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Blame Anti-Tobacco Advocates for Youth Vaping “Epidemic”
Like most teenage crazes, youth interest in e-cigarettes once seemed a passing fad. In the early years youth vaping skyrocketed, but by 2016 began to…
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Best Books of 2019: The Narrow Corridor
Predatory governments with high corruption, that don’t respect political and economic freedoms, are extractive. Countries with these sorts of institutions tend to be both poor…
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Best Books of 2019: A Republic, If You Can Keep It
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch explains in vivid detail the purpose of the separation of powers in his 2019 book "A Republic, If You Can…
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Sugarplums or Lumps of Coal? White House’s 192 Big Rules in Pipeline Herald More Regulation than Deregulation
No matter the presidential administration, every year there are thousands of federal rules and regulations compared to a relative handful of laws passed by Congress.
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Flex-Fuel Vehicles and Ethanol No Panacea for Energy Independence
Back in September, I posted a rebuttal to pollster Frank Luntz, who advised President Trump on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program to promote E85—motor fuel…
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Department of Justice Wrong to Block Sabre Acquisition of Farelogix
On January 27th, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) will attempt to block travel technology company Sabre Corporation from purchasing communications protocol innovator Farelogix, Inc. This will be the…
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USMCA Won’t Protect Tech from Trudeau
A point of contention in the debate over the new U.S., Mexico, Canada (USMCA) trade agreement has been whether or not the final deal will…
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What Regulations Did Trump Administration Add in 2019?
The Trump administration recently issued “Regulatory Reform Results for Fiscal Year 2019.” This is its fiscal year 2019 status update on the one-in, two-out directive initiated in Executive…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Britain held a major election, and the U.S. House of Representatives is set to impeach President Trump. At the same time, Trump is poised for…
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National Labor Relations Board Attack on McDonald’s Finally Over
A major holdover case from the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which acted as the litigation arm of organized labor, is finally resolved. On…
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Congress Racing To Extend and Expand Electric Vehicle, Wind, and Solar Tax Credits
It would be comforting to think that the House’s impeachment proceedings have so poisoned relations between Democrats and Republicans that the Congress won’t be able…
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Don’t Just “Modernize” Community Reinvestment Act, Repeal It
On Thursday, financial regulators released a long-awaited reform proposal which would make substantial changes to the implementation and enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).
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Phase One of a China-U.S. Trade Agreement and the Ratchet Effect
As of Friday, December 13th, the U.S. and Chinese governments have agreed in principle to phase one of a trade agreement. The Chinese government will…
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Supreme Court to Hear Important Natural Gas Pipeline Case
Next February, the U.S. Supreme Court will review the 2018 decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Cowpasture River Preservation Association, et al. v. …
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Competitive Enterprise Institute Opposes USMCA Trade Agreement
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today announced its opposition to the USMCA trade agreement between the United States, Mexico, and Canada because the updated agreement…
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UN Climate Summit in Madrid: Al Gore Talks, Donald Trump Vindicated
#TimeForAction is the slogan at this year’s Madrid climate conference. #TimeForTalk would be more accurate. The talking is endless. 70,000 hours and counting have been…
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How Kentucky Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Union Business
As taxpayers, we trust our locally elected officials to act as fiduciaries of our hard-earned dollars. However, it is well documented that the government frequently…
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Down in Flames: Judge Dismisses New York Climate Lawsuit against ExxonMobil
New York Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager today acquitted ExxonMobil of all charges brought against the company by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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Trump Can’t Do Much About Toilets, But Can Stop Other Anti-Homeowner Regulations
President Trump created more controversy than usual last week when he complained about water-saving faucets, shower heads, and—especially—toilets. “You turn on the faucet and you…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The House began preparing articles of impeachment, President Trump announced new tariffs against three allies, a NATO summit was surprisingly contentious, and the federal government…
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What Regulations Did the Trump Administration Eliminate in 2019?
