The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/21/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, economist and former Carter Administration official Fred Bergsten chides Congressional leaders for blocking votes on trade agreements with friendly countries like…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/20/2008

A divided D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled 2-to-1 that paper money discriminates against the blind in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, in American…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/19/2008

Genetically-modified (“GM”) crops help the environment in many ways.  They reduce the need for pesticide use by engineering plants to be more blight-resistant.  And by reducing the amount of land…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/07/2008

President Bush has threatened to veto the bloated federal housing bill pushed by House leaders, saying it would reward special interests  As John Berlau has…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/07/2008

At Slate, Eric Posner explains why the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act is a bad idea as a basic concept.  The law nevertheless recently passed the Senate 95-to-0…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/06/2008

Say bye bye to more American manufacturing jobs.  The Washington Post editorialized today about sugar import quotas and price supports contained in the bloated federal…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/05/2008

Eli Lehrer has an editorial in today’s Washington Examiner about how ill-considered legislation to create federal “national catastrophe insurance” could lead to American taxpayers shelling…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/05/2008

Earlier, we wrote about how the economic “stimulus package” passed by Congress contained pork for left-wing groups like “La Raza” (Spanish for “the race”).  Now, House banking committee…

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/02/2008

Should you be able to sue your employer because your co-workers listen to raunchy radio programs?  The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Reeves v. C.H.

• By: Hans Bader
• 05/02/2008

A story in the Wall Street Journal suggests it is time to once again eat kangaroos, to protect the environment, and cope with Kangaroo overpopulation…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

The Fed has cut interest rates again, reducing its key rate to 2 percent — a real interest rate of less than zero, after taking into account…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the federal law (PLCAA) limiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers over acts committed by criminals with guns,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

In the Washington Post, Robert Samuelson’s column “Start Drilling” points out that ethanol production is far worse for the environment than drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/30/2008

Michigan CPS workers seized a 7-year-old who drank lemonade that his father purchased for him without knowing that it contained a small amount of alcohol.  (As Ted Frank notes,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The American Bar Association is continually threatening to pull the accreditation of George Mason University Law School for failing to adopt illegal racial quotas…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law, which is tougher than many other voter ID laws, rejecting claims that it was unconstitutional or…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

The proposed “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” would get rid of the short 180-day deadline for bringing pay discrimination claims that applies under some federal laws, like…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/29/2008

A Chicago Tribune story notes that a few jurisdictions now ban discrimination against fat people (generally as part of general bans on discrimination based on physical appearance), and that Massachusetts…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/25/2008

In the Wall Street Journal today, Stanford’s Ronald McKinnon argues against the Federal Reserve’s policy of cutting interest rates to almost nothing, and debasing…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/25/2008

Nate Beeler has an an excellent editorial cartoon, “Food for Thought,” that captures the deadly and costly consequences of ethanol subsidies, in today’s Washington Examiner.   Many go…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

Nicholas Kristof has a column today in the New York Times, “Better Roses Than Cocaine,” in favor of the proposed free-trade agreement with Colombia,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

The House Speaker is seeking to dump the House version of a bill in favor of a much more draconian Senate version preferred by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

The Senate majority yesterday did not achieve the 60 votes needed to cut off further debate and summarily pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/24/2008

Today, the Senate will consider (and almost certainly pass) the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act.  Earlier, I discussed the irrational fears behind this law, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

George Mason University Law Professor David Bernstein has a thought-provoking post on the seizure of hundreds of children, including nursing infants, from their mothers,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

In his interview with The Economist, Congressman Barney Frank undermines the case for his much-criticized mortgage bailout bill.  He admits that such bailouts create…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

“Sharply rising food prices” “have sparked riots around the world and threaten U.N.-backed feeding programs for 20 million children, the top U.N. food official said…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/23/2008

The Washington Post today editorialized in favor of an unnecessary bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would extend the deadline for bringing…