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Will Reforming Consumer Finance Regulation Cause a Recession?
Will reforming consumer finance regulation cause a recession? That is the claim of a recent article in The Hill. Yet, the article provides little evidence to…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
While Washington’s “This Town” types geared up for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the rest of the country flocked to movie theaters for a much…
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New York City Enacts Its Own Green New Deal
New York City’s council passed the Climate Mobilization Act, a set of six bills, by a 45 to 2 vote on 18th April. Mayor Bill de Blasio signed…
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White House Moves to Strengthen Information Quality Act
The White House Office of Management and Budget on April 24th sent a memo to heads of departments and agencies updating guidelines for implementing the Information Quality…
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On Climate, Lindsey Graham Says GOP Ready to ‘Cross Rubicon’
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters yesterday at an Earth Day event in Dallas that congressional Republicans are “ready to cross the Rubicon” on climate…
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VIDEO: Government Should Not Regulate Social Media Content
Trends in social media have rocketed to the top of the national political agenda recently, whether in the desire of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to…
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How Julian Simon Defeats Thanos
“The universe is finite, its resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist.” With those simple words, the Marvel supervillain Thanos…
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New Civil Liberties Alliance Sounds Alarm on Unconstitutional Government
The New Civil Liberties Alliance hosted a very interesting event this week, as part of its “Lunch and Law” speaker series, featuring remarks by Hudson…
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Antitrust Regulation Turning into Campaign Issue
Both parties are making antitrust regulation a 2020 campaign issue. Neither President Trump nor most of the Democratic candidates are proposing improvements. Over at the…
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CEI Leads Coalition Supporting Reformed Payday Loan Rule
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute led a coalition of eighteen free market organizations in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s decision to rescind portions of…
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Two-Tier Wage System Highlights Need for Labor Reform
Over the weekend, the eleven-day strike by more than 30,000 Stop & Shop employees ended. The grocery chain announced that it “has reached fair new…
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Insights from James Otteson’s ‘Honorable Business’
I’ve been reading a new book on business ethics, “Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society,” and it has some…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire and sustained heavy damage. The rebuilding will likely take years, though people began politicizing it almost instantly.
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EPA Mercury Rule an Inappropriate Exercise of Regulatory Power
On Wednesday, I submitted comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to rescind its justification for the 2012 Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule.
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VIDEO: Johan Norberg on Resource Scarcity vs. Abundance
It’s an old argument: as population increases and we use up more of the earth’s natural resources, everything is become more scarce. Soon the pressures…
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Blocking the T-Mobile-Sprint Merger: Competition, Rent-Seeking, and Uncertainty
Nationwide 5G networks are coming. They will expand possibilities for everything from smartphone applications to GPS to streaming video, and will enable new technologies that…
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Reformed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Can Be Free-Market Regulator
Earlier this week, The New York Times Magazine rolled out another edition of the tired old trope of how former acting Director Mick Mulvaney “destroyed”…
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New Study: The Case against Antitrust Law
Antitrust regulation is a complex, multifaceted issue. It brings together insights from law, economics, political science, history, philosophy, and other disciplines. Right now both political…
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Shed Light on Cryptocurrency ‘Dark Matter’ Regulation at SEC
A few days ago, the Trump administration issued a memorandum strongly discouraging what the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews has called “regulatory dark matter.” The…
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Carbon Tax Not a Conservative Policy
Yesterday’s E&E News ran an article titled “Inside conservatives’ disarray on climate.” E&E reporter Mark Matthews was inspired to write the piece by an email…
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FDA Created the Youth Vaping Epidemic, Now It’s Doubling Down
E-cigarettes pose less risk than smoking. The science is clear: while cigarettes kill about half their users, e-cigarettes have perhaps five percent of the risk.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
In a remarkable human achievement, scientists took the first-ever image of a black hole. The effort took eight telescopes on five continents, five petabytes of…
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Restrictions on Debt Collection Impede Access to Credit
