The Open Market Blog

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/11/2008

Senators Ron Wyden and Olympia Snowe are proposing a bill that would ban state and local governments from raising taxes on cell phones any…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/11/2008

As everyone who has read The Wisdom of the Crowds knows, prediction markets are excellent predictors of future events like elections. In fact,…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/11/2008

The FCC is set to begin testing white space broadcasts for interference with current technology, such as wireless microphones. The NFL and ESPN –…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/11/2008

The libertarian CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, called out Bill Gates in a speech on the virtues of capitalism. Gates’ view is that…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/11/2008

Get ready for a horrible new net neutrality precedent. Chairman Martin has publicly stated that he wants the FCC to rule against Comcast in…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/10/2008

Ars reports that Verizon has just settled a case claiming that the company violated California law by imposing early termination fees on the customers…

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/10/2008

Dairy farmers in the EU are upset that milk prices are lower than they prefer. Production quotas were raised by two percent in…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/10/2008

Last month, I posted about the rollout of Europe’s first WiMax network in Amsterdam. Just after my post, Sprint announced that it will…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

The mortgage bailout bill sailing through Congress gets weirder and weirder.  It turns out that in order to circumvent the Constitution, which says that tax…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

Ted Frank explains in the Wall Street Journal just how feeble courts are at reining in excessive punitive damages awards, contrary to what…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

The Virginia House of Delegates rejected a Democratic plan to raise several taxes to pay for transportion.  The proposal was the same as one earlier…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

The Religious Left and liberal groups are currently defending the “Red Lion” doctrine, under which judges allow the government to restrict speech on the radio because of the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

The Senate has passed the FISA reform bill by a 69-to-28 vote, providing the phone companies with immunity from the multibillion dollar lawsuits against them…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/09/2008

Ars reports on the hysteria surrounding rising prices of some precious metals needed for electronics. The notion is that we’re quickly running out…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/09/2008

I reported earlier about the FCC’s attempt to end local franchising, since such arrangements have been stifling cable competition for years. Now, a…

• By: Fran Smith
• 07/09/2008

Well, it’s about time. According to Reuters, the progressive Democratic Leadership Council today called upon the next president to focus on the multilateral trading…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

ACORN is a radical left-wing group with ties to liberal politicians that will receive taxpayer subsidies through the Congressional mortgage bailout legislation nearing passage.  (Bush has expressed…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

Congress is poised to enact the ADA Restoration Act.  That law is based on the unfounded notion that the federal courts have too narrowly interpreted…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/09/2008

Public Knowledge just dug up some dirt on Comcast. Comcast has been fighting charges of violating net neutrality principles at the FCC by claiming…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/09/2008

My colleague Ryan Radia has a great post at the Technology Liberation Front about the Google-Viacom suit. Ryan points out that the discovery…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/09/2008

I reported earlier on the FCC’s plan to nationalize the failures of all municipal wireless projects by auctioning off a big block of spectrum…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/08/2008

Even longtime ACLU leader Morton Halperin is endorsing the FISA bill, which authorizes and regulates federal antiterror surveillance programs.  Halperin says that the “bill…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 07/08/2008

The UK National Children’s Bureau recently issued a 366-page guide on how to spot and discourage racist behavior in children. Three-hundred and sixty-six pages…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/08/2008

Congressional mortgage bailout legislation would create a costly “affordable housing trust” that would spawn new slums at taxpayer expense, and enrich the politically-connected developers…

• By: Alex Harris
• 07/08/2008

Apparently, the FISA bill is much worse than many commentators have made it seem. The bill goes way beyond telecom immunity. As Ars…