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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Former President Trump’s impeachment trial was the big new story, though there is little suspense about the outcome. Meanwhile, agencies issued new rules ranging…
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Upcoming CEI Event: Bart Wilson on The Property Species
At noon ET on Thursday, February 11, CEI is hosting an event with the experimental economist Bart Wilson, author of The…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Senate passed the big budget reconciliation bill last week on a 50-50 tie broken by Vice President Harris. This week will see the…
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Proposed European Tech Regulations Will Backfire, Badly
The European Union recently proposed two major tech regulation bills aimed at America’s tech industry, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As the new administration settles in, it appears they will continue many Trump administration policies, such as “Buy American” provisions and trade protectionism.
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New President, Same Bad Policies
The Trump administration’s trade war gave economics teachers countless real-world examples of bad policy they can use in the classroom. A new open…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Biden was inaugurated on Wednesday. With the usual end-of-administration midnight rush now over, things will likely slow down. It takes time for new…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Happy MLK Day, everyone. The Trump administration’s final full week was an eventful one. The president was impeached for a second time. The usual…
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Economics Can Help Explain Conspiracy Theorists
There is a lot of conspiracy theory garbage floating around. On January 6, it took a violent turn. Five people died in a coup…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
After last week’s insurrection at the Capitol, the outgoing president, several elected officials, and their supporters have some soul-searching to do. Meanwhile, agencies continued…
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Toward Simplifying Antitrust Regulation
Antitrust regulation is a complex mess. Multiple agencies have overlapping jurisdiction with no set rules for determining who takes which cases. One of the…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Happy new year, everyone. We made it. 2020 was rough, but as I argued last week, it was not the worst year ever.
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Regulation in 2020: Some Quick Numbers
The 251st and final issue of the 2020 Federal Register was released this morning. Here are some of the initial findings: Federal agencies issued…
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2020 Was Difficult. It Was Not the Worst Year Ever
It’s been a hard year, and I am hardly alone in being glad it’s almost over. But was 2020 the worst year ever?…
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Best Books of 2020: Joseph Henrich – The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
It’s early, but The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich will likely…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Last week’s drama over the combined COVID-19 spending bill and omnibus budget bill ran over into Christmas, spoiling a three-day work week in Washington.
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Best Books of 2020: Virgil Henry Storr and Ginny Seung Choi – Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)
Most people see markets as dens of greed and moral corruption. In their new book, Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals?,…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
COVID vaccine rollout has started. While immunizing millions of people will take several months, it looks like the worst is almost past. For scientists…
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To-Do List for 2021: Just Get Rid of AB5
It isn’t just Washington that gets a fresh start beginning in January. California gets one, too. One of the top items on the Golden…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big news is that the Food and Drug Administration is poised to follow several other countries’ lead in approving one or more coronavirus…
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The Relevant Market Fallacy and Facebook’s Antitrust Cases
Facebook was hit by two separate antitrust complaints this week. One is from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the other is from…
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A Big-Picture View of the Antitrust Debate
In this month’s issue of Reason magazine, I have a feature-length article on the bipartisan push to revive antitrust enforcement. If you don’t…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The midnight regulatory rush is on, with one of the year’s highest weekly page counts last week. The 2020 Federal Register is on pace…
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Walter Williams, 1936-2020
Walter Williams passed away this week at age 84. He was the rare economist to succeed as both an academic and a popular…
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America Really Is Revolutionary
Several scholars I respect, including Daniel Hannan in his 2013 book Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World, have argued…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Thanksgiving was rather different than most years, and not in a good way. Hopefully, with viable vaccines on the way, it will be back…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Thanksgiving will be a little different this year. With the recent news about promising COVID-19 vaccines, next year’s turkey celebration should be closer to…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2020 election is finally, mercifully, over. Barring a surprise in the Georgia Senate runoffs, we will continue to have divided government. This arrangement…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2024 election season officially began on Wednesday. The 2020 Federal Register topped 70,000 pages right on election day, and is on pace to…
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The 2020 Election Actually Had Some Free-Market Victories
Neither presidential candidate has much interest in limited government. But over at National Review, I look at some neglected down-ballot…