In a market economy that is based on private property and the rule of law, the efficient and effective enforcement of contracts is indispensable. Without…
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Administration Takes on Anti-Infrastructure Misuse of Clean Water Act
President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order on April 10th that is intended to limit the misuse of the Clean Water Act of 1972…
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Proposed Climate Science Review Continues to Attract Support and Opposition
The proposal by Dr. William Happer of the White House’s National Security Council staff to create an independent panel of experts to do a critical…
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Support Builds for EPA to Reconsider Endangerment Finding
In the 2007 case Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that Environmental Protection Agency had the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant…
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Americans Optimistic about Role of Tech and Platforms
At a time when big tech companies are being attacked over bigness, privacy, elections, and the ordering of their news feeds, the Charles Koch Institute…
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On Climate Policy, ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ May Not Be So Tasty
On Wednesday, April 10, the House Energy Subcommittee will hold a hearing called Investing in America's Energy Infrastructure: Improving Energy Efficiency and Creating a Diverse…
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Union Membership Post-Janus
It has been difficult to gauge the impact of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME. In this ruling, the Supreme Court held…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The news cycle was more sizzle than steak last week. President Trump threatened to shut down the southern border and backed off almost immediately, so…
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House Has No Jurisdiction over Paris Agreement
If you have ever wondered whether Democratic leaders understand the U.S. Constitution when they bash President Trump for allegedly violating it, or just use “unconstitutional”…
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REVIEW: ‘Alienated America’ by Timothy P. Carney
Tim Carney’s new book on social alienation and U.S. politics, “Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse,” raises the bar for Trump-era political…
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VIDEO: Bitter Taste of Big Sugar’s Corporate Welfare
John Stossel and the team at Reason TV have a new video out on the expensive and wasteful federal sugar program, which benefits a tiny…
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Employers Good Deeds Punished by Administrative State
Progressives—Democratic elected officials, community organizers, and labor unions—incessantly disparage employers for failing to provide employees with a living wage, adequate time off, and quality health…
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FDA’s Fake E-cigarette News
Journalists aren’t the only purveyors of “fake news.” Federal agencies also generate misleading headlines. Sometimes, they do it with a purpose. That seems to be…
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Despite Green New Deal Complaints, House Democrats Rush Vote on New Climate Bill
On Thursday April 4th, the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act, which was introduced only the week…
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Sharing Economy Is Opposite of Servant Economy
In a bleak take on the sharing economy, Atlantic writer Alexis C. Madrigal says it has created a “servant economy,” where sharing economy platforms provide…
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Facebook’s Call for Regulation Could Lead to Government Censorship
The Internet is unique in history not because it lacked “rules” about free expression, but that it expanded that broadcast freedom to all, not just…
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Move Slowly and Establish Rules: Facebook’s Call for Regulation
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s motto used to be “Move fast and break things.” Now that his company is under increased political scrutiny—and facing calls for…
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World Not on Cusp of Energy Revolution: Study
In “The ‘New Energy Economy’: An Exercise in Magical Thinking,” Manhattan Institute scholar Mark P. Mills explains, in layman-friendly physics and economics, why mandates and subsidies…
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Supreme Court Likely to Limit Administrative State’s Ability to Interpret Rules
Last week the Supreme Court heard a case on limiting the powers of the administrative state that could be one of the most important this…
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Help Wanted: Seeking Commissioner for Food and Drug Administration
In a tidal wave of Washington drama, President Trump’s Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb abruptly and unexpectedly announced in March 2019 that he…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Pundits spent the week engaging in mortal combat over the Mueller Report, which none of them have read, and spring officially sprung with baseball’s opening…
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Federal Agency Seeks to Create Direct Path for Ousting Unwanted Unions
National labor policy guarantees employees the right to form a union to promote their interests. There are clear, longstanding rules and procedures that provide a…
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Senate Votes Down Green New Deal, Alternatives Proliferate
The Senate voted on March 26th on a variant of the Green New Deal resolution. No Senators voted yes, 57 voted no, and 43 voted present. The…
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VIDEO: What Do Entrepreneurs Actually Do?
