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Common Myths and Facts about Trade
There are a lot of confusions on both sides of the trade debate. A short CEI WebMemo, published today, seeks to clear up three…
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New China Tariffs Coming Soon
Less than a week after signing a bill to reduce some tariffs, the administration is moving to raise others. As soon as today, the…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a slow week for substantive news, aside from President Trump’s surprise signing of the Miscellaneous Tariff Act, which reduces tariffs on about 1,700…
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President Trump Signs Miscellaneous Tariff Act
In a surprise move, President Trump signed the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act into law on Thursday. The bill will reduce tariffs on roughly 1,700 goods…
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Free Trade Challenges: Tariffs, Concentrated Benefits, and Diffused Costs
Tariffs hurt more people than they help. So why do those outnumbered few keep winning so many political victories at the majority’s expense? The answer…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
After a short Labor Day breather, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings and White House intrigue made for a lively four-day week. Meanwhile, agencies issued…
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August Brought 201,000 New Jobs, but Future Gains Threatened by Trade Restrictions
The U.S. economy added 201,000 jobs in August, the U.S. Labor Department announced today. Good news, but impending trade restrictions could put a damper…
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Tariffs Invite Corruption
The Commerce Department is offering exemptions to President Trump’s recent steel and aluminum tariffs. More than 2,000 companies have applied. That means that there…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
August ended with a bang, leaving the 2018 Federal Register on the brink of the 45,000-page mark going into the Labor Day holiday. Agencies passed…
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Trade Is as Old as Humanity
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of long-distance trade going as far back as 200,000 years ago. The artifacts are mainly things such as obsidian tools…
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Trade Restrictions Will Not Improve National Security
One of the most persuasive arguments trade protectionists use is the national security argument. It serves as a “get out of jail free” card with…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Lawyers are having a field day in Washington, and not just in cases involving associates of a certain member of the executive branch. Over at…
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Trade Made Renaissance Art Possible
Trade and specialization make all kinds of life-enriching innovations possible. In fact, Italian Renaissance art was one of them, a gift that continues to inspire…
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‘Infant Industry’ Argument Does Not Justify Trade Barriers
Most startups fail. The conventional wisdom is that about 90 percent of businesses fail within five years of their founding. For companies making new types…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a slow news week on the policy front, though quite busy on the drama/soap opera front. The House was in recess, and while…
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Protectionism Keeps People Poor
Why do people trade with each other at all? Because it makes them better off. As Iain Murray’s and my paper “Traders of the…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new final regulations for the year passed the 2,000 mark, with new rules ranging from cell walls to harpoon fishing.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big regulatory news is a proposed loosening of fuel economy standards for cars. This will likely improve safety; lighter cars don’t hold up…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The economy grew by 4.1 percent last quarter, which is wonderful news. The president also announced $12 billion of subsides for farmers hurt…
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Trump’s Trade Meeting with European Commissioner Juncker: Better than Nothing
Many trade-watchers are breathing a sigh of relief about President Trump’s meeting yesterday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The result was essentially a…
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Trump Proposes $12 Billion in Aid to Farmers Hurt by His Tariffs
As we’ve been saying ever since this issue heated up, tariffs hurt the economy. There’s no way around it. Seeing this harm, President Trump…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The European Union fined Google a record $5 billion for antitrust violations, and the president raised foreign policy kerfuffles with Britain and Russia on…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was an uneventful week at regulatory agencies, with a lower-than-usual 51 new final regulations, ranging from skin disability ratings to garage door openers. For more data,…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
America celebrated its 242nd birthday on Wednesday, and new tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods came into effect on Friday. Meanwhile, during a…
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A Quick Lesson in Antitrust: Netflix and Comcast
Every time a major corporate merger is announced, pundits predictably warn of impending doom if regulators allow it to happen. Yet, pundits and regulators don’t know any…
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CEI Book Club: Peter Navarro and Greg Autry, Death by China
Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro has a longstanding animus against China. It is important to know Navarro’s thoughts on China. He played a major role…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a newsy week, with Justice Kennedy’s retirement announcement, along with some big Supreme Court decisions, including the Janus decision regarding public sector unions;…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Summer officially began last week, and federal regulators celebrated with new regulations ranging from almond kernel computing to rough diamonds.
