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Facebook Antitrust Suits Disregard Consumer Welfare
Today the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 48 state attorneys general announced antitrust suits against Facebook, asserting the social media company’s acquisitions of…
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COVID-19 Vaccine Shows that the World Needs More Refrigeration and Less Anti-Refrigeration Climate Policy
Refrigeration has had a substantial positive impact on public health in the U.S. and other developed nations where it is in widespread use. Increased market…
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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 have…
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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 for…
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Hyping the Whirlwind
A new Nature paper on hurricane decay rates that was published on November 11 by Lin Li and Pinaki Chakroborty (hereafter, LC20) is receiving a…
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Labor Department Job Report Shows Improvement but Challenges Ahead
The Labor Department’s Friday report that 245,000 jobs were added in November confirms that, while an economic recovery is still underway, its momentum is…
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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 communicator.
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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 that…
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Biden Team Expected to Take Hatchet to Pension Protection Rule
The Department of Labor, under the leadership of Secretary Eugene Scalia, implemented an important (though widely misunderstood) rule this year, regarding how federally regulated pension…
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Biden’s OMB Pick, Neera Tanden, Once Warned Democrats against a $15 Minimum Wage
Joe Biden’s choice of Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress, to be the next director of the Office of Management and…
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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 to…
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A Cold Winter for Santa in Sunland, California
Department store Santa Claus Patrick Turnbull has hoisted children onto his lap and listened to their Christmas wishes for two decades in Sunland, California, but…
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Retro Review: The Communist Manifesto (1848)
The manifesto of the Communist party, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847 and first published the next year, has a legendary pair…
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John Kerry, a Tall Climate Envoy
President-elect Joe Biden announced on Monday that he would appoint John Kerry as his administration’s “special presidential climate envoy.” The title is misleading: Kerry will…
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Is General Motors’ Shift to More Electric Vehicles Good for the Environment?
General Motors recently announced a major push toward electric vehicles (EVs), pledging $27 billion in investment by 2025 and promising to have 30 EV…
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Consumers Pay the Price for Mass Torts Driven By Junk Science
The Center for Truth in Science has released an excellent report on mass torts and how unscrupulous lawyers use them to extort large…
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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 normal.
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Millennials, Gen Z Optimistic about Hard Work Leading to Prosperity
The Walton Family Foundation released an interesting survey recently that found that Generation Z (ages 13–23) and Millennial (ages 24–39) Americans are more optimistic…
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Biden to Focus on Public Sector Unions First?
All indications are that the Biden administration will be the most pro-labor one since at least Harry Truman’s. Biden has promised to defer to labor…
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Judge Rules in Favor of Retroactive Unapportioned Tax
In 2006, Charles and Kathleen Moore invested in a business aimed at providing affordable equipment to small-scale Indian farmers. No dividends have been returned to…
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Montreal Protocol Continues Process of Morphing Into A Climate Treaty
The 32nd Meeting of the Parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) will be held from…
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Can New York’s Hotel Industry Survive the Latest Union Victory?
Numerous New York City hotel owners are struggling to stay alive and their workers’ union isn’t exactly making it easy for them. In fact, there…
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Americans have Grown more Centrist, So Should the Parties
This last election was not normal. Record voter turnout, different voting procedures, and polarizing candidates makes comparing this cycle to any other difficult. But looking…
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On Online Speech, Sasse Stands Alone
There was an almost total lack of skepticism of expanding government regulation of online content moderation at yesterday’s Senate hearing with the CEOs of…
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Carbon Pricing Would Make Electricity Markets Less Efficient
On Monday (November 16, 2020), I submitted comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on its proposed policy statement encouraging regional trading…
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COVID-19 Vaccine Development Is Testament to the Market’s Ability to Develop Life-Saving New Products
The announcement by drug maker Moderna that preliminary data from its still ongoing trial shows its COVID-19 vaccine is 95 percent effective is extremely encouraging.