Our friends at the Foundation for Economic Education have a new video that gives a great short introduction to entrepreneuship, and what businesspeople actually do…
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Lyft and the ‘Cheers’ IPOs: How Overregulation Leaves Middle-Class Investors Behind
After much anticipation, Lyft finally went public today, opening on NASDAQ at $87.24 per share—well above its initial public offering price of $72. Lyft’s market…
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Response to Conservative Supporter of Kigali Amendment
The Kigali Amendment is a United Nations environmental measure proposed by the Obama administration, and that ought to be reason enough for conservatives to be…
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Bank Regulators Must Correct Flawed Volcker Rule Proposal
As my colleague Devin Watkins discussed earlier this month, a number of federal administrative agencies are refusing to correctly implement a crucial piece of regulatory…
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Department of Transportation Should Rescind Crew-Size ‘Featherbedding’ Proposal
Unions in the railroad industry have a long history of “featherbedding,” the pejorative term for the practice of creating pointless make-work jobs. Most infamous was…
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Union Subsidy Faces Judicial Scrutiny
“When you’re hired as a teacher, you should be teaching,” said Judge Jose L. Fuentes of the New Jersey Court of Appeals. This statement is…
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Profiles in Courage: McConnell Video Mocks Green New Deal Advocates
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted against advancing Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) Green New Deal resolution to the Senate floor for debate…
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America’s Tech Regulators Should Not Follow Europe’s Lead
This week The Economist endorsed European “tech doctrine”—a combination of antitrust, tax, privacy, and regulatory policies that is rapidly being imposed on a mostly American…
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Activists Build False Narrative to Fight Trump Reforms at EPA
Expect accusations to fly tomorrow as Democrats attempt to build a narrative that the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to skirt science to allow…
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User Fees, Rather than Tax Dollars, Can Promote Airport Efficiency and Lower Airfares
This morning, I testified before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives at a hearing titled, “The Cost of Doing…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As tempers flared over how many “chuggas” to say before “choo-choo,” the 2019 Federal Register topped the 10,000-page mark last week and the number of…
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News Media Go Along with Greenpeace’s Attempt to Pretend Patrick Moore Not a Founder
For years Greenpeace has pretended that Patrick Moore was not one of the original co-founders of the radical environmental pressure group. More recently, a number of…
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Senate Democratic Sponsors of Green New Deal Heroically Plan to Vote ‘Present’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has scheduled a floor vote on the Green New Deal resolution for the week of March 24th. Democrats were caught…
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Trump Administration Trying to Please Everyone on Renewable Fuel Standard
In trying to please both the supporters and the critics of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the Trump administration may end up pleasing neither. …
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VIDEO: Building a Living on eBay
At a time when socialism seems determined to crawl back from the dustbin of history, it can be a challenge defending the moral legitimacy—and humanity—of…
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Ignorance Is Strength, Dissent Is Stalinist
In an op-ed published yesterday in the UK Guardian, Michael Mann and Bob Ward warn Americans not to be “fooled by the Stalinist tactics being…
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Brexit Brinkmanship
There is plenty of blame to go around for Britain’s current Brexit chaos. In a recent post, I pointed to how the Prime Minister’s handling…
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CEI Supports EPA’s Proposed Revision of Power Plant Rule
Yesterday I submitted comments on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute supporting EPA’s proposal to dramatically scale back the agency’s 2015 rule establishing “carbon pollution”…
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Maryland’s Nanny State Targets Foam Cups and Containers
Maryland consumers may soon be deprived of one of my favorite products: plastic foam coffee cups. The Maryland House of Delegates has already passed a…
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Regulation and Neglected Costs of Authoritarianism and Over-Criminalization
Corrupt government and authoritarianism have been the historical rule rather than the exception. The U.S. Constitution’s elevation of individual rights and restraints on governmental power…
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Why National Right to Work Act Is Necessary
No worker should be compelled to join or pay dues or fees to a union just to get or keep a job. The U.S. Supreme…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Trump has declared passing the new NAFTA/USMCA as his top legislative priority, but congressional ratification will not be automatic. Mexico and Canada are also…
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Interior States Take on Coastal States over Climate-Related Project Approvals
When the state of Washington rejected a proposed new coal export facility in 2017, it probably expected the usual appeals from the project’s developers. But it…
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Washington Post’s Climate Alarmism Reaches the Sports Page
The news and opinion pages of the Washington Post have for years been filled with climate alarmism, but now it is spreading to the sports…
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VIDEO: Raising the Steaks on Jones Act Reform
Our friends at the Cato Institute are continuing their valiant fight against the wasteful protectionism of the Jones Act, a 99-year old law that requires…
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Democrats Invent New Joint Employer Controversy
There is a new invented controversy involving the National Labor Relations Board’s joint employer rulemaking, which seeks to clarify the definition of joint employer liability…
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VIDEO: Why Antitrust Is a Problem, Not a Solution
With major political figures proposing the forced breakup of some of the nation’s most successful companies, the once-arcane field of antitrust law is now at…
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Regulatory Costs of Delegating Lawmaking Power to Executive and Unelected Administrators
The administrative state, blessed by Congress, has dispensed with the Founders’ system of legislation fashioned solely by an elected body. Regulatory reforms call for holding…
