The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/06/2008

The House of Representatives recently passed a bill called the Paycheck Fairness Act, which is being sold to the public on false pretenses.  Its supporters claim they…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 08/06/2008

In his current column, The Wall Street Journal‘s Thomas Frank blames “conservatism” for horrid conditions at an Iowa meatpacking plant, specifically the Labor Department…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/06/2008

For the first time ever, the Committee on Presidential Debates has partnered with a website. MySpace, the social networking site that has come under…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/05/2008

Explains Peter Pitts of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest: Experimental cures are often the last hope for dying patients in the…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/05/2008

Yesterday, I posted on a new technology, called Selectable Output Control, that will allow customers to get movies on their TVs only a…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/05/2008

Banks and mortgage companies have long been under pressure from lawmakers and regulators to give loans to people with bad credit, in order to provide “affordable…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/05/2008

A group of artists called the Center for Creative Voices in Media has filed an amicus brief in the case now before the Supreme…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/05/2008

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated Temple University’s sexual harassment policy, which was challenged by a veteran who wished to defend in class…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/05/2008

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals just handed a victory to Cablevision, a provider of remote DVRs. Unlike regular DVRs, which store your recordings…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/04/2008

It's time for another Philosopher's Corner, an exploration of libertarian issues from a perspective of justice, not consequences. Libertarian political philosophers agree about…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/04/2008

Bad news today for lovers of liberty and lovers of video games. Thailand has just banned Grand Theft Auto IV, following an incident…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/04/2008

A new use for TV cables has got some consumer groups up in arms. Yes, you read that right: a new use for…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/04/2008

Dickie Scruggs is reporting to prison to begin a 5-year sentence for trying to bribe a judge.  He’s the rich trial lawyer who brought…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/04/2008

A while back, the FTC proposed voluntary rules governing behavioral advertising. The Commission sought comments on its rules, and many organizations…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/03/2008

In a letter today in the Washington Post, Maryland food stamp bureaucrat Kevin McGuire tried to justify more spending on food stamps (and his own job) by making misleading claims.

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/02/2008

It’s terrible.  The Europeans, who routinely claim to be morally superior to the greedy American species, are now yelping about the cost of climate change legislation.  The…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/01/2008

I just reported on a big case of an administrative agency and Congress opposing each other in their regulatory decisions. Now, there’s another. Though…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

When Domino’s, a private company, decided not to deliver pizza and other fast food to certain dangerous parts of Washington, D.C., based on geographic region, not race,…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/01/2008

The U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission finally rewrote their rules governing how businesses must disclose information to the public to allow businesses to post…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/01/2008

I reported last month on a remarkable Ninth Circuit ruling holding that border police can search citizens’ laptops without cause. Now, the Department of…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/01/2008

Anyone waking up at noon today and looking into net neutrality issues would have found two ironically juxtaposed headlines facing them. First, the big…

• By: Al Canata
• 08/01/2008

The New York Times reports that California’s Governor just signed a state-wide transfats ban into law.  This makes perfect sense.  California is facing its…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, former Bush advisor Lawrence Lindsey today criticizes the mortgage bailout bill Bush foolishly signed, noting that if any other country…

• By: Alex Harris
• 08/01/2008

CNET's Marguerite Reardon reports: A judge in California has ruled that Sprint Nextel's early termination fees are illegal and said the wireless operator…

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer explains how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by blocking a vote to lift the ban on drilling in Alaska’s ANWR and off the U.S.

• By: Hans Bader
• 08/01/2008

In “The Harry Reid Protection Racket,” the Washington Examiner yesterday explained how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid flouted Senate rules to get the bloated mortgage bailout…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 08/01/2008

One reason trade is said to be a bad thing is because jobs are “outsourced” overseas.  Never mind that more new jobs have been created…

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/31/2008

The New York Times ominously reports that “G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite Stimulus” A more accurate wording would be “G.D.P. Grows at…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 07/31/2008

Last night I attended a preview of the new film Swing Vote, which is being released tomorrow. It revolves around one man, Bud Johnson…

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/31/2008

Number of farms in the U.S. — about 2.1 million. Cost of the 2008 farm bill — $300 billion over…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/31/2008

Last month, Google slightly improved the relevancy of the ads it displays when you search for something. In addition to taking your last…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/31/2008

I reported here earlier on public safety agencies holding up spectrum owed to Sprint-Nextel. I also reported on repeated demands for even…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/30/2008

Bush signed into law an enormously costly mortgage bailout today, turning a deaf ear to financial experts who warned about the bill’s dangers and…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/30/2008

In addition to massive federal probes of the deal, the nonexclusive Google-Yahoo ad pact is facing scrutiny from states as well. The California…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 07/30/2008

I love California, but the fruits and nuts truly have taken control.  The city of Los Angeles has initiated a moratorium on fast food restaurants–but…

• By: Fran Smith
• 07/29/2008

Today, as Ryan Young noted in his post, negotiations collapsed in the ninth day of talks to resuscitate the World Trade Organization’s…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/29/2008

Rather than trying to fight individual violators of copyright, the MPAA is creating a website with links to legitimate movie sources, like local movie…

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/29/2008

Disagreements over farm subsidies have caused the current round of WTO negotiations to collapse.  Developing countries are upset that subsidized farmers from rich countries…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/29/2008

Ars has a good discussion of the US Patent and Trademark Office’s recent switch in policy towards software patents. Before, the USPTO would issue…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/29/2008

Last year, AT&T submitted to the FCC a petition for forbearance from some old reporting requirements that were designed back in the days of…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/29/2008

I reported last Thursday that the FCC was set to approve the long-ignored XM-Sirius merger. Yesterday, it finally came through… but hampered by…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/29/2008

A year and 90 days ago, Qwest gave the FCC a request for forbearance from complying with some outdated price controls. The FCC had a…

• By: Fran Smith
• 07/28/2008

With a lot of attention focused on the unintended consequences of ethanol policy in raising the costs of food, here’s another example of those…

• By: Fran Smith
• 07/28/2008

A just-released working paper from the World Bank, “A Note on Rising Food Prices,” points out that the increased production of biofuels has…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/28/2008

Politicians rail against “Washington” as if they were outsiders, but sometimes, Washington is their true home, and they only go to their “home” state when it…