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John Kerry, an Unlikely Truth-Teller?
John Kerry, America’s special presidential envoy for climate, will be on the world stage during the Biden administration’s online global Leaders Summit on Climate.
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EPA Inspector General Releases Report on Trump Auto Rule Process Concerns
The Washington Post today reviews a report released yesterday by the Inspector General (IG) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding claims that…
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Runaway Spending and Regulation Call for an Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act
The escalation of spending and regulation in the face of economic shock—by means of “resets,” “New New Deals,” “new social contracts,” and “Build…
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Will China Play the U.S. on Climate?
President Biden’s 40-nation “virtual climate summit” is scheduled to begin on Earth Day, April 22. Even at this late date, it’s not clear that…
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Minimal Environmental Benefits in the Infrastructure Plan’s Spending Spree on Electric Vehicles
As discussed in a previous post, the $174 billion for electric vehicles (EVs) in the Biden administration’s recently proposed $2.3 trillion dollar infrastructure…
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The One Place Progressives Want the Vote Suppressed: Union Elections
Big business has a new weapon to use against organized labor: mailboxes. That is what the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) claims is…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Congress played a round of good idea-bad idea last week. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) introduced a bill for a regulatory budget, similar to the…
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Can Money Buy Love When It Comes to Electric Vehicles? The Biden Administration Wants to Try with Its Infrastructure Package
There is a long history of Washington declaring gasoline-powered cars a thing of the past and subsidizing alternatives to replace them. It has never worked,…
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DOL On Independent Contractor Rule: We Were Wrong but We Cannot Explain Why
The Biden administration put the Department of Labor (DOL) in the awkward position of having to withdraw its new rule regarding when workers…
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Can Biden End the Current War on Drugs without Starting a New One?
This president is not your Grandad’s Joe Biden. At least, that seems to be the message of a new White House plan on the…
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Maybe Workers Just Aren’t That into You, Unions
Labor unions are second only to Donald Trump when it comes to crying foul over election outcomes they don’t like. The National Labor Relations Board…
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LBRY Cryptocurrency Prosecution Shows SEC’s Misplaced Priorities
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), without authorization from Congress or from formal rulemaking, continues its punitive push against blockchain-based companies that sell native tokens…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen floated the idea of a global minimum corporate tax and Amazon workers in Alabama voted against unionizing. The Biden…
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The UK Should Beware of Future Restrictions against UK-EU Data Flows
The British government must beware of future challenges to the United Kingdom’s ability to transfer data to and from the European Economic Area (EEA) due…
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Americans Ambivalent about Billionaire Influence, Reject Left-Wing Hostility
New polling, recently written up at Reason, shows that the American public isn’t nearly as hostile to capitalism, and the leaders of big…
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New CEI Paper Revisits Viral Exchange on Payday Loan Rates by Katie Porter and Kathy Kraninger.
It’s not every day an exchange about a technical measurement for loans goes viral on social media. During a 2019 House Committee on Financial…
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Who Pays Corporate Taxes?
Congress is considering increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent to help pay for the big infrastructure bill it is currently…
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The London Stock Exchange Needs Dual-Class Ownership to Compete with New York and Amsterdam
Notwithstanding London’s status as a global financial center, the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) inflexible listing rules constrain the city’s ability to attract high-growth tech…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Washington’s attention flitted back and forth between beginning work on a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill and a brewing sex scandal allegedly involving Rep. Matt Gaetz and…
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Let Private Markets Assess the Financial Risks of Climate Change
In her opening remarks this week to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen identified climate change as the “big” “emerging…
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More Good News on the Road to Ending the Pandemic
A new study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which shows that a single dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna…
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Secretary Pete Scores an Own Goal
It should have been an open goal. Everyone agrees that the nation’s highways need more funding. Everyone agrees that the gas tax has passed its…
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Are Janus Violations a RICO Matter?
Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that public sector workers cannot be forced to financially support unions, labor groups…
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Debate over Vaccination Passports Gathers Steam in Europe and United Kingdom
The concept of a “vaccination passport” was raised in the European Union (EU) early in the pandemic. EU documents show a timetable for discussion of…
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Are Electric Vehicles the Right Choice for Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Consumers? Much Depends on Battery Life
A recent Wall Street Journal story compares an electric vehicle (EV) with a similarly sized internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle over their useful lives,…
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Federal Agencies Begin Process of Removing Guidance Document Portals
By the end of the Trump administration, several dozen federal agencies had issued final rules clarifying their use of sub-regulatory guidance documents. In one of…
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In Blow to Disclosure, Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations Database Removes “Deregulatory” Designation
In a setback to transparency alongside Joe Biden’s program to eliminate the disclosure of guidance documents via portals on agency websites, the Unified…
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U.S. Trade Representative Tai Should Rethink Keeping China Tariffs in Place
Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal interviewed Katherine Tai, the new United States Trade Representative. She has a lot of work ahead of her…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
A massive container ship turned sideways and blocked the Suez canal, halting roughly $10 billion worth of international trade per day, or about $400…
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Putting a Price on Conspiracy Theories, Revisited
Conspiracy theories are back in the news, so it’s a good time to revisit my recent Fortune article about putting prices on conspiracy theories.
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Decentralization Offers a Way out of the Social Media Content Wars
Thursday brought another politically charged installment of “a tale of two hearings” about online content moderation in the House of Representatives. Republicans scolded big…
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Will EPA Establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Greenhouse Gases?
Will the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) propose to establish national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs)? The…
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Contrasting Approaches to Energy Policy on Display in Two House Energy and Commerce Committee Bills
It is not hard to distinguish bad federal energy policy from good. Bad policy picks winners and losers among competing energy sources and technologies by…
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Will Anyone Challenge the SEC’s Ever-Expanding Authority?
This question of redefining a government agency’s mission arose last week during an event hosted by George Mason University’s Center for the Study of…
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The PRO Act’s Extremely Broad “Whistleblower” Provisions
The Senate confirmed former Boston Mayor and ex-union official Marty Walsh as the new Labor Secretary Tuesday by a vote of 93-2.
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Janet Yellen vs. Suze Orman on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency
As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is testifying now before the House Financial Services Committee, she will likely get questions about the popularity of bitcoin…
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Restoring Separation of Powers and Improving Resilience with the USA Act
Separation of powers is a core principle of American government. But things haven’t gone quite as planned. Congress, the first branch, has increasingly taken a…
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Book Review: Open: The Story of Human Progress by Johan Norberg
On March 25, 2021 at noon ET, CEI is hosting a double book forum featuring Johan Norberg, the 2019 winner of CEI’s Julian L. Simon…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
CEI published its new Agenda for Congress. We also held a launch event featuring Sen. Rand Paul. Meanwhile, the 2021 Federal Register surpassed…
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As California Goes on Regulation, so (Unfortunately) Goes the Nation
Last month, a federal judge upheld California’s net neutrality regulations. That led to AT&T’s announcement this week that they will no longer exempt…
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Agenda for Congress: Regulatory Reform
CEI’s new agenda for Congress is out now. If you’re interested only in certain issues, individual chapters are downloadable here. We also hosted…
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Lawmakers Should Tread Carefully When Trying to Balance Privacy with Security
It’s been said that a compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest…
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Yes, Let’s Debate Taking Rights Away from Workers
Legislation doesn’t get much simpler than the National Right To Work Act. Introduced by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson…
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Does the Rebound Effect Undercut Savings from Energy Efficiency Standards?
There are plenty of reasons to oppose Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency standards for home appliances such as those for air conditioners, refrigerators, clothes washer/dryers,…
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Senate Votes Today on Rep. Debra Haaland’s Nomination to Be Interior Secretary
The Senate at 5:30 p.m. today will vote on Interior Secretary nominee Rep. Debra Haaland (D-NM). In a statement posted March 11 on the…
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Perspectives on “Woke Capital” and Politicized Investing
Recently, the Competitive Enterprise Institute hosted a virtual book event for Political Forum publisher Steve Soukup’s new book, The Dictatorship of Woke Capital:…
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Biden Administration Wants to Decide When Freelancers Are “Legitimate”
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced Thursday, March 11 that it was rescinding a rule issued by the previous administration on when workers…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Congress passed a $1.9 trillion spending bill, some of which may actually be COVID-related. Agencies issued new rules ranging from eastern hellbenders to reentry licenses.
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Those Who Forget the Antitrust Mistakes of the Past Are Bound to Repeat Them
Yesterday’s Senate antitrust hearing was broad in its discussion of reforms, but one point deserves clarification. A witness from Open Markets centered much of…
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Twelve States Challenge Legality and Constitutionality of Biden Administration’s Use of Social Cost of Carbon
In a lawsuit filed this week, 12 state attorneys general (AGs) are asking a federal district court in Missouri to place an “immediate and…