The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/14/2007

As I earlier anticipated, the Washington, D.C., administrative law judge who sued for $54 million after losing his pants has now lost his…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 11/14/2007

Author Dick Taverne has the cover story in this month’s issue of Prospect, in which he takes on the unwarranted negative reputation GM foods…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/14/2007

Intriguing book review today in the Wall Street Journal by William Easterly. He discusses William Duggan‘s new book, Strategic Intuition, which…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/14/2007

Another study reports on the costs of obesity. Just dropping down to European levels would save $100 billion in extra medical costs. Reports Nurse.com:…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/14/2007

Critics of the U.S. health care system have a litany of complaints. Some are true, but highly misleading. N. Gregory Mankiw takes on three of…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/14/2007

Today as the Senate is considering its version of the 2007 Farm Bill, the Wall Street Journal editorialized about proposals for massive subsidy…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/13/2007

Today, I got the opportunity to ask former American U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to comment on the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), which…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 11/13/2007

There’s a lot of political anger associated with the recent immigration debate. But with all the attention paid to unskilled immigrants from Mexico and the…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/13/2007

Target is replacing its PVC shower curtains with vinyl curtains. Whew, I feel so much safer now! Not really. The move is part of a…

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/13/2007

The International Panel on Climate Change is holding a conference to draft a report on global warming and what can be done to stop it.

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 11/12/2007

Frank Ahren’s “FCC Moves to Place Restrictions on Cable TV” was highly misleading in its description of a “largely unregulated cable television industry” that…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/12/2007

While unapologetic free-marketers can enjoy the fruits of their labors (small or large) guilt free, the rich on the left have to find ways to…

• By: Iain Murray
• 11/12/2007

The funny old laws from my homeland that Lene links to are actually a distraction from the real problem. When Michael Heseltine was President…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 11/12/2007

A leading justification for mandating the sale of ever-greater amounts of ethanol and biodiesel in the nation's motor fuel supply is the claim that this…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/12/2007

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would outlaw private-sector (and some public-sector) discrimination based on sexual orientation, passed the House last week by a…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/12/2007

I have recently published several op eds on how the European Right has adopted the environmental policy of the Left, embracing greater interventions in the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/12/2007

A recent survey in Britain on which laws Brits regards as their most stupid laws make a case for sunset provisions. The laws include…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/12/2007

In June, the Supreme Court cut back on school districts’ ability to assign students to schools by race, even when school districts claim…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 11/12/2007

Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek notes that on Friday [Nov. 16], nobel economist Milton Friedman will have been dead for one year. He forwarded…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/09/2007

In American Council of the Blind v. Paulson, a trial judge declared that American paper money discriminates against the blind because it lacks features…

• By: Sam Kazman
• 11/08/2007

California this week sued EPA for failing to grant it a waiver, under the Clean Air Act, that would allow the state to impose…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/08/2007

This study shows an increase in pedestrian deaths in afternoon rush hour traffic in November every year and the researchers are pinning it on the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/08/2007

Politics is a dirty business anywhere, but this story shows how dirty it is, and how cheap you can buy a vote in the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/08/2007

This Bloomberg article notes that banks and other lenders who pushed for reform of the consumer bankruptcy system are now stuck with some unintended…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/08/2007

Today the House of Representatives voted 285-132 to approve the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. The Senate now has to consider legislation implementing the agreement.

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/08/2007

The New York Times today published an article that juxtaposes charter schools and public schools as if they are differing models for education, but…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/08/2007

CNBC’s Jim Cramer, no free-market conservative, is nonetheless appalled by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s clumsy meddling in the mortgage markets, which he believes…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/08/2007

Space.com reports on the release of a (compressed) sound recording of Saturn’s radio emissions, from the Cassini spacecraft, that sounds uncannily like the…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/08/2007

If you’re interested in the debate over Optional Federal Chartering for insurance companies, you may want to check out CEI’s new website OFC FAQ.ORG.

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/08/2007

I’d like to second Hans’s recommendation to read Manhunt — and I feel a more personal connection: The hunt for John Wilkes Booth…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/08/2007

Phone companies deserve immunity from lawsuits for cooperating the with federal antiterrorism surveillance program, according to a recent report by the Information Technology and…

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/08/2007

MSNBC reports that two think tanks, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for a New American Security, released a study…

• By: Gregory Conko
• 11/08/2007

Tyler Cowan offers some generally positive thoughts on former Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s new book, Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/08/2007

If an artist sticks a crucifix in urine, or a museum displays pictures of children smeared with feces or severed genitalia, liberal academics and judges…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/07/2007

Nigeria’s federal government is demanding more than 5.3 trillion Naira — or more than $44 billion — from tobacco companies such as Philip Morris.

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/07/2007

Anyone who thinks history is a dry and dull subject should read James Swanson’s Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. His fascinating book…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/07/2007

You might have heard about the chaos surrounding the Swedish executive branch lately. First, an undersecretary that was on call for the evening was…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/07/2007

In Oregon, voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have created a permanent state health-care program financed by a major cigarette tax increase (which…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/07/2007

Voters seemed intent on tightening up the public belt buckle if we are to believe this story from AP of all the ballot initiatives…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/07/2007

French President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed a joint session of Congress this morning and devoted most of his remarks to the close…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/07/2007

“Pass the Peruvian F.T.A,” so reads a New York Times editorial today on the same day the House is scheduled to vote on the…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/07/2007

That’s really all I have to say about Robopanda.

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/07/2007

Steven Mufson reports in today’s Washington Post that Kansans for Affordable Energy, a non-profit funded by coal interests, has taken out full page advertisements…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/07/2007

The Beijing Olympics are less than a year away, and China hopes to showcase its growing economy and expanding international influence. China is a fascinating…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 11/06/2007

The World Economic Forum in its annual Global Competitiveness Report declared last week that the U.S. economy is the most competitive in the world.

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/06/2007

What is more harmful to children’s’ health than tobacco smoke? The answer may be irresponsible parents. In Oregon, a state where the unemployment rate hovers…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 11/06/2007

This Friday Bureaucrash and friends will be hosting a demonstration in support of student and blogger Kareem Amer, who has now been in prison in…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/06/2007

In a tele-news conference yesterday on the Senate farm bill, the acting U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary, Chuck Conner, said that he would…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/06/2007

In June, the Supreme Court ruled against a student’s First Amendment challenge to his discipline for displaying, off school grounds, a cryptic banner that read…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/06/2007

Finally, after nearly seven years of approving every big spending bill to hit his desk, President George W. Bush is occasionally saying no to budget…