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Welcome to the New CEI.org
At the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), we are constantly thinking of ways to more effectively expand the boundaries of freedom. With that goal in mind,…
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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 typically…
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What Climate Policy Actions a Biden-Harris Administration Might Undertake its First 100 Days
What climate policy actions would a Biden-Harris administration undertake during its first 100 days? Climate Project 21, an organization co-chaired by…
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President Trump Should Waive Dodd-Frank Provision Harming Vaccine and Ventilator Production and Distribution
The announcement by Pfizer that the vaccine it is developing with German firm BioNTech may be 90 percent effective against COVID-19 is worth celebrating.
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Who Will “Blue Collar Joe” Work for?
Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States signals a possibly radical shift in labor policy, pushing things much further left than even when…
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Biden Tech Policy Preview
Joe Biden has been declared the president-elect (I’m pretty sure). Here’s what a Biden administration and a (presumably) divided Congress might mean for tech issues.
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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 be…
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High CEO Pay Isn’t Making Anyone Poor
While most American are still following the final vote counts in the 2020 presidential election, many lower-profile, but still important, issues have been decided at…
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U.S. Withdraws from Paris Agreement: Six Questions for a Potential Future Biden Administration
The United States officially exited the Paris Climate Treaty on Wednesday, November 4, the first day on which a party may withdraw from the pact…
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In Spite of It All, Workers, Businesses Persevere
The Labor Department’s report that 638,000 jobs were added in October, bringing the national unemployment rate down to 6.9 percent, shows that the best thing…
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Robert E. Murray, RIP
Robert E. Murray, founder of Murray Energy and a fiercest opponent in industry of global warming alarmism, died age 80 on October 25 at his…
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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 victories…
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Regulatory Relief Needs Better Transparency
Getting rid of #NeverNeeded regulations is one of the most important policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The short-term benefits are obvious, but the…
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California’s Proposition 22 Wins
Golden State voters did their neighbors a solid Tuesday by voting to support Proposition 22 by a wide margin, rolling back the misguided and #neverneeded…
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James Madison on Why Politics Ruins Everything
Politics has a way of ruining everything. Even kind and intelligent people go through an instant metamorphosis when the conversation changes to politics. Their body…
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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 that…
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Changing Trends in Trade Legislation: Toward Limiting Executive Power?
There is no shortage of criticism of the Trump administration’s trade policy. The president and his administration have been digging deep into the toolbox…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Los Angeles Dodgers won baseball’s World Series. GDP numbers bounced back in a big way, though the economy is still smaller than…
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As Election Nears, NYT Makes Another Push for Groupthink
The New York Times on October 27 ran an article titled “As Election Nears, Trump Makes Final Push Against Climate Science.” The article spotlights President Trump’s recent appointments…
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Democrats More at Risk for Anti-E-Cigarette Stance
Millions of adult vapers across the country could determine the outcome of the election in battleground states. According to Gallup, about 8 percent of…
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Record GDP Numbers Need Context: Good news, but More to Do
Most of the talk about today’s GDP numbers will be related to the election. It shouldn’t. Presidents don’t run the economy; hundreds of millions…
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New CEI Paper: Antitrust Policy in Europe, Lessons for America
Today, CEI is releasing a new paper on antitrust policy in the European Union by Swiss competition commissioner Henrique Schneider. Europe’s approach to competition…
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Big Government Won’t Protect the Oceans; Markets Will
Last week, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced a U.S. effort to address plastic litter buildup in oceans and other waters. The desire…
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FCC Takes Another Step away from Net Neutrality
After 15 years of unrelenting regulation and litigation, the days of net neutrality as a live policy issue in Washington may be numbered. At its…
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Department of Labor’s Radical New Concept: Innocent until Proven Guilty
The Labor Department has an interesting new idea: only publicly shame companies when it is clear that they have made serious violations of the law.
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Court Ruling Could Kill Uber and Lyft in California
A California appeals court ruling caps a crusade against ride-sharing apps in the state. Just days before Californians themselves were set to decide on…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
In the news last week, the Justice Department filed an antitrust case against Google. It is the highest-profile antitrust case since the 1998-2002 Microsoft case.
