The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/18/2008

Helen Smith writes about how California privacy laws kept police from searching for potential suspects in the killing of a psychologist.  Overlawyered discusses the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/15/2008

To pay for transportation spending, Virginia’s legislature and governor gave regional transit authorities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads the power to levy a new…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/15/2008

House leaders blocked consideration of a bill that would extend the federal government’s power to monitor overseas terrorists and communications with them from the U.S.,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

Privacy deserves protection, but not to an extreme — particularly when it comes at the expense of civil liberties, public safety, and the rights of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

“In a test of the American Dream, Adam Shepard started life from scratch with the clothes on his back and twenty-five dollars. Ten months later,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

Ordinances that ban smoking in commercial establishments increase drunk driving fatalities, apparently by encouraging smokers who want to go out drinking to travel further…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/14/2008

A Weather Channel segment on compact fluoresecent light bulbs that aired today makes the point that because compact fluorescents emit less heat, they can save…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

The Wall Street Journal applauds the Senate’s passage of a bill that would continue to allow the government to use warrantless wiretaps to monitor…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

At Hamline University, a college student who expressed conservative views on gun control and affirmative action was recently suspended and ordered to undergo a “…

• By: William Yeatman
• 02/14/2008

CEI has long warned that the fuel-from-food craze threatens the world’s poorest citizens by making it harder for them to feed themselves. If you…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

The District of Columbia justifies its complete ban on handguns and functional firearms (even for self-defense), which is being challenged in the Supreme Court, as…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

Federal and state discrimination laws have been interpreted by the courts as banning speech that creates a “hostile work environment” for members of protected classes.

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

Sometimes an excuse for something is worse than the action itself. That's true of a recent court ruling rejecting a teenager's First Amendment challenge…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

President Bush just signed the so-called “stimulus” package. As we explained earlier, it will do nothing to promote economic growth, and it actually…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 02/13/2008

The President is signing the $168 billion economic stimulus package today, in hopes of averting a recession triggered by, among other things, rising mortgage…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/12/2008

Berkeley police, who routinely protect left-wing anti-war protesters, apparently won’t provide the same protection for demonstrators who support our troops. Anti-war demonstrators are attacking…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/12/2008

Doug, I agree with your criticisms of the about the problems with the Swedish health care system. But, of course, we have pretty much…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/12/2008

The Senate has voted to grant immunity to phone companies that assisted the federal government’s antiterror surveillance program. Those companies are now being sued…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/12/2008

A retired teacher has revealed that he was illiterate until age 48. John Corcoran "graduated from college and taught high school for 17 years…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 02/12/2008

Liberty-minded Europeans can only look on with increasing frustration as policy becomes increasingly centralized in Brussels. It’s not just the regulations — goodness knows the…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 02/12/2008

Remember, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you. Especially when it comes to health care. Just look at Sweden. Reports Investor’s…

• By: William Yeatman
• 02/12/2008

The Wall Street Journal today ran a top-fold, front page news item about how China’s insatiable demand for energy has stimulated a boon in…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 02/12/2008

Cord’s recent C-SPAN appearance, debating the issues surrounding the proposed Microsoft / Yahoo deal (and by extension any big tech buyout or merger) is…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/12/2008

My former boss, Bill Frist, has a very interesting piece in today’s Miami Herald. A quote: Chronic diseases, such as diabetes, emphysema, high…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 02/12/2008

It turns out that a speech I gave on globalization has ended up on the web. I’ve added a few pounds since then, so…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 02/12/2008

The fight for Yahoo! continues as Microsoft stated yesterday that: Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Earlier, I wrote about how politicians want every high school student to go on to college, no matter how little aptitude or need for…

• By: John Berlau
• 02/11/2008

I can’t remember a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that received more media coverage and broke more news events. As fate would have it,…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 02/11/2008

On Saturday, February 9, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) wrote an op-ed in The New York Times arguing against the approval of white-space devices. Rep.

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 02/11/2008

If you're interested in the marriage that might have been and could still be between Microsoft and Yahoo, check out my appearance on C-SPAN's weekly…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/11/2008

California Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos passed away this morning. A Holocaust survivor and fervent anti-communist, the Hungarian-born Lantos’s thick accent and propensity for hyperbole…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Crime is so out of control in Washington, D.C., that it is a “failed state.” That’s the gist of a brief filed by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Most jobs don't require someone with a college degree. Yet politicians are always calling for more federal subsidies to send everyone, no matter how dumb,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

In Sunday’s Washington Post, researcher Eric Weiner (who is not a Republican) notes that Republicans are happier than Democrats regardless of income level, even…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

No matter how many times people use turgid euphemisms like “enhanced interrogation technique” to describe “water torture,” it’s still torture, as the The…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

People below the poverty line often aren’t really poor. Many of them receive tax-free income and welfare benefits that aren’t even considered in determining whether…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Congressional witch hunts make FDA officials leery of approving innovative drugs, resulting in delays and red tape that costs lives. That’s the message of two…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/11/2008

John, You miss one very important part of the history of the yellow cab company in Chicago: It succeeded as a business almost entirely…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/11/2008

So says Hank Hill’s hapless neighbor, Bill Dauterieve, to feign support for Arlen’s new trans fats ban, in tonight’s new episode of “King of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/08/2008

Yesterday, Congress passed a "stimulus package" that gives rebates to many people who don't work, but denies them to people who do work but whose…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/08/2008

A group of researchers told the Supreme Court that Washington, D.C.’s municipal ban on handguns and functional firearms is based on junk science. After…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/07/2008

I’m at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and I’m discouraged. I’m a pro-life, pro-gay, pro-market, pro-gun conservative who hates terrorists and central planning…

• By: John Berlau
• 02/07/2008

Eli, I agree with Michelle on this one. There is no justification for regulating the fares of either taxis or pick-up limousine services.

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/07/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, William Easterly explains why Bill Gates’ proposal for “creative capitalism” — a rejection of the profit motive in favor of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/07/2008

Lawyers challenging D.C.’s ban on possession of handguns and functional firearms filed their brief yesterday in the Supreme Court, defending a court ruling…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/06/2008

A lot of subprime mortgage loans are defaulting.  A big reason why is that, to avoid discrimination charges, lenders gutted their traditional lending standards in order…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/06/2008

Michelle, I’m all with the D.C. cab drivers and I disagree with your post. Anyone with a not-terrible driving record should be free to…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/05/2008

The FBI is getting ready to announce the granting of a $1 billion contract to create a massive biometric database, allegedly to better identify criminals…

• By: John Berlau
• 02/05/2008

Hans, you are certainly right that the credit rating agencies goofed in giving their highest credit rating to mortgage-backed securities before these new instruments…