The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/30/2007

The Brady Campaign has spent years trying to convince the courts to strike down a federal law, passed with bipartisan support, that bans suits…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/29/2007

A new report today warns that increased use of CT scans and subsequent increased exposure to radiation could account for nearly 2 percent of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/29/2007

Dickie Scruggs, one of the lawyers who helped bring about the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, has just been indicted on bribery charges. Under…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/29/2007

Even the most poorly-run state has less chance of defaulting on its debts than a typical well-run company. That's because states, unfortunately, have the power…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/29/2007

Apparently California attorney General Jerry Brown believes that bureaucracy is the answer to alleged environmental woes. He and ten other state attorney generals have launched…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/28/2007

The Financial Times today has a very perceptive article, “Too much safety in America’s playrooms,” by Patti Waldmeir. Waldmeir points to the current…

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/28/2007

A new bill proposed in Massachusetts would make it illegal for parents to spank their children. Much of the discussion centers on spanking and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/28/2007

At CEI, we like to celebrate inventors, innovators, and those bold souls whose unyielding curiosity help make the world better. Such a person was…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/27/2007

The Seattle School District says that celebrating Thanksgiving is racially insensitive.  This is the same school district that claimed for several years that “individualism” is a form of “cultural…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/27/2007

Writing from Beijing, New York Times columnist David Brooks in his column today notes how American sentiment is increasingly against trade and globalization and…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 11/27/2007

An interesting article in today’s Washington Post highlights the trade-offs and market realities associated with green products. It addresses the packaging challenges faced by…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 11/27/2007

The FCC today is going to consider expanding its authority to saddle cable TV with many of the same regulations as broadcast. That, to…

• By: John Berlau
• 11/26/2007

As the joke goes, there’s good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first? Upon hearing no answer from the readers of…

• 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: Eli Lehrer
• 11/26/2007

Men’s Health magazine has released its latest list of what it’s editors believe are the “worst” items on chain restaurant menus. Yawn! Unlike, say,…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 11/26/2007

Nearly everyone has an opinion about Sen. Trent Lott (who, the Associated Press reports, plans to resign from the Senate today.) My off-the-cuff judgment…

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/26/2007

My brother in Denver is very much the everyman. He’s blue collar-John Melencamp-middle America, and I value his opinion as a bellwether of the nation’s…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

Poverty, the horrendous poverty so common in most of the world, can only shock the average Westerner.  But we in the West once were that…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

There’s a lot of bad news in the world these days.  A bit of good news is the approach of trials of several leaders of…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

It's enough to make the average Canadian cry.  The decent folk up north fervently defend their health care system from attack.  But, it turns out,…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

“Consumer advocates”–who spend their time demanding that everyone toss money at anyone who “consumes” a product or service, are on the march, this time against…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

Government regulation almost always is biased towards inaction and prohibition.  Making a "mistake" and allowing something to happen will usually get you into far greater…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 11/26/2007

There may be no better evidence of change in China than the fact that the government now occasionally admits that problems exist in the country. …

• By: Richard Morrison
• 11/21/2007

Bureaucrash has decided to take the anti-capitalist mentality to its natural extreme in a new video, just in time for the holiday season. What would…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/21/2007

Earlier, I wrote about the Seattle Schools’ bizarre and racist definitions of racism, which branded all whites (and only whites) as racists, claimed that…

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/21/2007

For my Thanksgiving treat, here’s my list of five “Turkeys on the Hill” — legislation that is particularly onerous for consumers, taxpayers, and citizens —…

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/21/2007

Oklahoma attorney general Drew Edmondson’s latest outrage is chronicled today in an editorial in the D.C. Examiner. The paper points out that he is…

• By: Julie Walsh
• 11/21/2007

Should we be turning our turkey drippings into fuel for our cars instead of gravy? Though a great idea, it’s still not cost competitive.

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/21/2007

A Saudi Arabian court originally sentenced a victim of a gang rape to six months in jail and 90 lashes, after she reported her…

• By: William Yeatman
• 11/21/2007

It looks as if environmentalists have finally turned against biofuels. Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, many remained faithful to the illusion that biofuels are…