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The Effect of Transfer Payments on the Labor Force Participation Rate
In the The Wall Street Journal last Thursday, James Piereson of the Manhattan Institute laid out the case for the relationship between a shrinking…
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Financial Regulators’ Climate Fetish
Financial regulators’ attention, both in the United States and globally, seems focused on issues far afield from their core mission at a time when turmoil…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The James Webb Space Telescope sent back its first images, and they are amazing. The Consumer Price Index increased 9.1 percent over the last…
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New CEI Paper Lays Out the Worst in Tech Legislation
Bipartisanship in Congress is rare, but it shouldn’t always be celebrated. Bad ideas, despite consensus, still lead to bad results. And recent congressional efforts to…
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A Closer Look at The Guardian’s “The Uber Files”
On July 11, 2022, The Guardian published an expose of rideshare giant Uber’s business practices, based on a trove of leaked documents it obtained. However,…
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Certification Program Goes Bananas
Private regulation is an excellent alternative to government regulation, if done right. One form it can take is independent certification. For decades, groups like the…
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Inflation Sped Up in June: What’s Going On?
Last month, it had looked like inflation may have peaked. That celebration was likely premature. According to numbers released this morning, the Consumer…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while giving a speech. Boris Johnson resigned as UK Prime Minister. Jobs numbers remained strong in the…
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Lack of Air Conditioning, Not Climate Change, Is the Real Summer Heat Wave Threat
Climate change policies often pose a greater risk than climate change itself, and that is especially true during summer heat waves. Each new heat wave…
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DOT’s Doublespeak Carbon Reduction Program
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing to require its state and metropolitan counterparts to reduce on-road carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from portions of…
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European Parliament Gives Final Approval to Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act
The European Parliament yesterday approved the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), two expansive new laws that will target the…
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China Tariffs: Will Inertia Win?
Former President Trump’s China tariffs came with a safeguard: They expire after four years unless an internal review finds them worth keeping. On trade issues,…
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Some Good News on the Mountain Valley Pipeline
There are a lot of bad federal policies currently blocking American energy. Perhaps worst of all are measures bottling up Appalachia’s abundant natural gas that…
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294 Costliest Rules in Biden’s Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
Unelected federal agencies personnel issue over 3,000 rules and regulations every year. That compares to a far lower number of laws passed…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Happy Independence Day, everyone. The Supreme Court issued a major ruling on the separation of powers in the case West Virginia v. EPA. Agencies…
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Supreme Court EPA Ruling A Warning Shot to Agencies like NLRB
The Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency that the EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act is…
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The FTC vs. the Right to a Fair Trial
The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed capping the nicotine in cigarettes, which will encourage many smokers to smoke more to get the same nicotine…
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A Breakdown of Rules in the White House’s Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions
Since the early 1980s, federal departments and agencies have highlighted selected regulatory priorities in spring and fall editions of the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory…
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Supreme Court Reins in the Administrative State in West Virginia v. EPA
The Supreme Court’s decision today in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency is an important brake on the administrative state that has inexorably grown…
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DAOs: One Answer to Woke Corporations
Imagine a group of mothers upset about Disney’s opposition to a state parental rights bill in Florida. Instead of merely venting in a Facebook group,…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The January 6 hearings continued and the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from nuclear fees to pelagic resources. On…
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Federal Agency Tries to Extend Reach with Joint Employer Standard
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal labor law enforcement agency, is likely planning to vastly expand its reach through a rulemaking on something…
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Crisis Abuse in History
Last week, CEI released Wayne Crews’s paper proposing an Abuse of Crisis Prevention Act. (If you prefer the short version, see Wayne’s and my…
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Current Antitrust Proposals No “Laffing” Matter
A new report by Laffer Associates released today, Read ‘Em and Weep: How the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992) and Other…
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FDA’s Juul Ban Part of Deadly War on Nicotine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that it denied the application of Juul Labs, maker of the Juul e-cigarette, to market its…
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Defeat of Pot Banking Liberalization Will Lead to More Violent Crime and Reduced U.S. Competitiveness
