The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/04/2008

Ignorance can lead to unjustified anger. Congressional leaders are mad at the Supreme Court for enforcing a 180-day deadline for filing discrimination claims in the…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 02/04/2008

The Irish government doesn’t like plastic bags. So it has effectively banned them. Reports The New York Times: There is something missing from this…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/03/2008

USA Today has a story today about how public employees are much better compensated than people in the private sector, with an average compensation…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 02/03/2008

Compliments of Ted’s Montana Grill–founded, owned, and named after Ted Turner. Ted’s Montana Grill is an eco-friendly company, so please do not…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/01/2008

Insurers of municipal bonds got tired of their sleepy little domain and decided to try and make a quick buck by insuring subprime mortgage securities…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/31/2008

Altria, the parent company of cigarette-maker Philip Morris, is shutting down its headquarters in New York City and will no longer employ the “vast…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/31/2008

Drudge today links to Jake Tapper’s “Political Punch” column at ABC News, where he reports on a speech given by Bill Clinton yesterday in…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/31/2008

The multi-dimensional debate over political correctness at The Smithsonian (everything from exactly how many children Thomas Jefferson fathered to the proper display of…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/31/2008

Those hilarious Europeans. They are threatening to ban patio heaters. Too big a carbon imprint, it seems. So much for convenience, choice, and individual liberty.

• By: Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• 01/30/2008

C. Boyden Gray, the U.S. Envoy to the European Union, said Tuesday (Jan. 28) that U.S. and EU adoption of carbon "offset" taxes (aka carbon…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/30/2008

At EconLog, Bryan Caplan sums up succinctly the method whereby President Bush this week was able to sound more predisposed toward a global treaty…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/30/2008

Last night, ABC News lavished sympathy on a North Carolina couple whose mortgage payments had risen to just over $2,000 a month, owing to the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/30/2008

The House has overwhelmingly voted to pass the “stimulus” bill I discussed earlier, which would increase the deficit, provide “rebates” that did…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/30/2008

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s multibillion dollar health care plan was rejected as too expensive by the California State Senate’s Health Committee, putting him to…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/29/2008

President Bush didn’t mention Blanca Gonzalez, the mother of jailed Cuban dissident Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, after all. But the film Shootdown, which I…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/29/2008

A toothache is never fun. It is likely to be particularly painful in Great Britain. Reports Investor’s Business Daily: Since April 2006, one in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/29/2008

The “stimulus” plan devised by House leaders and the White House at a price tag of nearly $150 billion is now being rejected as too…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 01/28/2008

Well, President Bush has given his final State of the Union address and the news stories analyzing it are soon to be legion. Among…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/28/2008

The guest list for the First Lady’s Box for tonight’s State of the Union speech provides a preview of individuals to whom the…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 01/28/2008

In the last few days, I’ve been following the saga of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick with the same fascination I often reserve for car…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/28/2008

Earlier this month, House leaders reached a deal with the White House on a $150 billion “stimulus” plan that would increase the deficit to give…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/27/2008

Thus responds Homer Simpson to Marge when she complains about his not paying the gas heating bill, on tonight’s new episode of “The Simpsons,”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/27/2008

Earlier, I wrote about the Abigail Alliance case, in which a federal appeals court first rightly held that the Constitution likely prevents the FDA…

• By: Hans Bader
• 01/27/2008

Late last year, the Treasury Secretary orchestrated a bailout of some subprime borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages. Under it, their interest rates, which are slated…

• By: Doug Bandow
• 01/27/2008

There are no easy answers to some problems. Such as failed and quasi-failed states around the world. But one thing that we know is that…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/27/2008

Stimulus package or more deficit spending? I tend to agree with Prof. Samwick in his commentary on “Marketplace” last Friday: It is deficit spending.