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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Nearly 1 million jobs were created in July, while Congress put the finishing touches on an infrastructure bill that will add about $250 billion…
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Better Forest Management Needs a New Approach
The rampant wildfires in the west continue to exacerbate and conditions are likely to get worse before they get better. More than 4 percent…
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Senate Should Pass the Wyden-Lummis-Toomey Cryptocurrency Amendment
The Senate must adopt the bipartisan Wyden-Lummis-Toomey amendment to ensure that the infrastructure package’s cryptocurrency tax reporting provisions do not destroy, rather than help build,…
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For CDC to Repair Its Reputation, It Must Get Out of Housing (and Politics)
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was once considered one of the most trusted public health institutions in the world, but its handling…
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The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Shows Much of What’s Wrong with Congress
Although it now looks unlikely, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D_NY) wants the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, popularly known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill,…
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CDC’s Eviction Moratorium Extension Another Example of Ends-Justify-the-Means Policy
The Constitution requires all of Congress and the president to swear to uphold the Constitution. Yet, too often today, public officials of both parties ignore…
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Weil Is a Poor Choice to Lead Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division
Lawmakers should reject President Biden’s choice to serve as administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, a major federal law enforcement…
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Civilian Climate Corps Would Expand Government When We Can Least Afford It
My first post in this series reviewed the history—and basic economics—of government works programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). My second…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Second quarter GDP grew at a 6.5 percent annualized pace, although COVID’s delta variant, inflation, and massive deficit spending could dampen growth going forward.
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Has Bitcoin/Crypto Failed as Money?
“[I]t’s not that [cryptocurrencies] didn’t aspire to be a payment mechanism; it’s that they’ve completely failed to become one except for people who desire anonymity…
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Climate Risk Disclosure: SEC’s Next Modest Proposal
An article in the Wall Street Journal this week reports as breaking news something that has been obvious for months: The Securities and Exchange…
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Tobacco Control’s Latest Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
If you want to make something irresistible to teenagers, portray it as a forbidden fruit. That is what has happened in the U.S. with e-cigarettes.
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Do We All Deserve a Share of the World’s Natural Resources?
In early July I wrote an op-ed for Inside Sources, which was subsequently picked up by several newspapers, on why the United States should…
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Big Tech Critic Jonathan Kanter Nominated to Lead Justice Department Antitrust Division
President Biden’s announcement to nominate long-time Big Tech adversary Jonathan Kanter to lead the Department of Justice Antitrust Division follows on the heels of…
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Wisdom on the Interest-Rate Price Control Folly from John Stuart Mill to Thomas Sowell
Today, the Senate held a hearing entitled, “Protecting Americans from Debt Traps by Extending the Military’s 36% Interest Rate Cap to Everyone.” But the…
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The Meaningless Symbolism of Raising the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors
The Biden administration is planning to increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour, but there is much less to this than…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Olympic games began in Tokyo, after being delayed a year due to COVID-19. Congress is working its way through a $3.5 trillion spending bill…
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A Civilian Climate Corps Cannot Address a Climate Emergency
In my previous post, I explained that high-profile political figures, including President Biden, are currently pushing for the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps…
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Carbon Tariffs Would Hurt Consumers, Slow Recovery
Over in the Washington Examiner, I take a look at the carbon tariff proposal that will likely be in the $3.5 trillion spending bill…
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War on Natural Gas—End User Edition
No matter that it is clean-burning, domestically plentiful, and affordable, natural gas is demonized by the Biden administration as a fossil fuel and for that…
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The Flawed Arguments for a Civilian Climate Corps
When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, he was faced with a massive economic crisis. To combat it, he embarked on a plan…
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With PRO Act, Congress Readies National Version of California’s AB5 Fiasco
California’s AB5 law, which was meant to prevent worker misclassification, faced a popular backlash when it disrupted the livelihoods of freelancers and gig…
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Private Forest Management Can Help Prevent Wildfires
When California Governor Gavin Newsom took office in 2019 he vowed to commit a stronger strategy to combat the wildfires ravaging California, declaring their approach…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
CEI announced that renowned development economist William Easterly will receive its 2021 Julian Simon Award at a two-day event in Washington, D.C., on…
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Do We Need a Clean Electricity Standard and CO2 Border Tax to Avert Catastrophe?
Climate ambition is busting out all over in the nation’s capital. The $3.5 trillion budget blueprint approved by Democratic leaders this week includes a…
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Green Protectionism on the Rise?
The $3.5 trillion budget proposal that the Democratic leadership in Congress is putting together will reportedly include the world’s first carbon tariffs, which are…
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Does DOL Nominee David Weil Believe in Guilty Until Proven Innocent?
David Weil, a Brandeis University professor and President Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division seems to believes that protecting…
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An Unprecedented FTC Appointment
In June, President Biden broke precedent when he appointed Lina Khan as the new chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It has been…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
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Enshrining Cronyism
If you like your cronyism, you can keep it. For that matter, if you like your income inequality, you can keep that too. Highly reminiscent…