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The Long Odds of Voting
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Regulation of the Day 33: Pressure-Sensitive Plastic Tape
Ending the levy would “likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping,” so it’s here to stay. Domestic tape producers must be pleased. Consumers,…
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Federal Budget Deficit Hits $1,270,000,000,000
Federal spending is going up. Tax receipts are going down. 2009's federal budget deficit is now up to $1.27 trillion as a result. That's about…
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Regulation of the Day 32: Migratory Birds
If you’re planning on hunting migratory birds this year, be sure to read all 14 subparts and 61 sections in Title 50 of the Code…
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TARP Transparency: A Good Start, but Not Enough
More transparency would alleviate some of TARP’s symptoms. But TARP itself is a disease. The sooner Congress gains the political will to recover from its…
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Money Is Not Wealth
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Regulation of the Day 31: Fraud in Wholesale Oil Markets
If you’re a wholesaler of crude oil or gasoline, a new FTC rule makes it illegal to engage in any business practice that“operates or would…
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Media Bias: The More, the Better
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Regulation of the Day 30: Labeling Mustard
If your company makes mustard bottles that are reusable as beer mugs, you are specifically required to put a country-of-origin label on your product.
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They Can’t Even Keep Drugs Out of Prison?
Armed guards. All the bad guys behind bars. Under constant supervision. And Mexico still can’t keep drugs and drug dealing out of its prisons.
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All Community Organizing Is Astroturfing – And That’s Fine!
The fact that members of Congress extolling the president’s plan are attacking astroturfers while leaving their arguments alone says to me that the Congressmen believe…
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Regulation of the Day 29: Protecting Us from Cheap Foreign Goods
Sometimes (but not always), when a foreign producer sells goods to U.S. consumers cheaply, the U.S. government takes action to put a stop to it.
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Inconvenient Evidence Suppressed in EU-Intel Antitrust Case
The EU’s top antitrust regulator intentionally suppressed “potentially exculpatory" evidence in its case against Intel. This is the rule of men, not law.
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Regulation of the Day 28: Urine Trouble Now
Want to work for HHS? You’ll have to comply with approximately 32,463 words worth of regulations in the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing…
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Reporting the Hidden Costs of Stimulus
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Microsoft, Yahoo, and Antitrust
If regulations are to be effective, they must be either clear or silent; antitrust statutes are neither. That alone is reason enough to urge trustbusters…
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Regulation of the Day 27: Beekeeping in South Dakota
Beekeeping in South Dakota is illegal without a license.
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Today’s Unintentionally Funny Headline
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Regulation of the Day 26: Fortune Telling in Maryland
You need a license to tell fortunes in Annapolis, Maryland.
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Regulation of the Day 25: Cattle with Scabies
If you own cattle and they are at risk of catching scabies, you may want to read up on the pertinent federal regulations. There are…
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The Antitrust Religion still Has Many Adherents
Why bother with the ongoing challenge of competing in the marketplace if one can merely go to Brussels or Washington?…
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Regulation of the Day 24: The Width of Ladders
It is illegal for a portable metal ladder to have steps narrower than 12 inches.
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In Which Greed Is Good
The great economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote that "[F]ree trade is the cement that holds together the idea of peace." His logic is sound. Commerce gives…
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Regulation of the Day 23: Texting While Driving
Texting while driving is both dumb and dangerous. But making it a crime won’t make people stop doing it. It will merely make more people…
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Regulation of the Day 22: Rhinestones
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, after much deliberation, has banned crystal rhinestones from children's products, despite no evidence of harm.
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How to End the War over Antitrust
If the executive branch is not going to consistently enforce antitrust laws -- and they shouldn't -- they should be repealed.
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Regulation of the Day 21: Potato Research and Promotion
The Agricultural Marketing Service has a potato research and marketing plan, pursuant to the Potato Research and Marketing Act.
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Regulation of the Day 20: Anti-Flatulence Medication
The U.S. Code contains an entire section on over-the-counter anti-flatulence medication. There are rules for permitted active ingredients, maximum dosage, and label text.
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Exploiting the Minimum Wage
Young people with little or no work experience may not be able to offer $7.25 per hour worth of productivity; small wonder so many of…
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Leave it to the Experts
Send your used light bulbs to Washington! They're the experts. They'll know what to do.
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Regulation of the Day 19: Fospropofol
The Drug Enforcement Administration, would like to schedule fospropofol, approved by the FDA last year for use as an anesthetic, as a Schedule IV controlled…
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Regulation of the Day 18: Shipping Live Animals
If you ship live animals via the USPS’s Express Mail Service and it takes three days or more, you may be eligible for a refund,…
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Policies to Promote Competition often Stifle it Instead
Chairman Genachowski is right that the Internet has been “the most successful driver of economic growth” in recent years. Why, then, pursue an agenda that…
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Regulation of the Day: Sliding Car Doors
A new set of rules for sliding car doors will come into effect on September 1, 2010.
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Subsidize Cheese to Stimulate?
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In Which the Case for Antitrust Action against Telecoms Weakens
New research finds that U.S. telecoms are charging, on average, ten cents less per minute than their counterparts around the world. Tell me again why…
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Keynes Remains Popular with Politicians
"‘What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes.” -…
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Regulation of the Day: Endangered Snails
The sixteenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state. Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from…
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The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body
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Regulation of the Day: The Color of Stitches
The federal government regulates which colors may be used in surgical stitches.
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Making Regulation Transparent
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Flying Is a Taxable Event
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Doing Business in DC
DC Progress notes that Washington, DC has ranked dead last in the annual Small Business Survival Index every year since the mid-1990s. One of the…
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A Second Stimulus?
Any stimulus proposal is, by its very nature, less than a zero-sum proposition. Stimulus involves taking some money out of the economy, wasting some of…
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Regulation of the Day: Asphalt Emissions
EPA is proposing national emission standards for asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing.
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Antitrust Irony
Microsoft is having a tense antitrust discussion with the EU. Meanwhile, Google is readying an operating system to directly compete with Windows. Compare and contrast.
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Antitrust Policy and Telecoms
It’s hard to make a case that a company is abusing market power if it doesn’t really have any. And Verizon and AT&T are not…
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Regulation of the Day: The Size of Your Carry-On Bags
The Securing Cabin Baggage Act wouldn't add to security, wouldn't make flying more convenient, and may well be the result of rent-seeking.
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Regulation of the Day: The Price of Shrimp
The ITA has been upset for some time that a Thai shrimp exporter is selling shrimp cheaply; hungry consumers have had no complaints.
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Regulation of the Day: Saving the Children from Durable Products
How much safer will this rule make our children? How much more expensive will the affected goods be? How many people actually bother to send…