The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/22/2008

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today against the FDA tobacco regulation bill.  It argues that the bill contradicts the government’s own lawsuit…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/22/2008

In the Washington Post, two prominent environmentalists have an editorial, “Ethanol’s Failed Promise,” which explains how ethanol subsidies and mandates are destroying the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/20/2008

The Washington Post has an editorial debunking false claims made by House leaders against the proposed trade agreement with Colombia.  “There are two important…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/19/2008

As chairman and CEO of taxpayer-subsidized mortgage giant Fannie Mae, Franklin D. Raines promoted reckless lending policies that helped cause the housing bubble and mortgage crisis.  …

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/18/2008

The Washington Examiner has a must-read editorial called “Baby Snatching by Arlington County.” It shows that if County social workers seize your…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/17/2008

Point of Law reports on an appeals court hearing Tuesday over the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.   (The PCAOB, which produces tons of red tape…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/17/2008

A global warming lawsuit by Eskimos seeks to impose conspiracy liability on oil and power companies for giving money to groups that question the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

So much foreign-aid money is being spent on costly AIDS treatment in Africa, compared to other diseases, that “H.I.V.-infected children are offered exemplary treatment, while…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

International courts and “human rights” bodies issue rulings that purport to have the force of law.  But much of their reasoning is based not on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/16/2008

House leaders blocked the House from even voting on a trade deal between the U.S. and Colombia that would have cut America’s trade deficit…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/15/2008

Ethanol and biofuels have been wrongly depicted by politicians like Al Gore as a solution to global warming.  But in reality, subsidized ethanol production gravely harms the environment, and also…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

In the Washington Post, David Ignatius writes about the long-run economic costs of mortgage bailouts, which infantilize voters.  Through bailouts, we are “creating a system of transfer…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/13/2008

“Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving” soon, the International Monetary Fund says.  Government officials and food relief agencies quoted in the story…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/11/2008

Last night, I watched an ABC News segment on the latest batch of canceled airline flights.  Hundreds of American Airlines flights have been canceled, stranding…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

The Senate has just passed a bad, pork-laden “foreclosure relief” bill that would actually increase foreclosures, as the Washington Post earlier noted.  House leaders are…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/10/2008

We previously wrote about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban private-sector employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and how the bill’s requirements regarding “conditions of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Ron Bailey writes about the “global food crisis” that has resulted in food riots across the world, in countries like Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, Yemen, Haiti, and…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/08/2008

Previously, we wrote about how the Senate “foreclosure relief” bill will actually increase, rather than reduce, foreclosures, while costing taxpayers a bundle, and how…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman debunks the idea that converting from oil to ethanol will cut global warming: “The subsidized conversion of crops into…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

Most housing discrimination laws don’t prevent you from living with roommates of a particular sex (not surprising, given than women generally don’t want a male roommate).  But…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

The Washington Post today editorialized against the Senate housing bill, the so-called “Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008,” noting that it is actually “A Pro-Foreclosure Bill”…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/07/2008

In an effort to help borrowers and some overextended big banks, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to very low levels, triggering a fall in…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Wheat production is down in the world’s breadbaskets, like the United States, as farmland shifts away from wheat to ethanol production.  Ethanol production has increased because of government ethanol mandates…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Liberal reporter Darryl Fears, who covers racial and civil-rights issues for the Washington Post, has a truly odd perspective.  In an article on the declining membership…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/05/2008

Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd is preparing a bill that would bail out mortgage borrowers who borrowed so much, and made such small…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/04/2008

The federal appeals court in New York City killed a $200 billion class action lawsuit against the tobacco industry brought in the name of America’s…

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/03/2008

The Wall Street Journal warns taxpayers to “hold onto your wallet.”  Why?  It cites Congressman Barney Frank’s multibillion dollar mortgage bailout bill, which may pass the…