It is beyond disappointing that Congress once again dropped the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act—bipartisan legislation that would prevent the federal government from…
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Yellen Proposes Capping Oil Prices? Not Quite
Cable news and Twitter are aflame with outrage today that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen proposed price caps for oil. Fortunately, the rumors are false.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Happy Juneteenth, everyone. The January 6 hearings continued. The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage points. Agencies issued new regulations ranging…
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The Many Arbitrary and Capricious Aspects of SEC’s Climate Risk Disclosure Rule
Yesterday (June 16), CEI submitted two comment letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on its proposed rule: “The Enhancement and Standardization of…
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SEC Climate Rule a Bad Deal for Investors
This Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new rule on climate change and corporate disclosure earlier this year, and today marks the end…
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Biden Says He Wants to Be the “Most Pro-Union President in the History of the United States”
Flattering the audience is one of the handiest tools a person has when giving a speech. It’s a simple way to establish a positive tone…
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New CEI Paper: Abuse of Crisis Prevention Act
Government always grows during a crisis. And it rarely gives up all of its emergency powers when the crisis passes. This has already happened three…
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The American Data Privacy and Protection Act Fails to Streamline Privacy Laws Nationwide and Promote Technological Innovation
As more states pass state-level data privacy laws, federal privacy law is becoming increasingly necessary to prevent a patchwork of confusing state-level legislation.
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The New Joe Biden – Friend of American Industry?
In recent months, President Biden has undertaken several measures he claims will encourage domestic drilling, mining, and manufacturing. It’s a big change from 2021 when…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
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One Way to Address Worker Shortage: A Commission to Clear Out Job-Blocking Regulations
Earlier this week, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee held a hearing to discuss ways to address the worker shortage. There are more than…
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As Gas Prices Rises, Ridesharing Industry Adjusts
Rideshare companies are currently feeling the pinch from high gas prices, but some of their drivers are weathering the change better than others. High gas…
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Crypto Volatility Heightens with Panic-Driven Regulation
In reaction to the volatile events of the last few weeks, both the stock and cryptocurrency markets have taken a deep dive. While this downturn…
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CPI Slightly Up, Inflation Slightly Down?
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May increased to an annualized 8.6 percent rate over the last year, reaching another new 40-year high. Even so,…
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Dead Man’s Switch: Biden Administration Fights Railroad Automation
Of all modes of transportation, one would think that railways would be at the leading edge of automation. After all, they don’t use public roads,…
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America’s Heat Pump Emergency
The Biden administration announced it will use the Defense Production Act (DPA)—a Korean War-era statute allowing presidents to demand American industry increase production of anything…
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“They’re Taking My Stuff!” – Now on Video!
News that involves the police is inherently dramatic, and stories about what police officers do regularly make the news—asset seizure of hundreds of thousands of…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The unemployment rate held steady at 3.6 percent. The K-Pop group BTS made an official visit to the White House. Agencies issued new regulations…
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Eleven Lousy Tech Bills from the 117th Congress: Fair Repair Act
People drop their phones a lot. According to the electronic repair company uBreakiFix, 95 million smartphones are dropped annually in the U.S. and two…
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The Stablecoin Contagion That Wasn’t
A rare, recent real-life test case allowed observers to contrast government warnings with real-world events. Reining in cryptocurrency markets has become a key priority for…
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Eleven Lousy Tech Legislation from the 117th Congress: Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act
There is a late entry to the 117th Congress’ list of worst tech legislation, requiring a new title for the blog series. There were already…
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More Staycations This Summer, Thanks to Biden’s Gas Price-Raising Agenda
Memorial Day Weekend kicks off the summer driving season, and vacationers will be paying record-high gasoline prices—and quite a few families may even have to…
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Restating the Case for Free Trade
The case for free trade needs to be restated frequently. Politicians keep pushing the same protectionist policies, as though maybe this time the results will…
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George Washington, George Jarkesy, and the Administrative State’s Lack of Fundamental Justice
The recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Jarkesy v. SEC is a victory for limited constitutional government…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Just before the long Memorial Day weekend, the third version of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, a major antitrust bill, was introduced in…