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Comments to EPA’s Proposed Aircraft GHG Rule Show Industry Support, Activist Opposition
The comment period for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed first-ever greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for commercial aircraft ended on October 19. There…
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Boeing Declines to Blackmail Washington Taxpayers, Threatened by Governor in Return
Boeing recently announced plans to consolidate all production of its 787 Dreamliner jet, moving some existing work from the company’s traditional home in Washington…
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Not the Strongest Case: DOJ’s Google Antitrust Complaint
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust complaint against Google. It marks the beginning of the first major monopolization case since the…
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How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history is aware of the failures of prohibition. Both the now-repealed ban on alcohol and the ongoing “war…
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NHTSA’s Consistent Understanding that California’s Tailpipe GHG Standards Are Unlawful
October 27 is the deadline for submitting final legal briefs to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Union of Concerned Scientists v. National Highway…
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How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history is aware of the failures of prohibition. Both the now-repealed ban on alcohol and the ongoing “war…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a four-day week due to Columbus Day or Indigenous People’s Day—the controversy over which was just one of the things people were outraged…
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Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Calls for Carbon Pricing
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on October 15 proposed a policy statement to (1) “clarify its jurisdiction” over Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) and…
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FinCEN Files Shows Regulatory and Privacy Concerns with the Bank Secrecy Act and the Necessity for Reform or Repeal
Last month, BuzzFeed News published an investigative report that alleged that banks sat on their hands while criminals laundered trillions of dollars over the…
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Supreme Court Nominee Barrett in Senate Testimony Alarms Climate Alarmists
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was asked repeatedly about her views on climate change at her Senate confirmation hearing this week. Unsurprisingly, her unwillingness…
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Warming Nights, Longer Growing Seasons, and a Greener Planet
Dozens of recent news stories note newly published research showing that night temperatures are rising faster than daytime readings. Despite this “asymmetric” warming, there…
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A Brief Note on Airplane, Clouds, and Global Warming
We recently linked to a new paper by D.S. Lee of Manchester Metropolitan University (U.K.), along with 20 coauthors, on global aviation and climate…
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New CEI Report: Making Sure a COVID-19 Vaccine Is Used
One or more COVID-19 vaccines will likely be approved in the next few months. But this scientific achievement may prove to be the easy part.
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Fed’s Community Reinvestment Act Reform Proposal Is a Step in the Wrong Direction
Last month, the Federal Reserve released a preliminary proposal to update the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The Fed’s proposal, spearheaded by Obama-appointed Fed Governor Lael…
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Students Need More Air Conditioning, Not More Climate Policy
There’s a long and growing list of problems activists blame on climate change, including students’ reduced ability to learn due to hotter classroom temperatures. However,…
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Forty Years of Freedom: Rail Deregulation Worked
Forty years ago today, President Carter signed the Staggers Act, which deregulated the American freight rail industry. As CEI has long maintained, this…
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Fans of California’s AB5 Are Drunk with Power, MADD Warns
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is urging Californians to abolish AB5, the state law supposedly meant to prevent worker misclassification by employers. The nonprofit public…
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Tit-for-Tat Tariffs Don’t Work: Boeing and Airbus Show Why
A 16 year-long aerospace subsidies dispute between the United States and the European Union began another round this week. The U.S. claims that the EU’s…
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Labor Department Proposes Letting Rank and File Union Members Watch over their Organizations
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced today that it wants to update rules to require private sector unions to be more transparent in…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was another volatile pre-election week. A still-symptomatic President Trump returned to the White House from Walter Reed hospital during prime time. More key staffers…
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The House Judiciary’s Antitrust Reports and Predatory Pricing
It is human nature to fear what we do not understand. And if there is anything politicians do not understand, it is markets. This is…
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Jean-Baptiste Say on Manufacturing Nostalgia and Industrial Policy
In his 1803 A Treatise on Political Economy, Jean-Baptiste Say writes: "Production is the creation, not of matter, but of utility." That captures one of…
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Court-Packing Isn’t the Left’s Only Threat to the Supreme Court
The Left’s threat to the pack the Court by expanding the number of justices seems to be unpopular. But they have proposed other policies that…
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Pension Managers Must Focus on Retiree Security, Not Politics
