The Open Market Blog

• By: William Yeatman
• 03/17/2008

It was a big weekend for the delicate diplomacy of climate change.In Brussels, EU ministers met to try to figure out how to slash greenhouse…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/17/2008

Re-watching Dirty Dancing — a movie far better than its reputation — last night inspired me to do some Internet research. I was pleased…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/17/2008

The Washington Post runs a very interesting story about things on their way out. The list includes “truly blind dates” (we now have Google),…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/17/2008

The Cultural Revolution has finally made it to Norway. The Labor party’s Minister of Culture has spent the summer traversing the music festivals of the…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/17/2008

Today, of course America woke up to news that JP Morgan Chase has bought out Bear Stearns for $2 a share. (It was trading…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/13/2008

Over the last year, we’ve heard a lot about rising food prices because of the federal government’s mandates and subsidies for corn-based ethanol. Here’s…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/13/2008

A new five-dollar bill debuts today — and it’s prettier and more secure than the last version, according to the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/13/2008

Do cold and snowy winters lead to “snow rage”? So says the police spokesperson in Quebec, where winter has been bad this year, leading…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/13/2008

The Europeans are threatening to impose tariffs on the U.S. if it fails to knuckle under and accept some international climate regulatory system–undoubtedly drafted to…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/13/2008

Today’s Washington Post runs a story about the services provided by high-priced call girls. According to the story, high class prostitutes provide “a pledge…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/12/2008

The media keeps reminding us that there is a consensus not only that the climate is warming (and it is), but that mankind is to…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/12/2008

In the Wall Street Journal this morning, the inimitable Kimberley A. Strassel points to Governor Eliot Spitzer’s misuse of his power as New York’s…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 03/11/2008

Tomorrow the House Natural Resources Committee will be holding a markup on H.R. 2016, the National Landscape Conservation System Act. Naturally, our adjunct fellow…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/11/2008

When I said Elliot Spitzer shouldn’t resign as governor I was wrong. His use of public accounts, efforts to cover up his activities,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

The newly elected government of Thailand is continuing the previous government’s disregard for international patent law and for the health of its citizens. Now the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

While demand for the healthier low-lineolic acid soybean is soaring, because everyone and his mother wants food with healthier fats, the EU is…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/11/2008

Known for his pro-trade stance, Senator John McCain took his views to the campaign trail and blasted his Democratic opponents for their isolationist rhetoric:…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

Sweden is no longer the country with the highest tax burden, Denmark has unseated it from that throne.

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/11/2008

The New York Times today focuses on economic stimulus in its “Times Topics” section — and CEI’s Wayne Crews’s recent paper was at…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 03/10/2008

“Recycle or Go to Hell, warns Vatican,” reports Malcolm Moore in the UK Telegraph. Is this a spoof? Is Moore playing fast and loose…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/10/2008

I’ve previously called attention to stupid product bans around the nation. Now, with Elliot Spitzer — a member of CEI’s list of The…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 03/10/2008

The latest attack on anonymous online speech comes from Kentucky State Rep. Tim Couch (R), who proposed legislation last week to ban posting anonymous…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/10/2008

We ridiculed Eliot Spitzer’s ham-handed tactics when he was still New York state attorney general — his ambition to become governor then plain to…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 03/10/2008

Funny how the biggest beneficiaries of combustion often like to get behind laws that will hinder the rest of society, but them–not so much.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The British Prime Minister’s incoming science adviser, Professor John Beddington, says that food crisis will take hold before climate change. One of the problems…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The Interior Department’s Inspector General has started preliminary investigations into why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is delaying its decision on whether polar…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/10/2008

Eliot Spitzer, the sanctimonious New York Governor and former state attorney general, has been linked to a prostitution ring. CEI earlier rated Spitzer as…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/10/2008

Reacting to a California Court of Appeal decision declaring that there is no constitutional right to home-school one’s child, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The battle over recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBST) continues, and it seems like Monsanto has finally learned how to fight the policy battle. Although…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/10/2008

Why on Earth should Congress bail out subprime borrowers who took out bigger mortgages than they could afford (especially since some of them exaggerated their…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/10/2008

As usual, the paternalists are making people worse off by trying to “save” them. Payday loans are expensive — not something I run off and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/09/2008

The weekend Wall Street Journal features an interview with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who will be the keynote speaker at this year’s CEI dinner…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

Although Great Britain is not normally where one would think to look for ideas on health care reform, the government is going to experiment by…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

My friend Paul Jacob, the long-time term limits activist and head of the Citizens in Charge Foundation, continues to face charges in Oklahoma for…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

Let’s see. The U.S. is supposed to follow Canada in nationalizing health care because it’s such a wonderful success. NOT! A  former Liberal Party health minister in…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 03/09/2008

Canadians like to dismiss America’s health care system, claiming that their system ensures coverage for everyone.  Apparently everyone except those sent to the U.S. to…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/09/2008

Washington, D.C. spends more per student in its public schools than does any state, for worse results in educational achievement than that of any state.  D.C. schools are literally falling…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/07/2008

Eli, I’ve never watched “The Wire,” so I’m agnostic on the show itself, but after attempting to read The Atlantic‘s recent interview with…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 03/07/2008

At long last, David Simon’s grossly overrated, overwrought, overwritten, television series “The Wire” is getting the bad reviews it deserves. [Full disclosure: I’ve…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/07/2008

The final verdict in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) trial for the arson of the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture is finally in,…

• By: Fran Smith
• 03/07/2008

An excellent commentary on Bloomberg.com today on the wave of protectionism spurred on not just by U.S. presidential candidates but by other rich countries.

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/07/2008

Congress is now so bent on overregulation that is that it’s getting a plea for restraint from George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee.

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/07/2008

California doesn’t think much of home-schoolers. A state court ruling recently held that a couple had no constitutional right to home-school their children, and…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/06/2008

The United Kingdom has a culture of heavy drinking, one that goes back hundreds of years at the very least. This has been an object…

• By: Hans Bader
• 03/06/2008

Apocalyptic global warming scenarios peddled by people like Al Gore seem increasingly far-fetched, as Bearing Drift notes. “A recent article from Canada’s National Post…