The Open Market Blog

• By: Ryan Radia
• 04/14/2008

I don’t visit ATMs much anymore. Instead, I mostly rely on credit cards. Credit cards are now accepted by all kinds of stores, from small,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

In the Washington Post, David Ignatius writes about the long-run economic costs of mortgage bailouts, which infantilize voters.  Through bailouts, we are “creating a system of transfer…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

“Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving” soon, the International Monetary Fund says.  Government officials and food relief agencies quoted in the story…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 04/11/2008

You’ve got to love socialized medicine.  You have to wait for appointments.  You have to wait when you call to schedule appointments.  And you’ve got…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/11/2008

Former Open Market editor Peter Suderman emailed this week with a new FreedomWorks video on the mortgage bailout. The message is simple – people…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/11/2008

Last night, I watched an ABC News segment on the latest batch of canceled airline flights.  Hundreds of American Airlines flights have been canceled, stranding…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

The Senate has just passed a bad, pork-laden “foreclosure relief” bill that would actually increase foreclosures, as the Washington Post earlier noted.  House leaders are…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 04/10/2008

For several weeks, General Electric, as part of its “Eco-magination” campaign, has been running a tv commercial in which a tree uproots itself, shuffles down a hill, crosses the street,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

We previously wrote about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban private-sector employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and how the bill’s requirements regarding “conditions of…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/10/2008

Our good friend Steve Milloy gets some ink today in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, where columnist Jack Markowitz profiles the Free Enterprise Action Fund:…

• By: William Yeatman
• 04/09/2008

Last Saturday, Hans wrote a blog post about unrest in Egypt sparked by inflation in the price of food, which, in turn, is caused…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/09/2008

This excerpt from an upcoming book called the Animal Research War by P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker. Both are affiliated with National…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Ron Bailey writes about the “global food crisis” that has resulted in food riots across the world, in countries like Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, Yemen, Haiti, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Previously, we wrote about how the Senate “foreclosure relief” bill will actually increase, rather than reduce, foreclosures, while costing taxpayers a bundle, and how…

• By: William Yeatman
• 04/08/2008

It’s been a bad week for China’s global image. French police had to extinguish the Olympic torch three times due to “Free Tibet” agitators, who…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/08/2008

As I noted yesterday, the Bush Administration on April 7 sent to Congress a transmittal letter and implementing legislation for the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman debunks the idea that converting from oil to ethanol will cut global warming: “The subsidized conversion of crops into…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 04/07/2008

Today, the new green badge of honor appears to be going to people who build and live in “green homes” that meet standards set by…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/07/2008

President George Bush today sent a transmittal letter to Congress with the implementing legislation for the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  Under trade rules, Congress…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

Most housing discrimination laws don’t prevent you from living with roommates of a particular sex (not surprising, given than women generally don’t want a male roommate).  But…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

The Washington Post today editorialized against the Senate housing bill, the so-called “Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008,” noting that it is actually “A Pro-Foreclosure Bill”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

In an effort to help borrowers and some overextended big banks, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to very low levels, triggering a fall in…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/06/2008

And so film legend and freedom lover Charlton Heston has left us, at age 84. There are already hundreds of obituaries and tributes,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Wheat production is down in the world’s breadbaskets, like the United States, as farmland shifts away from wheat to ethanol production.  Ethanol production has increased because of government ethanol mandates…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Liberal reporter Darryl Fears, who covers racial and civil-rights issues for the Washington Post, has a truly odd perspective.  In an article on the declining membership…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd is preparing a bill that would bail out mortgage borrowers who borrowed so much, and made such small…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/04/2008

On the topic of Rep. Campbell’s innovative new addition to the tax code, it seems strange that any serious people are really complaining…

• By: Christine Hall
• 04/04/2008

This is a thing of beauty. For all those liberals who complain that government needs to siphon off more of our money to squander, my…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/04/2008

The federal appeals court in New York City killed a $200 billion class action lawsuit against the tobacco industry brought in the name of America’s…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

The Wall Street Journal warns taxpayers to “hold onto your wallet.”  Why?  It cites Congressman Barney Frank’s multibillion dollar mortgage bailout bill, which may pass the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

Voters have replaced a liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Louis Butler, with a moderate judge who ran against him.  Butler’s appointment to fill a vacancy…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

The bill fashioned by Senate leaders to supposedly “help” homeowners struggling with their mortgages contains tons of left-wing pork, such as money for “mortgage counseling”…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 04/02/2008

This week's C:\Spin (#197), CEI's tech policy newsletter, casts net neutrality in the appropriate light. Calling out proponents of neutrality for what they are--political…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 04/02/2008

The Bush Administration has decided that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is too bureaucratic to follow when it comes to building a fence along…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/02/2008

The Senate is poised to pass a foolish mortgage bailout for certain borrowers.  Robert Samuelson explains in the Washington Post why a similar House…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/01/2008

Senate leaders of both parties are hammering out a deal to pass a “foreclosure relief” bill that would apparently contain a mortgage bailout for certain borrowers who…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 04/01/2008

Congratulations are in order to our friend Steve Milloy, who is celebrating the 12th year of his flagship website, Junkscience.com. Ever since 1996 he’s…

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/01/2008

At a press conference today, House and Senate conferees negotiating the 2007 Farm Bill said that they had decided to scrap the bloated $287…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/01/2008

Maryland legislators are inflicting a moronic new “diversity” mandate on Maryland colleges. Legislation to force institutions of higher learning in Maryland to create…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

The Fed has cut interest rates to ridiculously low levels to try to bail out mortgage borrowers and prop up the U.S. economy.  But that has led…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

The Supreme Court turned away the Justice Department’s appeal of a ruling that will make it harder to prosecute New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson, who was…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

Recently, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down regional taxes to pay for transportation improvements, such as the perverse grantor’s tax on homeowners, based on the principle…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/31/2008

Business incubators have long been a place where small companies can get help that makes them grow to the next level. A non-profit in Hyderabad…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/31/2008

Yahoo Finance discusses how mortgage bailout measures turn Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper on its head, rewarding irresponsibility and punishing thrift…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/30/2008

One of the most ignorant and gratingly common complaints about American politics is that of their being bland, uninteresting, and failing to engage large segments…