The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/29/2008

The Supreme Court made up some new laws on Tuesday because it thought they were a good idea, as the Washington Post’s editorial today notes.

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/29/2008

State Child Protective Services (CPS) are increasingly seizing children from their parents for trivial reasons or over baseless, anonymous allegations, as the Washington Examiner describes…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/28/2008

Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) illegally seized 465 children from parents in a religious sect based on an anonymous, fabricated allegation by a woman outside the sect…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/27/2008

The Washington Examiner has an interesting editorial today called “Environmentalism Isn’t About the Environment.”  It describes how environmental measures expand and metastasize government power in ways…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/26/2008

In the Washington Examiner, Daniel Ballon and Lawrence McQuillan criticize a bill pending in Congress that would lead to credit card companies reducing their rebates to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/25/2008

The federal government massively subsidizes corn-based ethanol production, even though it consumes as much energy as it generates, thus doing nothing to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  Yet the federal government…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/22/2008

“An appeals court has ruled that Texas had no right to seize hundreds of children from a polygamous sect.”  The children were seized after someone pretending to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/21/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins explains why mortgage bailout proposals would reward greedy and foolish borrowers and speculators in certain regions at…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/21/2008

The Wall Street Journal criticized yesterday’s appeals court ruling that paper money discriminates against the blind.  Even the National Federation of the Blind…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/21/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, economist and former Carter Administration official Fred Bergsten chides Congressional leaders for blocking votes on trade agreements with friendly countries like…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/20/2008

A divided D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled 2-to-1 that paper money discriminates against the blind in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, in American…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/19/2008

Genetically-modified (“GM”) crops help the environment in many ways.  They reduce the need for pesticide use by engineering plants to be more blight-resistant.  And by reducing the amount of land…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/07/2008

President Bush has threatened to veto the bloated federal housing bill pushed by House leaders, saying it would reward special interests  As John Berlau has…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/07/2008

At Slate, Eric Posner explains why the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act is a bad idea as a basic concept.  The law nevertheless recently passed the Senate 95-to-0…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/06/2008

Say bye bye to more American manufacturing jobs.  The Washington Post editorialized today about sugar import quotas and price supports contained in the bloated federal…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/05/2008

Eli Lehrer has an editorial in today’s Washington Examiner about how ill-considered legislation to create federal “national catastrophe insurance” could lead to American taxpayers shelling…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/05/2008

Earlier, we wrote about how the economic “stimulus package” passed by Congress contained pork for left-wing groups like “La Raza” (Spanish for “the race”).  Now, House banking committee…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/02/2008

Should you be able to sue your employer because your co-workers listen to raunchy radio programs?  The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Reeves v. C.H.

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/02/2008

A story in the Wall Street Journal suggests it is time to once again eat kangaroos, to protect the environment, and cope with Kangaroo overpopulation…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

The Fed has cut interest rates again, reducing its key rate to 2 percent — a real interest rate of less than zero, after taking into account…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the federal law (PLCAA) limiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers over acts committed by criminals with guns,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

In the Washington Post, Robert Samuelson’s column “Start Drilling” points out that ethanol production is far worse for the environment than drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

Michigan CPS workers seized a 7-year-old who drank lemonade that his father purchased for him without knowing that it contained a small amount of alcohol.  (As Ted Frank notes,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The American Bar Association is continually threatening to pull the accreditation of George Mason University Law School for failing to adopt illegal racial quotas…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law, which is tougher than many other voter ID laws, rejecting claims that it was unconstitutional or…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The proposed “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” would get rid of the short 180-day deadline for bringing pay discrimination claims that applies under some federal laws, like…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

A Chicago Tribune story notes that a few jurisdictions now ban discrimination against fat people (generally as part of general bans on discrimination based on physical appearance), and that Massachusetts…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/25/2008

In the Wall Street Journal today, Stanford’s Ronald McKinnon argues against the Federal Reserve’s policy of cutting interest rates to almost nothing, and debasing…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/25/2008

Nate Beeler has an an excellent editorial cartoon, “Food for Thought,” that captures the deadly and costly consequences of ethanol subsidies, in today’s Washington Examiner.   Many go…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

Nicholas Kristof has a column today in the New York Times, “Better Roses Than Cocaine,” in favor of the proposed free-trade agreement with Colombia,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