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Last Chance for the 115th: Options for Regulatory Reform
With a possible party change in play this November in one or both chambers of Congress, the time might be now or never to pass…
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Minimum Wage Proposal Divides D.C. Workers, Voters
Washington, D.C. has a $12.50 per hour minimum wage. But for tip-earning workers, such as servers and bartenders, the minimum is $3.33 per hour—tips are…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Angry allies, North Korea, and Chinese tariffs dominated the news last week. Under the radar, regulatory agencies closed in on their 1,500th new regulation of…
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Last Chance for the 115th: Stop the President from Unilaterally Raising Tariffs
Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power of the purse. Under no circumstances may the president unilaterally raise taxes.
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Good News for Young Lemonade Stand Entrepreneurs
Every summer there are news stories about local authorities shutting down children’s lemonade stands over lack of licenses, permits, a lack of restaurant-grade kitchen or…
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Will Trump’s Tariffs Spell the End of Free Markets?
The president’s threats must be fought, but the good news is America’s fundamental institutions will withstand Trumpian bluster. For one thing, our economy remains a…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The week’s big headlines were about the G7 meeting and our allies’ efforts to avoid a trade war, and the meeting with north Korea…
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Here We Go Again: Steel and Aluminum Tariffs and Peter Navarro
A new 25 percent steel tariff and a 10 percent aluminum tariff have come into effect. The levies are aimed at our allies, such as Canada,…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Despite a four-day workweek, federal agencies still exceeded the previous week’s Federal Register page count by nearly a hundred pages, pushing the yearly total past…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Agencies took it comparatively easy in the leadup to the long Memorial Day weekend, though the FAA and Coats Guard were busy with rules for…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a relatively slow week, with 44 proposed regulations and 62 final regulations, though the Supreme Court did rule the federal ban on…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big news from the last week was the release of the spring edition of the twice-yearly Unified Agenda, which lists all planned agency regulations…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It is now May, and still only one economically significant regulation (costing $100 million or more per year) has been issued this year. With the…
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Regulatory Reform in Congress
While the president’s initial flurry of executive orders enacting some regulatory reforms was a pleasant surprise, the next president can undo them with the stroke…
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Steel and Aluminum Tariffs a Massive Net Loss for U.S. Economy
Following in George W. Bush’s footsteps, President Trump increased tariffs on foreign-made steel and aluminum by 25 percent in March. But he exempted U.S. allies…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new final regulations passed the 1,000 mark last week, with new rules ranging from sending mail to human reliability programs.
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Some Context for the Astronomical Cost of Government Regulation
Since any number with that many zeroes and commas in it is difficult for the human mind to process, let’s put it in a more…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big news this week was the release of the 2018 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. Agencies continued to provide fodder for next years edition…
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Lessons for Congress from ‘10,000 Commandments’: Regulatory Budgets
One of the lessons learned from this year’s “10,000 Commandments” study is that Congress needs to be more involved in the regulatory process. It needs…
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‘10,000 Commandments’ at 25: What Have We Learned, What’s to Come?
Wayne Crews has ably documented the regulatory state for twenty-five years and running. But what will the next twenty-five years of “10,000 Commandments” look like?…
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Peter Navarro’s Economic Ignorance on Trade
Trump economic advisor and Death by China author Peter Navarro’s recent column in The Wall Street Journal, “China’s Faux Comparative Advantage,” is a…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The highlights from this week’s round of 36 proposed regulations and 72 final regulations range from licensing government inventions to the Department of Redundancy Department’s…