The Open Market Blog

• 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…

• 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…