The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/04/2007

The London Daily Mail reports on a lawsuit pending in an English court: Schools will have to issue a warning before they show pupils…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 10/04/2007

The New York Times published an article today correlating global warming to an increase in the amount of brush fires and drought…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 10/04/2007

As a Chicago native, I’m quite used to crooked elections. As a result, I got a huge kick out of this story from Reuters:…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/04/2007

The hearing on the Law of the Sea Treaty before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning, at which CEI Presidnet Fred Smith…

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/04/2007

My wife loves fish, especially tuna and sashimi, but when she was pregnant with our daughter, she didn’t eat much fish, since the FDA and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/04/2007

The hearing room is full, though not packed enough for anyone to be standing. Fred is testifying now. See here for his testimony.

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/03/2007

There are a lot of problems, ethically, legally, and constitutionally, with a state attorney general hiring trial lawyers to sue on behalf of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/03/2007

As legal commentator Ted Frank observes, the $11.6 million in damages awarded in the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment case was excessive and at odds…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 10/03/2007

In a federal government beset by so many other problems, it’s practically charming to discover a little ol’ fashioned government waste that clocks in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/03/2007

The New York Times has an interesting story today on the potential marketing of Snus, a form of smokeless tobacco that does not require…

• By: Fran Smith
• 10/03/2007

George Mason economics professor Tyler Cowen has a searing review in the New York Sun today on Naomi Klein’s new screed, The Shock Doctrine.

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/03/2007

Bush just vetoed a multibillion dollar bill expanding the SCHIP health care program, which would have increased budget deficits as well as cigarette and…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 10/03/2007

The House Capital Markets Subcommittee is currently conducting the first in what I hope will be a series of hearings to discuss reform of insurance…

• By: John Berlau
• 10/03/2007

At the OpenMarket, most of our writing is about law and policy. But ultimately, it's people that make the "open market" work. When market rules…

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/02/2007

The distinguished legal commentator Stuart Taylor, who exposed prosecutor Michael Nifong’s misconduct and lies in the Duke lacrosse rape case, has an interesting…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 10/01/2007

William, I disagree with your comments about compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs). They used to make you ugly but, well, they don’t anymore. Thanks…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 10/01/2007

In a story that reminds me of why I’ve never wanted to have children, the Wall Street Journal has a perversely fascinating story (sub.

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/01/2007

The Associated Press has an interesting article on Congress’s use of regressive taxation and tax increases to pay for expansion of health care coverage.

• By: Doug Bandow
• 10/01/2007

The most important treaty that most people have never heard of is moving closer to ratification. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held its first hearing…

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/01/2007

School districts receive federal subsidies for bilingual education programs. That can give them a financial incentive to needlessly put Hispanic kids who already know a…

• By: William Yeatman
• 10/01/2007

Some time ago, I reported to the CEI staff, their close friends, and the readers of Openmarket.org that Congress’s ethanol policies were making me…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 10/01/2007

Ever wonder why supermarkets don’t have an enormous excess supply of such things as bread and butter? Usually, the amount they have is about right.

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/01/2007

Supreme Court justices have a politically sensitive job, issuing rulings that are politically charged. As Finley Peter Dunne observed a century ago, the Supreme Court…

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/01/2007

The Supreme Court has decided not to hear the Engle case, in which the Florida Supreme Court threw out a $145 billion class-action punitive…

• By: Hans Bader
• 10/01/2007

“Some in Fairfax Public Housing Make Six Figures.” That’s the title of a story in The Washington Post, which reported Sunday that families…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/30/2007

In an appendix titled “What You Can Do” found in their latest book — This Moment on Earth — Senator John Kerry and wife Theresa…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 09/28/2007

Yakov Smirnoff‘s short lived fame died off with the Soviet Union. Little did he know, his unique style of comedy could have lived on…

• By: Fred L. Smith, Jr.
• 09/28/2007

John Berthoud died — suddenly and unexpectedly. Our span is always too short but John’s was far shorter than all of us had hoped. John…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/28/2007

A lobbying firm has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, including $160,000 in the first half of 2007, to lobby for the FDA…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/28/2007

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today on the SCHIP health-care bill, which would expand health care coverage for children, and even some…

• By: Ryan Radia
• 09/28/2007

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, after finally having done something right for a change, recently reversed a…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/28/2007

Ex-CIA Director James Woolsey is a proponent of ethanol because he believes it can help make the United States more energy independent. Never mind…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/28/2007

The Washington Post carries a story about a minor dust-up between Naral Pro-Choice America and Verizon. Naral wanted to use Verizon’s mobile network to…

• By: Alex Nowrasteh
• 09/27/2007

Google's bid to purchase the Internet advertising firm DoubleClick was scrutinized today in hearings by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill), Chairman of the Congressional Subcommittee…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/27/2007

Minor abuses at the FCC, such as the one mentioned in my last post, warrant at least investigating how the FCC assesses fines, if not…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/27/2007

The Senate Democratic leadership has added Ted Kennedy’s controversial hate-crimes bill to a defense authorization bill, in an effort to make it politically impossible…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/27/2007

Robert Novak has an interesting column in the Washington Post on the backroom politicking behind the SCHIP health-care bill that has passed Congress, but…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/27/2007

Seems as though the FCC can’t get enough fining done within the bounds of its legal fining regime and is now fining arbitrary 3rd…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/27/2007

GlobalWarming.org was relaunched two weeks ago by CEI and has enjoyed hundreds of thousands of views since.  I want to thank those who have…

• By: Cord Blomquist
• 09/26/2007

Playspan dubs itself “The Game Industry’s First Publisher-Sponsored In-Game Commerce Network.” What does that mean? To put it more simply, welcome to Wall Street…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/26/2007

The Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal aptly describes the cynical posturing of Lee Bollinger, Columbia University’s president, who first invited the oppressive Iranian despot Mahmoud…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/26/2007

A startling Reuters article today was titled “Gorbachev warns Russians against rise of Stalinism.” As reported, the former Soviet president made his…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/26/2007

CEI analysts appeared twice today on CNBC (so far), enlightening the financially astute and debating their fellow guests. First up, Editorial Director Ivan Osorio takes…

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 09/26/2007

Trade—voluntary exchange—is the essence of economic activity. Trade leads to specialization, which increases productivity. As trade expands so does the arena of economic competition, which…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/26/2007

The District of Columbia is currently defending Washington, D.C.’s gun ban before the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. It argues that the…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/26/2007

A thought-provoking opinion piece in the Financial Times today by Michael Schrage, an MIT researcher –“Science must be more political.” That title is a…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/26/2007

The Hummer is the bane of the greens’ existence. It is big and loud, so it makes an easy target for those so keen on…

• By: Gregory Conko
• 09/26/2007

The Supreme Court decided yesterday to grant cert in a pharmaceutical products liability case to determine whether federal regulation of pharmaceuticals preempts state tort…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/26/2007

“Rock ‘n’ roll is about rebellion” may be one of the world’s most tired cliches, but in the case of the Czech art-rock outfit Plastic…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/25/2007

Check out Bureaucrash’s latest video on drug lag at the FDA — with real people affected by those delays. Just released on Friday,…