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LibertyWeek 31: What in Dodd’s Name?
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A Gamer Win For Parenting
If you’ve followed my posts here at OpenMarket.org or at my personal site, you’re well aware of the fact that I…
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End Run to a Regulatory Morass
In today's DC Examiner, former CEI Warren Brooks Fellow Jeremy Lott and Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman explain a round-about route to a regulatory nightmare—the…
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Top Ten Federal Rules to Jettison — According to Small Businesses
The Small Business Administration’s Regulatory Review and Reform initiative (r3) has a new compilation of rules that need reform, according to small businesses across…
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Nationalizing the cars and bikes of rock collectors — Pending Omnibus land bill’s forfeiture provision has broad reach
At the same time there has been so much talk of government nationalization of troubled big banks, a bill quickly snaking through Congress would allow…
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Gold is King Among Investors
Gold prices are skyrocketing—recently closing at over $1,000 an ounce, the highest in almost a year—while inflation fears continue rising and the dollar weakens. This…
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TARP in Pictures
We've talked a lot about the TARP or Troubled Assets Relief Program over the past several months here on OpenMarket.org. But perhaps the entire…
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More Grand Theft Common Sense
I used to think that the groups and individuals that sat around eagerly anticipating the launch of a new Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game were…
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John Berlau on Obama’s Mortgage Rescue Plan
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So What Does He Think of Cap & Trade?
Good news and bad news for drivers from federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The good news is: LaHood said he firmly opposes raising the…
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Some Interests Are More Special Than Others
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More protectionism on the horizon?
Good article today by Bloomberg columnist Michael Sesit, who lays out the protectionist actions many countries are taking in the midst of…
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The Auto Bailout We Need
The automakers have come back for more taxpayer money, which is exactly what we warned would happen when the first bailout was granted…
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UBS agrees to deal with the devil
I revoke my previous apology to the Swiss, and reiterate my previous disapproval. As evidenced by the…
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CNBC’s Rick Santelli on Obama’s Mortgage Plan
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To Know Card Check is to Hate it
A recent survey of 1,000 likely voters, conducted in January by the consultancy McLaughlin & Associates, finds an overwhelling majority opposed to the so-called…
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Obama in Canada — where U.S. protectionism is an issue
President Obama is in Canada today to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a range of issues – chief among…
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Fraud in More Ways Than One
The news of the federal fraud charges against billionaire Texan financier Sir Allen Stanford (he got the knighthood from his dual citizenship from Antigua)…
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Will Lisa Jackson turn the Clean Air Act into a gigantic de-stimulus package?
Earlier this week, in a letter to Sierra Club climate council David Bookbinder, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the Agency would reconsider, via…
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The Greens Can Take Away My Steak the Moment They Pry It from My Cold, Dead Hands
I have been a steak snob ever since I apprenticed under a master butcher in Ojai Valley, California a few years back. Indeed, I'm the…
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Michigan Steps Aside for Stimulus
Oregonian brewers looking for a new home may want to consider moving to Michigan where a state authority may just understand the principle…
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Inflation Fears Propel Gold Prices
As the Dow Jones Industrial Average approached record lows, gold prices shined on a seven-month peak, on Tuesday. Details of President Obama’s new stimulus package…
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Chapter 13 could be your lucky number
Today President Obama announced his homeowner bailout plan. While that plan will spend huge sums of money helping “renters” stay in homes…
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Obama, Waxman to Square Off on Free Speech
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Why Is HuffPo Pimping Ethanol?
Yesterday's edition of the internet news juggernaut ran an ethanol love song written by Bob Dinneen, who is identified in his Huff Po biography as…
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Obama’s Futile Attempts at Foreclosure Avoidance
If the government wants to spend $75 billion to help troubled homeowners, it would be better off giving a tax holiday to families subject to…
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Can prediction markets help value toxic assets?
Can prediction markets – virtual markets – play a role in valuing toxic assets? A critical obstacle in evaluating the health of financial institutions…
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Marlo Lewis on the Costs of Ethanol
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Flawed Plan Relies on Consumer Spending
After President Obama signs the controversial stimulus plan, which will add on average $8 per week to most paychecks, his administration will have to cross…
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Bad McCarty! Bad!
Will regulators never learn? You can’t force businesses to actively pursue a business model that is unprofitable. Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist and Insurance regulator Kevin…
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Craft Brewers leeched by Oregon Regulators
Why legislators think it is a good idea to put their heels on the neck of the most productive industries is beyond me. Perhaps following…
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Null Government
Well, the Spendulus/Stimulus will be signed into law within minutes. We’ll soon learn that even this Leviathan-In-A-Box is only the beginning of the Age…
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Drill, Baby, Drill! (To Save the Environment)
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LibertyWeek 30: Whole Lott-a Love
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What would it mean to have no “environmental footprint”?
Maybe to have no life. As this article over at the Ayn Rand Institute points out, the more “eco-friendly” you try to live, the…
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More Libertarian Lolcats!
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NADA report proves California waiver would create regulatory patchwork
A front-burner issue facing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson is whether to grant a waiver under the Clean Air Act allowing the California…
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Chairman Tom Price with 1,073-page Non-Stimulus Text
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“Spendulus” conference report has passed the House
But thought you might be interested in one congressman’s last-minute appeal to sanity. You, dear reader, are a person things are done to.
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The Juche Weather Idea
North Korea’s official propaganda organ, the Korea Central News Agency, reveals the real cause of global warming: The snow in the area of Jong…
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Who Cares About the Consumer?
Electricity consumers beware! The so-called-stimulus bill includes provision for something called “decoupling.” E&E Daily reports: Also included in the final version is a requirement that…
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Wyeth v. Levine: Policy Arguments Regarding Preemption
The Wyeth v. Levine case presents a narrow set of facts in which the Food and Drug Administration had, for many years, known about the…
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Has anybody read the text?
There ain’t no way any of the lawmakers voting for the $790 billion stimulus package today could have read, comprehended, and analyzed the…
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Preemption in Wyeth v. Levine: Broader Implications
The legal arguments of the parties, and the incremental approach typical of the Supreme Court, strongly suggest that the Court will issue a narrow legal…
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Uber-Attorney Bert Rein to Guest Blog on Federal Preemption Case
Back in November, I wrote about the pending Supreme Court case Wyeth v. Levine, the decision in which will have a huge impact on the…
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The Birthday of an Entrepreneur
February is an important month in the history of American commerce. In a few days will be the birthday of one of the country’s earliest…
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What unlimited government means to you.
Ran across this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal piece that I thought I’d pass along. And this was before the Anti-Stimulus added…
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The “Stimulus” and the Broken Window Fallacy
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Just How Much is $13 Trillion?
The magnitude of the growing stimulus package and continuing bank bailouts is truly amazing. Add those amounts to the already huge national debt and you…
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