The House Speaker is seeking to dump the House version of a bill in favor of a much more draconian Senate version preferred by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

The Senate majority yesterday did not achieve the 60 votes needed to cut off further debate and summarily pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

Today, the Senate will consider (and almost certainly pass) the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act.  Earlier, I discussed the irrational fears behind this law, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

George Mason University Law Professor David Bernstein has a thought-provoking post on the seizure of hundreds of children, including nursing infants, from their mothers,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

In his interview with The Economist, Congressman Barney Frank undermines the case for his much-criticized mortgage bailout bill.  He admits that such bailouts create…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

“Sharply rising food prices” “have sparked riots around the world and threaten U.N.-backed feeding programs for 20 million children, the top U.N. food official said…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

The Washington Post today editorialized in favor of an unnecessary bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would extend the deadline for bringing…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/22/2008

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today against the FDA tobacco regulation bill.  It argues that the bill contradicts the government’s own lawsuit…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/22/2008

In the Washington Post, two prominent environmentalists have an editorial, “Ethanol’s Failed Promise,” which explains how ethanol subsidies and mandates are destroying the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/20/2008

The Washington Post has an editorial debunking false claims made by House leaders against the proposed trade agreement with Colombia.  “There are two important…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/19/2008

As chairman and CEO of taxpayer-subsidized mortgage giant Fannie Mae, Franklin D. Raines promoted reckless lending policies that helped cause the housing bubble and mortgage crisis.  …

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/18/2008

The Washington Examiner has a must-read editorial called “Baby Snatching by Arlington County.” It shows that if County social workers seize your…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/17/2008

Point of Law reports on an appeals court hearing Tuesday over the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.   (The PCAOB, which produces tons of red tape…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/17/2008

A global warming lawsuit by Eskimos seeks to impose conspiracy liability on oil and power companies for giving money to groups that question the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

So much foreign-aid money is being spent on costly AIDS treatment in Africa, compared to other diseases, that “H.I.V.-infected children are offered exemplary treatment, while…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

International courts and “human rights” bodies issue rulings that purport to have the force of law.  But much of their reasoning is based not on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

House leaders blocked the House from even voting on a trade deal between the U.S. and Colombia that would have cut America’s trade deficit…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/15/2008

Ethanol and biofuels have been wrongly depicted by politicians like Al Gore as a solution to global warming.  But in reality, subsidized ethanol production gravely harms the environment, and also…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

In the Washington Post, David Ignatius writes about the long-run economic costs of mortgage bailouts, which infantilize voters.  Through bailouts, we are “creating a system of transfer…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

“Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving” soon, the International Monetary Fund says.  Government officials and food relief agencies quoted in the story…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/11/2008

Last night, I watched an ABC News segment on the latest batch of canceled airline flights.  Hundreds of American Airlines flights have been canceled, stranding…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

The Senate has just passed a bad, pork-laden “foreclosure relief” bill that would actually increase foreclosures, as the Washington Post earlier noted.  House leaders are…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

We previously wrote about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban private-sector employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and how the bill’s requirements regarding “conditions of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Ron Bailey writes about the “global food crisis” that has resulted in food riots across the world, in countries like Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, Yemen, Haiti, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Previously, we wrote about how the Senate “foreclosure relief” bill will actually increase, rather than reduce, foreclosures, while costing taxpayers a bundle, and how…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman debunks the idea that converting from oil to ethanol will cut global warming: “The subsidized conversion of crops into…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

Most housing discrimination laws don’t prevent you from living with roommates of a particular sex (not surprising, given than women generally don’t want a male roommate).  But…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

The Washington Post today editorialized against the Senate housing bill, the so-called “Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008,” noting that it is actually “A Pro-Foreclosure Bill”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

In an effort to help borrowers and some overextended big banks, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to very low levels, triggering a fall in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Wheat production is down in the world’s breadbaskets, like the United States, as farmland shifts away from wheat to ethanol production.  Ethanol production has increased because of government ethanol mandates…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Liberal reporter Darryl Fears, who covers racial and civil-rights issues for the Washington Post, has a truly odd perspective.  In an article on the declining membership…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd is preparing a bill that would bail out mortgage borrowers who borrowed so much, and made such small…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/04/2008

