The Open Market Blog

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/02/2008

Who would have thought it?  Gas prices go up, and the demand for smaller cars rises.  Some cynics might even think that arbitrary regulations like…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 05/02/2008

Politicians are always looking for the easy source of money.  New Jersey legislators hoping to pay for health care want to tax fast food. …

• By: Iain Murray
• 05/01/2008

Almost five years ago, I argued that London’s Congestion Charge was merely a wealth transfer from London commuters to the administrators of the charge.

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

The Fed has cut interest rates again, reducing its key rate to 2 percent — a real interest rate of less than zero, after taking into account…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/30/2008

Steven Dubner asks whether children are responsible for the recent explosion of environmental concern. He’s got a point. As well as the decidedly non-secular…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the federal law (PLCAA) limiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers over acts committed by criminals with guns,…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 04/30/2008

Cordelia Ashton is an angry woman; she feels that her insurance company is treating her unfairly. She feels this way because once…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

In the Washington Post, Robert Samuelson’s column “Start Drilling” points out that ethanol production is far worse for the environment than drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 04/30/2008

If you ever thought that governmental economic planning or market manipulation is a useful tool, take a look at this article in today’s Washington…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

Michigan CPS workers seized a 7-year-old who drank lemonade that his father purchased for him without knowing that it contained a small amount of alcohol.  (As Ted Frank notes,…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/30/2008

The unintended consequences of government are wonderful to behold.  Impose a minimum wage and put poor, ill-educated teens out of work.  Raise auto fuel-economy requirements,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The American Bar Association is continually threatening to pull the accreditation of George Mason University Law School for failing to adopt illegal racial quotas…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/29/2008

I’ve just got back from delivering a speech at the Heritage Foundation on the subject of my book. I think it went well and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law, which is tougher than many other voter ID laws, rejecting claims that it was unconstitutional or…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The proposed “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” would get rid of the short 180-day deadline for bringing pay discrimination claims that applies under some federal laws, like…

• By: Sam Kazman
• 04/29/2008

Cellulosic ethanol—derived from wood scraps and other forms of inedible plant mass– may or may not turn out…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

A Chicago Tribune story notes that a few jurisdictions now ban discrimination against fat people (generally as part of general bans on discrimination based on physical appearance), and that Massachusetts…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/29/2008

One of the most tragic manifestations of past racial discrimination has been the creation of a government-enforced racial spoils system in the name of affirmative…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 04/28/2008

Doug, Although I sympathize with your point of view, I think that your post about HSAs misses the fact that the HSAs we have…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/28/2008

CNN founder and noted “Mouth of the South” Ted Turner recently claimed that he was doing better keeping his foot out of his mouth.  He…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/28/2008

Though a bit late in figuring things out, the steel industry in the European Union and a steel workers’ union have said that the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/28/2008

But were afraid to ask can be found in Chapter Two of The Really Inconvenient Truths, which you can now get for free via…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/28/2008

The U.S. Department of Agriculture features a Colombia “tariff ticker” on its website to illustrate in money terms how the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/28/2008

The 2007 Farm Bill, which has been in conference for months as conferees struggled with the threat of an Administration veto over budget-busting funding…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 04/27/2008

In less than 36 hours, one of the most anticipated—and most demonized—games in years will hit the shelves. Grand Theft…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 04/25/2008

Last week a scad of stories from Reuters to News.com covered the growing push for a “Do Not Track” registry similar to the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/25/2008

In the Wall Street Journal today, Stanford’s Ronald McKinnon argues against the Federal Reserve’s policy of cutting interest rates to almost nothing, and debasing…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/25/2008

Nate Beeler has an an excellent editorial cartoon, “Food for Thought,” that captures the deadly and costly consequences of ethanol subsidies, in today’s Washington Examiner.   Many go…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 04/24/2008

A representative of Merchants Payment Coalition responded to my recent blog post on credit card price controls, making several valid points…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/24/2008

…ugly things happen — at least for organized labor, which enjoys monopoly representation under the Wagner Act. Unlike for other services, individuals usually face…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

Nicholas Kristof has a column today in the New York Times, “Better Roses Than Cocaine,” in favor of the proposed free-trade agreement with Colombia,…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 04/24/2008

It’s a funny thing about the greens. They support government controls over everything in society in the name…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

The House Speaker is seeking to dump the House version of a bill in favor of a much more draconian Senate version preferred by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

The Senate majority yesterday did not achieve the 60 votes needed to cut off further debate and summarily pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

Today, the Senate will consider (and almost certainly pass) the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act.  Earlier, I discussed the irrational fears behind this law, and…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 04/23/2008

After changing its mind about throttling Bittorrent traffic last month, Comcast has pulled a 180° on network neutrality. Last week, Comcast announced plans to publish…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 04/23/2008

Just as pink was the new black and The Backstreet Boys were the new New Kids on the Block, the FCC is now turning “Localism”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

George Mason University Law Professor David Bernstein has a thought-provoking post on the seizure of hundreds of children, including nursing infants, from their mothers,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

In his interview with The Economist, Congressman Barney Frank undermines the case for his much-criticized mortgage bailout bill.  He admits that such bailouts create…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

“Sharply rising food prices” “have sparked riots around the world and threaten U.N.-backed feeding programs for 20 million children, the top U.N. food official said…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

The Washington Post today editorialized in favor of an unnecessary bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would extend the deadline for bringing…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/23/2008

Well worth reading in today’s Wall Street Journal — former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III’s cogent analysis of why it is critical…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/23/2008

Yesterday, a listener on the Michael Medved show challenged me that (I paraphrase), “Denmark has adopted wind power at no cost.” I said that I…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/23/2008

As food prices soars to new heights, researchers at Texas A&M makes a potentially revolutionary discovery. They discover a plant gene for saline tolerance…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/22/2008

Brian Williams and his team at NBC announced Sweden to be the greenest country on the planet, and I sure hope their correspondent enjoyed…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/22/2008

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today against the FDA tobacco regulation bill.  It argues that the bill contradicts the government’s own lawsuit…