007

There is much that occurs in Washington that irritates — and irritates mightily. One of my pet peeves is how welfare statists greedy for extra…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/31/2007

The Washington Examiner editorializes further today in anticipation of Labor Day, this time on the efforts by Democrats in Congress to cut the…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 08/31/2007

With all the hype about recalls of Chinese toys, jewelry, and other children’s items, consumers — especially parents — in the West are understandably concerned…

• By: John Berlau
• 08/31/2007

Perhaps wanting to preempt Congress before it returns next Tuesday, President Bush offered his own plan to deal with troubles in the housing market.

• By: Fran Smith
• 08/31/2007

This morning both Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and President George W. Bush addressed the subprime lending problems and what the government would and would…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 08/31/2007

Julie Satow of the New York Sun does a great job today profiling our very own Angela Logomasini’s new study on the costs…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 08/31/2007

With Tim Johnson, the lead sponsor of the Optional Federal Charter for insurance companies back in the U.S. Senate next week, it’s likely that the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 08/30/2007

Russell Roberts at CafeHayek posted excerpts from Freeman Dyson’s article “Heretical thoughts about science and society.” Dyson, professor of physics at Princeton’s Institute…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/30/2007

Communist China’s attempts to suppress Tibetan Buddhism are well known in the West, where it’s created a backlash in the form of the “Free Tibet”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/30/2007

Indonesia is protesting that the bill to subject the tobacco industry to FDA regulation would violate an international trade treaty. The Jakarta Post…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/30/2007

Government is the only area in which unionization is growing in America. Today’s DC Examiner features an editorial that explains one reason why: It’s…

• By: Fran Smith
• 08/29/2007

As a New Orleans native — born and raised there — I've been reading the coverage of Hurricane Katrina's second anniversary today. Next…

• By: Fran Smith
• 08/29/2007

The Globe and Mail today (Toronto, Canada) looks at the U.S. presidential candidates and their views on trade as they talked about those issues…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/29/2007

Britblogger Guido Fawkes delights in blowing up the sacred symbols of establishment. Here he presents data that strongly suggest that mass public transport, symbolized…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/29/2007

I strongly agree with Michelle that NASA is a fine example of public choice theory at work. Political pressures impel NASA to sacrifice…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 08/29/2007

NASA announced last Friday that while searching for the reason foam separated from the space shuttle Endeavor during takeoff (tearing a 3-inch gash in the…

• By: Julie Walsh
• 08/29/2007

If you have two botanists discussing a certain plant species, and the first one believes that the plant will grow to 1 foot, but the…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/29/2007

Washington, D.C. is a wonderful place. Perhaps its hallmark is the lack of shame. A qualification for high office is being able to engage in…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/29/2007

There's been quite a buzz recently on the second anniversary of Hurricane Kartrina's destruction of New Orleans. Presidential contender Barack Obama even offered a…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/28/2007

In England, new centennarian Winnie Langley celebrates her 100th birthday by smoking her 170,000th cigarrette. Winnie Langley started smoking only days after the…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 08/28/2007

New census bureau data shows a modest uptick in the number of Americans who do not have health insurance. (The number has not “soared,”…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/28/2007

The UK Conservative Party has a “Quality of Life” policy group, headed by former Environment Secretary John Selwyn Gummer (whose most distinguished political moment involved…

• By: Fran Smith
• 08/28/2007

Bob Novak in his column yesterday had an interesting take on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and Democratic opposition to this trade pact. Novak…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 08/28/2007

Is it even possible for companies to strike exclusive deals when teams of nerds across the country have been at work on hacking the iPhone…

• By: Christopher C. Horner
• 08/27/2007

My colleague Iain Murray notes here at OpenMarket and at Planet Gore about a series of past alarmist NASA pronouncements, which list I…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/27/2007

In this commendably balanced story by The New York Times’ Andy Revkin about the recent NASA temperature data fiasco, a certain someone at NASA…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/27/2007

The BBC’s sponsorship of a global warming “consciousness raising” event is meeting some well-deserved resistance from inside the broadcaster, reports the Guardian. The event,…

• By: Christopher C. Horner
• 08/27/2007

We see that Al Gore et al plan to commit upwards of $100 million to persuade the public to take the hit…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/27/2007

The Wall Street Journal‘s John Fund highlights a form of local- and state-government level protectionism that often passes under the radar: professional licensing requirements.

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/27/2007

The Washington Post reports that the man responsible for the Virginia Tech massacre had mental problems known to his high school, but that the…

• By: Christopher C. Horner
• 08/27/2007

This story makes clear that the Bush administration's climate change team -- for all of their faults, not least of which is a…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 08/27/2007

Taiwan’s Acer has announced plans to acquire computer-maker Gateway. In its heyday during the 1990s, Gateway ran brash, folksy ads in just about every…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/26/2007

Venezuelan state Boss Hugo offers a response to rumors that his pal Fidel is on his way to meet Satan, which should prove…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/26/2007

For some people government is a means to an end, a tool to achieve certain ends. With them real debate is possible. While one can,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/25/2007

The Miami Herals pays its respects upon the passing of an American cultural institution, the South Florida-based Weekly World News. Without the WWN, a…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/25/2007

The new issue of The Economist features a letter with a quote worth citing: SIR — I attended a performance by the British songwriters…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 08/24/2007

Tech Maverick and Internet billionaire Mark Cuban has some choice words for would-be web entrepreneurs of today. Basically, don’t bother: The internet of…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 08/24/2007

I recently attended the PFF Aspen Summitt which served to both educate and inspire me, so expect a flurry of blog posts over the next…

• By: Myron Ebell
• 08/24/2007

Compliments of Benny Peiser’s invaluable CCNet e-mails (sign up here), here are two quotes that together sum up one of the major obstacles to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/24/2007

Even in the midst of a budget deficit, Virginia governor Tim Kaine is pushing for a massive and costly expansion of state-funded preschool programs. A…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/24/2007

Today in his Washington Examiner column, our friend and former Brookes Fellow Tim Carney highlights yet another way in which rent-seeking businesses are lining…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 08/24/2007

Today’s Inside Higher Ed reports on a very interesting study about college costs and drop out rates. According to the study (which costs $5.00)…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 08/23/2007

I came home Thursday to find an Light Emitting Diode (LED) light bulb in my mailbox. I had ordered it on ebay and paid…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/23/2007

The food fascists are every where. It’s one thing for New York City to ban trans fats from city restaurants. But for the Great Indiana…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/23/2007

Is nothing sacred? Congress passes an energy bill in the name of fighting global warming, and what it best accomplishes is passing pork off to…

• By: Julie Walsh
• 08/23/2007

Marc Morano has compiled a great list of the latest peer-reviewed scientific studies and quotes from scientists against alarmism. I have composed an executive…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 08/23/2007

According to a story in today’s Greenwire, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development has conducted a survey showing that people in the real…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/23/2007

A disturbing development in the UK brings to mind CEI’s own dystopian video, from this year’s annual dinner. (Thanks to Megan McLaughlin for the…

• By: Christine Hall
• 08/23/2007

In the name of protecting teens from online predators, the nation's "worst attorney general" - Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal - is leading a crusade…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 08/21/2007

Jason and the rest of the Bureaucrash crew are making their way across the northeast part of our great continent this week, as part of…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 08/21/2007

The today’s Washington Post carries an interesting story about the Louis Vuitton Tribute Patchwork bag. As you see from the picture, the bag…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/20/2007

In a recent paper, University of Calgary economist Robert J. Oxoby addresses the eternal question: Who was the better singer to have fronted AC/DC,…