The federal appeals court in New York City killed a $200 billion class action lawsuit against the tobacco industry brought in the name of America’s…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

The Wall Street Journal warns taxpayers to “hold onto your wallet.”  Why?  It cites Congressman Barney Frank’s multibillion dollar mortgage bailout bill, which may pass the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

Voters have replaced a liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Louis Butler, with a moderate judge who ran against him.  Butler’s appointment to fill a vacancy…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

The bill fashioned by Senate leaders to supposedly “help” homeowners struggling with their mortgages contains tons of left-wing pork, such as money for “mortgage counseling”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/02/2008

The Senate is poised to pass a foolish mortgage bailout for certain borrowers.  Robert Samuelson explains in the Washington Post why a similar House…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/01/2008

Senate leaders of both parties are hammering out a deal to pass a “foreclosure relief” bill that would apparently contain a mortgage bailout for certain borrowers who…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/01/2008

Maryland legislators are inflicting a moronic new “diversity” mandate on Maryland colleges. Legislation to force institutions of higher learning in Maryland to create…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

The Fed has cut interest rates to ridiculously low levels to try to bail out mortgage borrowers and prop up the U.S. economy.  But that has led…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

The Supreme Court turned away the Justice Department’s appeal of a ruling that will make it harder to prosecute New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson, who was…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

Recently, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down regional taxes to pay for transportation improvements, such as the perverse grantor’s tax on homeowners, based on the principle…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

Yahoo Finance discusses how mortgage bailout measures turn Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper on its head, rewarding irresponsibility and punishing thrift…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/29/2008

Bailing out mortgage borrowers is a bad idea that most Americans oppose.  Yet the “Bush administration is finalizing details of a plan,” “backed by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/28/2008

“U.S. capital markets again lost ground against global competitors last year, highlighting the need to streamline regulation and crack down on excessive securities litigation,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/28/2008

Most Americans oppose a mortgage bailout, both for borrowers and for lenders.  They oppose bailouts for homeowners by a roughly 2-to-1 margin (53 percent…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/28/2008

Mark Tapscott writes about disgraced New York politician Eliot Spitzer’s hypocrisy in the Examiner.   Spitzer flouted the rules while loudly berating others for real or imaginary transgressions,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/26/2008

“Lawsuit Abuse Kills Puppies,” reports Ted Frank at Overlawyered.  “Rogier von Bakel is furious at his local SPCA because they would rather put a…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/26/2008

American lawyers, who are overwhelmingly liberal, cite foreign law when it is politically inconvenient, and ignore it when it isn’t.  They like to cite it to argue…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/26/2008

Prodded by the President, Congress belatedly moved to curb abusive class-action lawsuits through the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005.  But when one door to extortionate…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/25/2008

In order to isolate Colombia’s pro-American, democratically-elected government, Massachusetts Congressman James McGovern sent what commentators have likened to “love letters” to a bloodthirsty Colombian terrorist group, FARC, that smuggles…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/25/2008

It’s hard for educated people with valuable skills, like doctors and scientists, to immigrate because Congress won’t lift the unrealistically low cap on H-1B…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/24/2008

U.S. immigration authorities have denied Saman Ahmad permission to stay permanently in the U.S.  He put his life on the line for four years as…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/21/2008

The Wall Street Journal comments on House leaders’ pandering to trial lawyers by blocking “liability protection for phone companies that assisted the government…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/21/2008

“Inflation is walloping Americans with low and moderate incomes as the prices of staples have soared far faster than those of luxuries,” reports…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/20/2008

The politically-correct National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) has brought a disturbing lawsuit against an insurance company for an product aimed at church-goers, which provides…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/20/2008

There’s a tendency among many liberal “civil rights” bureaucrats to assume that any practice they dislike must be “discriminatory.”  Thus, when businesses mandate the use…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/19/2008

Michigan’s Proposition 2, which bans racial preferences and set-asides in government contracts, state jobs, and public university admissions, was upheld yesterday by a federal…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/18/2008

Under the Sarbanes-Oxley law, regulators have imposed incredibly expensive requirements for auditing American businesses, costing our economy $35 billion annually, and reducing the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/17/2008

The Federal Reserve is trying to save irresponsible borrowers from themselves by cutting interest rates to ridiculously low levels, even though that will trigger increased…