The Trump administration has issued its fiscal year 2019 status update on one-in, two-out. It’s called “Regulatory Reform Results for Fiscal Year 2019.” According to…
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Climate Mass Migration Myth
The paper “Climate Migration Myths,” published in the latest edition of the prestigious journal Nature Climate Change, is a large-scale beat-down of the notion that climate…
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Wind and Solar Tax Credits: Special Interest Subsidies
The House Ways and Means Committee on November 19th released a draft of its “Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now (GREEN) Act” (summary). The sponsors propose to extend,…
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Hausfather Climate Model Paper Not What It’s Cracked up to Be
This week’s press is abuzz with a paper just published by Zeke Hausfather and others in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. It purports to show that early (1970s…
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Lawmakers’ Fatal Conceit on Recycling Should Be Trashed
“The more things change, the more they stay the same” is a wise observation, and it’s particularly true in politics. I’ve been following solid waste…
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CEI Leads Coalition to Congress Urging Close Oversight over Possible New Railroad Price Controls
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) led a group of scholars and advocates from 13 free market organizations urging Congress to exercise close oversight over…
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Attorneys General Shouldn’t Hold Mergers Hostage
Last week the attorneys general of Texas and Nevada announced the withdrawal of their support of a multistate lawsuit to block the merger of cellular telephone…
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Government of Singapore Demonstrates Real Online Censorship
Singapore’s recent policing of online content provides an instructive example of the difference between private curating of material by platform owners and dangerous curtailing of…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
While the nation celebrated Thanksgiving with family and friends, rulemaking agencies published new regulations ranging from almond information to missile accidents.
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Negative Interest Rates’ Impact on Public Pensions
One of the main responsibilities of pension fund managers is to work to maximize investment returns in order to grow the plan’s assets and thus…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Congress averted a government shutdown until December 20th by passing a continuing resolution. The Fall 2019 Unified Agenda was also released, which compiles all rulemaking…
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House Committee Releases Tax Bill to Extend Electric Vehicle, Wind, and Solar Handouts
In what amounts to the tax component of the Green New Deal, the House Ways and Means Committee released a draft of its “Growing Renewable Energy…
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Activist Groups Demand Pelosi, Castor Implement Green New Deal
Two hundred fifty nine activist groups are demanding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Chair Kathy Castor…
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Environmental Protection Agency Revises Risk Management Program for Industrial Facilities
“First, do no harm,” is good ethical advice for regulators as well as doctors, but the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency took a risk management program for…
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Trump Regulatory Reform Agenda By the Numbers: End of One-In, Two-Out?
The Trump administration has released the Fall 2019 edition of the twice-yearly Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. Late and incomplete compared to the last…
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Corporate ‘Social Responsibility’ Must Be Voluntary, Not Mandated
The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) just wrapped an event on corporate governance titled “The Role of a Corporation: The Shareholder versus Stakeholder Debate,” and it…
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should End Frivolous Student Loan Lawsuit
The efforts of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger have gone a long way in reversing egregious Obama-era actions that plagued the agency,…
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Remembering Transportation Economist Shirley Ybarra
On November 10th, longtime CEI friend Shirley Ybarra passed away. Shirley was an accomplished transportation economist and a leading thinker on innovative transportation infrastructure finance…
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EPA, Progressives Clash over Transparency Rule
The House Science Committee held a hearing last week titled “Strengthening Transparency or Silencing Science? The Future of Science in EPA Rulemaking.” Most of the witnesses and…
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Congress Breaking Promises, Extending Tax Credits for Electric Vehicles, Wind, and Solar
It is not unusual for Congress to keep extending a supposedly temporary federal program, and that includes the tax credits for electric vehicles and wind…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2019 Federal Register has already exceeded its page count during President Trump’s first year in office, with more than a month to spare and…
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Ex-Im Reauthorization Vote Today in the House
The House of Representatives will vote on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank today. Even if Ex-Im is reauthorized, the fight over it has already yielded a…
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Two New Studies on Economics of Trade
Philip Thompson and Lorenzo Montanari have compiled a Trade Barrier Index, just released by the Property Rights Alliance. The U.S. currently ranks 54th out of…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new regulations this year passed 2,500 last week, and the Federal Register surpassed 60,000 pages. This week could see big news on…
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Trump Administration Begins Withdrawal from Paris Climate Treaty
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on November 4th that, “Today the United States began the process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Per the terms of…
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VIDEO: Growth and Opportunity in the Beehive State
I’ve been interested in the work at the Center for Growth and Opportunity (CGO) at Utah State University for some time now, and I was…
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Will Trump ‘SAFE’ Rule for New Cars Harm Public Health?
Will the Trump administration’s auto rule harm public health? That’s what all five majority witnesses and several Democratic members of the House Oversight Environment Subcommittee…
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Environmental Protection Agency Proposes Appeals Board Reform
The Trump administration has placed a high priority on shortening the delays and cutting the red tape holding back many private sector development projects. The Environmental…
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Trade Developments on Export-Import Bank and NAFTA/USMCA
America’s trade policy landscape has some big events on the horizon. The House of Representatives will vote next week on Rep. Maxine Waters’ (D-CA) Export-Import…
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Tobacco 21: Feel-Good Policy Could Backfire
Amid an outbreak of “vaping-linked” lung illnesses, a campaign of fear against vaping has reached a frenzied peak. For years, the Food and Drug Administration…