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Agencies Failing to Follow Law on Key Financial Regulation
The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 is one of the worst pieces of legislation to have become law in recent history. It created the Consumer Financial…
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States Challenge Federal Internet Gambling Ban
This January, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an opinion that threatens legal online gambling in the U.S. The tenuous rationale on which the opinion…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Last week was low-drama by recent standards, but still had some important developments. The U.S. trade deficit set a record for the second year in…
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Maryland Considers Another Anti-Gas Pipeline Measure
The abundant natural gas produced in Pennsylvania and West Virginia could do a lot of good for East Coast states—reducing electric bills, improving reliability, and…
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Defense Establishment Blasts Proposal for Trump Climate Review
In a letter released earlier this week, 58 “former national security leaders” urge President Trump not to approve the formation of a panel to review…
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VIDEO: Deirdre McCloskey on “Bourgeois Dignity”
Given that it is International Women’s Day and almost CEI’s 35th anniversary, today is an excellent day to celebrate the impressive legacy of economist (and…
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Labor Department Issues Proposed Update to Overtime Requirements
Last night, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) long-awaited proposed rule on overtime requirements was unveiled. The DOL intentionally wrote the rule to withstand legal challenge,…
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Federal Labor Ruling Prohibits Unions Charging Non-Members for Lobbying
It has long been the law of the land that labor unions may only collect agency fees, or forced union dues, from non-union members to…
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Higher Taxes, Wasteful Spending Not Solutions to Infrastructure Problems
In recent years, there have been increasing calls to raise federal fuel excise tax rates in order to address what many have called an infrastructure…
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California Supreme Court Upholds Pension Reform, Punts on ‘California Rule’
On Monday, March 4, the California Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, upheld a major provision in the state’s 2012 pension reform legislation, but punted…
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E-Cigarette Puritans Risk Lives
Tobacco companies faced a savage backlash in the 1990s when the public realized they willfully misled the world about the dangers of smoking. Yet when…
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Florida Bill Shines Light on Union Subsidy
Taxpayer dollars should be used to benefit the general public, not special interest groups. Yet, the state of Florida doles out a massive subsidy to…
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The Regulatory Costs of Abandoned Federalism
The deterioration of the principle of separation of powers is a signature feature of the powerful federal Administrative State. This corrosion is accompanied by a…
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Three Reasons Kigali Amendment Favors China over America
Beginning in the 1970s, many policymakers became concerned that the refrigerants used in most air conditioners and refrigerators were leaking into the air and depleting the…
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What Do Economists Think about the Minimum Wage?
The playwright George Bernard Shaw once said that if you laid all the world’s economists end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. President…
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House Democrats Take on Department of Energy over Appliance Efficiency Standards
The Department of Energy (DOE) has been regulating the energy efficiency of home appliances since 1987, ostensibly for the benefit of consumers, but the Obama-era…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Michael Cohen hearing shenanigans gobbled up the headlines, but actual substantive news happened regarding talks with China and North Korea—in particular, a planned tariff…
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EPA Finally Initiates Air Quality Assessment of Renewable Fuel Standard
The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it is taking comment on the air quality impacts of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and will complete a study…
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McCarthy Picks Republicans for Select Committee on Climate Crisis
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on February 28th announced the names of the Republicans he has chosen to serve on the Select Committee on the Climate…
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Trade, Job Losses, and Comparable Wages
One of the frequent objections posted by those who are concerned about free trade is that it leads to job losses. This is true. However,…
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VIDEO: Gig Economy Is Here to Stay
Our friends at the Federalist Society are back with a new video on the gig economy, “Here to Stay: The Modern World of Hospitality,” examining…
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Labor Officials Dragging Feet on Union Financial Transparency
The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), a division within the Department of Labor (DOL), has been generally inactive during the Trump administration, an unfortunate reality…
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Administration Looks to Make Household-Level Imports More Expensive
One of the consistent problems with the Trump administration’s trade policy is an obsession with reciprocity—if goods aren’t treated exactly the same way as imports…
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Pension Obligation Bonds No Panacea for State Budget Liabilities
Illinois has a new governor and Chicago will soon have a new mayor—and the same old underfunded public pensions. Inheriting a predecessor’s debts is never…
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Warren Buffett Warns about Unfunded Public Pension Liabilities—Again
Would you invest in a state with large unfunded pension liabilities? Warren Buffett likely wouldn’t. In a long interview with CNBC this week, the famed…
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Virginia Legislature Restricts Privately-Funded State Legal Staff
As revealed in detail in “Law Enforcement for Rent: How Special Interests Fund Climate Policy through State Attorneys General,” former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg…
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How Much Will the Green New Deal Cost Your Family?
The American Action Forum (AAF) yesterday posted a preliminary analysis of the scope, implications, and costs of the Green New Deal (GND). I can’t wait…