A new proposed rule from the Department of Labor on pension funds would clarify the responsibilities of pension fund fiduciaries covered under the Employee Retirement…
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Louisiana Frog Feud Illustrates Regulatory Threat to Property Rights and Economic Freedom
The dusky gopher frog doesn’t grow very large—only to about three inches long, on average. But despite its diminutive size, this little frog has had…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis marked the first of what will likely be many October surprises. Congress agreed on one spending bill to avoid another shutdown,…
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Up to 75 Percent of Uber Drivers Would Lose Work If They Were Classified as Employees
If organized labor and its allies in government are successful in their bid to force so-called gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft to treat…
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EPA Encourages Innovation, Levels Playing Field for Sources Reducing Hazardous Air Emissions
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on October 1 finalized a rule to implement the clear language of Section 112 of the…
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New CFPB Reports Find Consumer Credit Resiliency During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Recent research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has found that consumers have not experienced significant increases in negative credit outcomes as a result…
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In Debate, Biden Confirms That He Is for and Against the Green New Deal
Climate science and energy policy made a surprise appearance during the first presidential debate on September 29 in Cleveland. Moderator Chris Wallace had not included climate…
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Amazon Claims Worker COVID-19 Infection Rates below Norm
Amazon’s critics have made a point of saying the company is endangering its employees by keeping its fulfillment centers active during the COVID-19…
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EPA Chooses Scientific Approach on Chlorpyrifos: Supports Transparency, Rejects Junk Science
Green groups are upset because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to rely on science, rather than environmentalist hype, in its draft risk assessment…
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Closing the Loop on Sea Level Rise
Sea level rise is potentially the most important consequence of manmade climate change. The global mean sea level has been rising since the great continental ice-age…
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CEI Presents the 2020 Julian L. Simon Award to Dr. Steven Horwitz
On September 30, the Competitive Enterprise Institute presented its 2020 Julian L. Simon Memorial Award to Dr. Steven Horwitz, Director of the Institute for the…
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FCC Approves More Critical Mid-Band Spectrum for 5G
Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a meeting where the commissioners voted to adopt two orders that will make more spectrum available for…
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Finally, a Fix for Fannie and Freddie
In my recent blog post on the 10th anniversary of Dodd-Frank, I lamented that while “this supposed ‘financial reform’ has caused harmful and sometimes…
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New Junk Food Ordinance: Another “Feel Good” California Law that Does No Good
California is a tough place to live. Ranked as the state with the nation’s worst quality of life, Californians have the biggest debt-to-income ratio, suffer…
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New York’s School Principals Try to Flunk the Mayor
The problem with public sector unions is that they represent not just the workers for a government entity but also the elected leaders’ constituents. That…
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California’s Proposed Mini-CFPB Is Cronyist and Ill-Conceived
Earlier this month, the California Legislature passed the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) to create a new state-based regulatory agency modeled after the federal Consumer…
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Yes, Ridesharing Is Mainly a Part-Time Gig
The vast majority of people who drive for rideshare company Uber in California do so for less than 40 hours or less a week. That’s…
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House Oversight Subcommittee Holds Climate Policy Hearing
On September 24, 2020, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Environment held a hearing titled “Climate Change Part IV: Moving Towards a…
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Senators Introduce Regulatory Commission Bill
CEI’s approach to regulatory reform has an overarching theme: It is not enough to get rid of this or that harmful regulation. For the benefits…
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Federally Commissioned Climate Report Defies Reality
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported at length about an ominous report on climate change that was commissioned by the Commodities…
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Labor Department Trying to Rewrite Definition of “Employer”
In the credit where credit is due department, the Trump administration deserves a cheer for attempting to save an emerging part of the economy: gig…
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CEI Event with Hester Peirce and Paul Atkins: ESG, Crypto, and other SEC Hot Topics
Yesterday, in the most recent installment of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s “Repeal for Resilience” event series, CEI President Kent Lassman welcomed Securities and Exchange Commission…
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New Paper: Antitrust Regulation is #NeverNeeded
My colleague Jessica Melugin and I, along with our former colleague Patrick Hedger, have a new paper out today, “Repeal #NeverNeeded Antitrust Laws that…
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Climate Cronyism: Big Businesses Tailor Policy to Benefit Themselves
A shorter version of this post was published as an op-ed in the Washington Examiner last week. The Business Roundtable (BRT), an association of…