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GDP drops sharply — not a time to raise taxes
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An open auction for price clarity?
In today’s Financial Times, Gillian Tett addresses the opaqueness of determining the “price” of collateralized debt obligations backed by mortgage…
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Obama’s Corporate Environmental Income Tax
Tucked into the EPA budget proposal the Obama administration revealed yesterdays are plans to reinstate the Superfund taxes which expired in 1995 as a way…
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Bottled Water Hypocrisy
Apparently, Mayor Newsom–one of the first lawmakers to condemn bottled water and bar government agencies from buying it–has a separate standard for himself! A partially…
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Myron Ebell on Obama’s Green Energy Plan
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8oWwGqU4XY 283 234]…
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The Energy Tax Budget
“Not one dime,” said President Obama in his address to Congress, referring to how much extra tax people earning under $250,000 a year will have…
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Wayne Crews Considers the Cost of Regulation
From RealClearMarkets.com: Removing burdensome regulations on businesses, both large and small, hasn’t figured much into the economic recovery program thus far. But alternatives to “porkulus 
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lolprez Strikes Again
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Green Scheme Is a Lobbyists’ Dream
Lobbyists love cap-and-trade because of its complexity. At every step of the process, there are myriad nooks and crannies into which they can stuff special…
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Nobody Messes with The Dow
Last night a charismatic President Obama delivered a forceful speech to a joint session of Congress, promising that his plan “will rebuild, will recover, and…
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Stars Come Out for House and Senate Hearings
The House and the Senate held competing A-list hearings on global warming on Wednesday at 10AM. Testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works…
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Obama Scores Zero on Econ 101
In his first address to Congress, President Obama said that the “stimulus” legislation and other short-term economic policies were necessary to prevent a decade-long…
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Dambisa Moyo: Zambian Author Takes on Foreign Aid
The celebrity parade calling for more foreign aid to poor countries has become so ubiquitous — and accepted — these days that critiques of it…
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SOTU watch: Farm programs
Ten words in the SOTU address last night could presage some modest reform of wasteful agricultural programs: “. . .end direct payments to large…
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Obama’s Bankruptcy Math Has to be Wrong
President Obama claimed in his speech tonight: “For that same reason, we must also address the crushing cost of health care. “This is a cost…
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Foreclosure and the ‘forgotten man’ in Obama’s SOTU speech
Perhaps with the popular reaction to Rick Santelli’s ‘tea party’, in which the CNBC commentator elicited cheers for saying that the thrifty should not…
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Zero-Based Governing and Improving the State of the Union
Removing burdensome regulations on small business hasn’t figured much into the economic recovery program thus far. Too bad. Alternatives to “spendulus” and the “Bailout to…
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SOTU Watch: New Labor Secretary
The Senate confirmed Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor this afternoon. It will be worth watching whether President Obama acknowledges her confirmation…
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SOTU Watch: Energy Prices & Hidden Taxes
While President Obama focuses on short-term economic recovery, he proposes long-term energy and global warming policies that will lead to economic decline. Federal subsidies for…
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When it Comes to Climate Change, Errors Abound
“A Matter of Fact,” a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, challenges the Washington Post to correct George F.
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SOTU Watch: Energy Claims
The President might make various remarks relating to energy tonight. These are likely to center around grandiloquent claims as to the effectiveness of “green jobs”…
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SOTU Watch: Card Check
In President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight, one thing to watch for is mention of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) —…
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Despite lack of warming, alarmists predictably predict warming worse than predicted
As you may have heard, there has been no net warming of the planet since 2001, and no subsequent year was a warm as 1998…
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More Behavorial Advertising Adventures
Back in January I wrote about several advertising industry trade associations coming together to impose self-regulation in an attempt to deter…
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Coming Soon: A Predatory, Anti-Business Federal Trade Commission?
Even an economy in shambles shall not sway the elevation to Federal Trade Commission chairmanship of Jon Leibowitz, an interventionist-minded commissioner who, like all…
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More on Environmental Policies and Protectionism
Marlo made three interesting arguments yesterday contending that cap-and-trade would generate protectionist outcomes. I want to add another, pervasive, yet oft-neglected reason.
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Carney Takes on Stimulus on Liddy, Osorio Takes on Card Check
Today, I was on the G. Gordon Liddy Show, to discuss the current prospects of the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which, as…
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Next Internet Phenomena=lolprez
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Is cap-and-trade inherently protectionist?
Yes, for three reasons. (1) Companies in carbon-constrained countries will demand carbon tariffs to “level the playing field” vis-a-vis firms in non-carbon constrained countries. (2)…
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Will carbon market woes tilt U.S. pols towards carbon taxes, CAA regulation?
In today's Guardian, Juliana Glover reports that carbon permit prices in Europe's Emission Trading System (ETS) have crashed from €31 last summer to €8…
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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…