The Open Market Blog

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/11/2007

Anita Roddick, the hyper-politically correct founder of the Body Shop chain of cosmetics stores, has died. She is being widely lauded as a…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/11/2007

Today's New York Post reports that a medical center funded by the federal government to research potential health effects of the World Trade Center…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/11/2007

The FDA tobacco regulation bill poised to pass Congress may trigger a trade dispute with Indonesia, according to the Asia Times. Indonesia objects to…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/11/2007

Spiked Online’s Brendan O’Neill has a thoughtful, and interesting, take on Osama bin Laden’s latest video, in which he denounces the current U.S. administration for,…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/11/2007

Of course, the study that Wayne cites isn’t the first of its type. One that comes to mind is Frank Sulloway’s study that…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/11/2007

A lot of large mammals in Africa and Asia are currently threatened with extinction because the products into which they can be made into are…

• By: Richard Morrison
• 09/11/2007

Wayne passes along a link today to a story about my favorite urban subculture of the moment: the freegans. Los Angeles Times staff writer…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/11/2007

Today John Tierney — while visiting Lower Manhattan — discusses global warming with Bjorn Lomborg in his science column in The New York Times.

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/11/2007

A study in the journal Nature Neuroscience finds evidence of differences in the way information is processed in the brains of test subjects of…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/11/2007

Subsidies for biofuels are leading to food price inflation and will cause environmental damage, so says the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/11/2007

Business leaders in the land of the rising sun have gone kamikaze on energy efficiency. According to a front page story in the Wall Street…

• By: Myron Ebell
• 09/10/2007

In the weekend Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Smith reports that, As shareholders of TXU Corp. approved a $32 billion buyout, the private-equity buyers' pledge…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/10/2007

Hans, I have three comments about what you say here. First, on paratransit. The paratransit service (MetroAccess) in this area is already run by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/10/2007

The New York Times has a story today on how a woman with breast cancer is dying in agony without any pain relief because…

• By: Angela Logomasini
• 09/10/2007

Canadian politicians are worried. News reports say that several politicians had recently given some of their blood to the greens, who examined it for…

• By: Myron Ebell
• 09/10/2007

USA Today has listed its editors’ choices for the 25 biggest news stories of the past 25 years. Surprisingly, global warming doesn’t make the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/10/2007

A teenager’s lawyer falsely claims he raped and killed his sister because he was high on marijuana. Amazingly enough, his gullible mother believes this…

• By: William Yeatman
• 09/10/2007

According to a story in today’s Financial Times, Europeans are buying more SUVs than ever. Evidently, European consumers don’t care that larger cars emit…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/10/2007

Washington, D.C.'s subway and bus system, Metro, is weighing a 29-percent fare increase for its riders, to overcome a multimillion-dollar operating deficit. Part of…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/09/2007

The Economist indicts the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as “unwieldy,” laden with perverse incentives, unnecessary, and designed to grow out of control. When the Endangered…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/09/2007

I count myself amongst those who think Damien Hirst — he of the shark-in formaldehyde — a first-rate artist. His work is shocking, interesting, stimulating,…

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 09/09/2007

A new Parents Television Council report bemoans the supposed demise of the TV “Family Hour.” This response essay by Adam Thierer sets the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/07/2007

Very often, people think that if something offends them, it must be unconstitutional. Exhibit A is the Washington Post's editorial today on the Town…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/07/2007

Even if a Supreme Court decision is correct and well-reasoned, it can still be overturned if the plaintiff's bar comes up with good soundbites…

• By: Eli Lehrer
• 09/07/2007

Today’s very modest reported decline in overall employment, 4,000 jobs, appears to stem from the loss of about 6,000 mortgage industry positions. Most of…

• By: Fran Smith
• 09/06/2007

As an opera lover, I have to take note of the death of Luciano Pavarotti today at the age of 71. One of the leading…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/06/2007

Thousands of children have committed suicide after federal regulators discouraged taking drugs that combat depression, such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil, by hyping health risks associated…

• By: Hans Bader
• 09/06/2007

Judging from a bizarre Washington Post story today on the closing of a government-subsidized day-laborer center, a constitutional right to welfare must just have…