The Open Market Blog

• By: Iain Murray
• 01/06/2009

A real liberal, not a statist claiming to be one, would be familiar with John Stuart Mill's argument that minorities need small government to protect…

• By: Iain Murray
• 12/08/2008

Kent Brockman: But we must never forget that the real news is on local TV, delivered by real, officially licensed newsmen like me, Kent…

• By: Iain Murray
• 11/11/2008

The other day I had a piece on ConservativeHome, possibly the most popular politics blog in the UK, on what the election really showed…

• By: Iain Murray
• 11/04/2008

Eli, I wrote about the superiority of paper ballots in The Denver Post back in 2000. Unfortunately, the article has disappeared into the aether. Luckily,…

• By: Iain Murray
• 10/03/2008

On a day when government takes a large stake in the financial markets, we should be aware that all sorts of organizations are trying to…

• By: Iain Murray
• 10/03/2008

The bailout bill that passed through Congress today seeks to solve the financial mess by massively increasing government involvement in private finance. But more Government…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/26/2008

The glee in European capitals at the woes of “Anglo-Saxon” capitalism is tangible. Sarkozy and the German finance minister pile on, with Sarkozy saying,…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/22/2008

Best short explanation of the mark-to-markets issue I have yet seen: Imagine if you had a $200,000 mortgage on a $300,000 house that you…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/18/2008

With the British financial markets in meltdown, most of the blame has attached to speculators. In a desperate attempt to be seen to be doing…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/11/2008

This summer has made it quite clear that the US is suffering an energy crisis. Not a great one yet, but definitely a harbinger of…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/28/2008

The Brookings Institution is the most establishment of establishment think-tanks. Old-fashioned, genteel, liberal, they do a lot of good work while at the same time…

• By: Iain Murray
• 06/04/2008

A gang of the usual enviro suspects (NRDC, Blue Green Alliance, Sierra Club and Green For All) together with the United Steel Workers and the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 05/01/2008

Almost five years ago, I argued that London’s Congestion Charge was merely a wealth transfer from London commuters to the administrators of the charge.

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/30/2008

Steven Dubner asks whether children are responsible for the recent explosion of environmental concern. He’s got a point. As well as the decidedly non-secular…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/29/2008

I’ve just got back from delivering a speech at the Heritage Foundation on the subject of my book. I think it went well and…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/28/2008

But were afraid to ask can be found in Chapter Two of The Really Inconvenient Truths, which you can now get for free via…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/23/2008

Yesterday, a listener on the Michael Medved show challenged me that (I paraphrase), “Denmark has adopted wind power at no cost.” I said that I…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/18/2008

At a time when liberal condescension is an important issue in domestic American politics, we shouldn’t forget that it is extremely important in the global…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/18/2008

As the ethanol disaster gets more and more apparent, the liberal left is trying to wriggle out of any responsibility for it, blaming it on…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/17/2008

Meanwhile, British grocery chain Sainsbury’s has rejected the idea, proposed by the British government as its major (yes…) environmental initiative, of charging shoppers for…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/17/2008

This, from British Tory leader David Cameron, who has made his name as a conservative promoter of green issues, is very interesting: Launching the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/17/2008

British Conservative Party finance spokesman George Osborne seems to have a blinkered approach to certain aspects of the economy: “An economic strategy for the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 04/15/2008

We’re hearing some very bad things about the President’s likely unconditional surrender on global warming tomorrow. One senior source suggested that the last line of…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/24/2008

Fran’s post raises an important point about trade-offs and the ossifying effects of mandates (why on earth don’t we have a much better system…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/20/2008

CEI’s friends at the Liberty Institute in New Delhi have launched a new website, InDefenceofLiberty.org. Of particular interest to openmarket readers might be the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/06/2008

The United Kingdom has a culture of heavy drinking, one that goes back hundreds of years at the very least. This has been an object…

• By: Iain Murray
• 03/05/2008

This week, half of CEI's staff, it seems, decamped to New York City for the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change, organized by the…

• By: Iain Murray
• 02/28/2008

More proof that wind power is no panacea for the nation’s looming electricity crisis. The wind dropped in Texas, and caused blackouts: ERCOT…

• By: Iain Murray
• 02/28/2008

It’s E-Day in the UK, a national ‘awareness’ day backed by major environmental groups and religious organizations, and the BBC, aimed at getting Brits…

• By: Iain Murray
• 02/27/2008

Biofuels have recently come under attack from their erstwhile supporters in the liberal environmentalist movement for increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Now it’s the turn of…

• By: Iain Murray
• 01/24/2008

Jim Geraghty stirred up a minor hornet's nest yesterday with this post on Republican tactics on global warming. After coming in for some pretty…

• By: Iain Murray
• 01/24/2008

Here’s an interesting case. In California, a solar panel owner found his access to sunlight blocked. Not by some man-made obstruction, but by California…

• By: Iain Murray
• 12/28/2007

Benazir Bhutto, who was murdered in a politically-motivated suicide attack, was the closest the Islamic world has yet got to a secular free-marketeer as a…

• 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: 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: 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: Iain Murray
• 10/17/2007

This one takes the cake. If there was a Nobel Prize for Absurd Assertions (hmmm, perhaps there is) RFK Jr would win it hands down…

• By: Iain Murray
• 10/17/2007

He didn’t win the Eleanor Roosevelt prize this year. But somebody equally worthy did.

• By: Iain Murray
• 10/10/2007

The British government decided that it would be a good idea to send copies of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to all schools, with then…

• By: Iain Murray
• 10/09/2007

It is quite possible the US Congress will follow, on environmental policy at least. The UK's Treasury minister, Alistair Darling, has just announced a raft…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/17/2007

The Indian government is finding out something that most of us have known for a long time: that measures aimed at dealing with global warming…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/12/2007

William, before air conditioning the British in India would cool their offices by means that did not involve electricity. They hooked up a large ceiling…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/12/2007

That’s what Time magazine seems to think: Uh-oh. Here comes trouble. Let’s stipulate that the Model T did everything that the history books say:…

• By: Iain Murray
• 09/05/2007

Leonardo DiCaprio’s eco-doomfest The 11th Hour has bombed at the box office: His environmental documentary, “The 11th Hour,” has been a total bust at…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/29/2007

Britblogger Guido Fawkes delights in blowing up the sacred symbols of establishment. Here he presents data that strongly suggest that mass public transport, symbolized…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/29/2007

I strongly agree with Michelle that NASA is a fine example of public choice theory at work. Political pressures impel NASA to sacrifice…

• By: Iain Murray
• 08/28/2007

The UK Conservative Party has a “Quality of Life” policy group, headed by former Environment Secretary John Selwyn Gummer (whose most distinguished political moment involved…