The Open Market Blog

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/07/2007

In his Examiner column today, 2005-2006 CEI Brookes Fellow — and Big Ripoff author — Tim Carney highlights the rent-seeking potential of renewable…

• By: Iain Murray
• 12/07/2007

I agree completely, Eli. In fact, a pirate could probably take out 30 ninjas, given their legendary inability to attack together. This is probably due…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 12/06/2007

The Wall Street Journal has an insightful article today about web-based advertising on the front page of the Marketplace section. The technology it's using…

• By: John Berlau
• 12/06/2007

“Wall Street Falls on Mortgage Unease” read the headline of an Associated Press story posted on Yahoo Finance just after the markets closed on…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/05/2007

Earlier this year, CEI recognized Talk Like a Pirate Day. Today, December 5, many will mark The Day of the Ninja. For reasons…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/05/2007

The Washington Times has an editorial today, “No Bailout,” explaining why the Treasury Secretary’s plan to freeze mortgage interest rates for people who borrowed…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/05/2007

As the first significant snowfall blankets the Washington, D.C. area, a word of warning: Be careful at whom you aim any snowballs. Hit the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/05/2007

Holman Jenkins, in his Wall Street Journal column today, coins a new term, “global warmism,” to describe the blind fealty which climate alarmism seems…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/04/2007

For patients dying from a terminal illnesses, sometimes the only comfort they have is being able to choose the manner in which they ‘check out’.

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 12/04/2007

The “Green Hanukkia” campaign is urging Jews to burn fewer candles this Hanukka to help the environment, since–yep–candles spew carbon dioxide (15 grams!). But…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/04/2007

I agree with most, but not all, of what Eli has to say below in his thoughtful post about the costs of divorce, such…

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/04/2007

The Senate shortly before 3 p.m. today voted 77-18 in favor of the U.S. Peru Free Trade Agreement. Earlier today and yesterday the Senate was…

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/04/2007

The World Trade Organization on November 30 published texts of proposed rules to prohibit some of the worst subsidies on fisheries, which provide incentives…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/04/2007

I don’t know the ins and outs of Wikipedian politics, but according to The Register, trouble is brewing at Jimmy Wales’s social knowledge project.

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 12/04/2007

Greenpeace has released the latest edition of its quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics. While I haven’t read the study in full and I don’t…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 12/04/2007

Two scientists have found that divorce. . .wait…wait. . .wait. . .HURTS THE ENVIRONMENT. (In fact, they really didn’t find that directly, only that…

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/03/2007

Earlier, we described the antics of Glenn Singleton, the San Francisco "diversity" trainer who is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/03/2007

Andres Oppenheimer, The Miami Herald's Latin America columnist, offered some interesting insights into the Venezuelan referendum and other regional matters, in an online forum…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/03/2007

Eli, I agree with you wholeheartedly on Hugo Chavez’s open contempt for democracy, and that his taking a Putin-style power-behind-the-throne route is likely…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 12/03/2007

The title of this New York Times article today says it all: “Truckers in Maine, Feeling High Costs of Diesel Fuel, Urge State to…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 11/30/2007

In an unexpected announcement on Tuesday, Verizon Wireless announced that it will allow any device or application to access its network starting in mid-2008.

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/30/2007

In recent years, conservatives and libertarians have gone up in arms over the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). CEI's own take on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/30/2007

Yesterday, I wrote about the “Massive Bond Rating Scam,” and how irresponsible bond-rating agencies, shielded by regulation against competition, have contributed to the mortgage…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/30/2007

Overlawyered has more coverage of the indictment of Dickie Scruggs, the rich trial lawyer who helped bring about the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement that…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/30/2007

McAffee, a company that makes cyber security software, has released a report warning of a new “cyber cold war.” I’m skeptical of how big…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/30/2007

The Brady Campaign has spent years trying to convince the courts to strike down a federal law, passed with bipartisan support, that bans suits…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/29/2007

A new report today warns that increased use of CT scans and subsequent increased exposure to radiation could account for nearly 2 percent of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/29/2007

Dickie Scruggs, one of the lawyers who helped bring about the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, has just been indicted on bribery charges. Under…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/29/2007

Even the most poorly-run state has less chance of defaulting on its debts than a typical well-run company. That's because states, unfortunately, have the power…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/29/2007

Apparently California attorney General Jerry Brown believes that bureaucracy is the answer to alleged environmental woes. He and ten other state attorney generals have launched…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/28/2007

The Financial Times today has a very perceptive article, “Too much safety in America’s playrooms,” by Patti Waldmeir. Waldmeir points to the current…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/28/2007

A new bill proposed in Massachusetts would make it illegal for parents to spank their children. Much of the discussion centers on spanking and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/28/2007

At CEI, we like to celebrate inventors, innovators, and those bold souls whose unyielding curiosity help make the world better. Such a person was…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/27/2007

The Seattle School District says that celebrating Thanksgiving is racially insensitive.  This is the same school district that claimed for several years that “individualism” is a form of “cultural…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/27/2007

Writing from Beijing, New York Times columnist David Brooks in his column today notes how American sentiment is increasingly against trade and globalization and…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/27/2007

An interesting article in today’s Washington Post highlights the trade-offs and market realities associated with green products. It addresses the packaging challenges faced by…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 11/27/2007

The FCC today is going to consider expanding its authority to saddle cable TV with many of the same regulations as broadcast. That, to…

• By: John Berlau
• 11/26/2007

As the joke goes, there’s good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first? Upon hearing no answer from the readers of…

• By: Iain Murray
• 11/26/2007

It is often suggested that global warming and/or the environment is becoming more important in deciding how Americans vote. The latest poll figures, from…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/26/2007

Men’s Health magazine has released its latest list of what it’s editors believe are the “worst” items on chain restaurant menus. Yawn! Unlike, say,…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/26/2007

Nearly everyone has an opinion about Sen. Trent Lott (who, the Associated Press reports, plans to resign from the Senate today.) My off-the-cuff judgment…

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/26/2007

My brother in Denver is very much the everyman. He’s blue collar-John Melencamp-middle America, and I value his opinion as a bellwether of the nation’s…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

Poverty, the horrendous poverty so common in most of the world, can only shock the average Westerner.  But we in the West once were that…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

There’s a lot of bad news in the world these days.  A bit of good news is the approach of trials of several leaders of…