The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/15/2008

House leaders blocked consideration of a bill that would extend the federal government’s power to monitor overseas terrorists and communications with them from the U.S.,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

Privacy deserves protection, but not to an extreme — particularly when it comes at the expense of civil liberties, public safety, and the rights of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

“In a test of the American Dream, Adam Shepard started life from scratch with the clothes on his back and twenty-five dollars. Ten months later,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

Ordinances that ban smoking in commercial establishments increase drunk driving fatalities, apparently by encouraging smokers who want to go out drinking to travel further…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

The Wall Street Journal applauds the Senate’s passage of a bill that would continue to allow the government to use warrantless wiretaps to monitor…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/14/2008

At Hamline University, a college student who expressed conservative views on gun control and affirmative action was recently suspended and ordered to undergo a “…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

The District of Columbia justifies its complete ban on handguns and functional firearms (even for self-defense), which is being challenged in the Supreme Court, as…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

Federal and state discrimination laws have been interpreted by the courts as banning speech that creates a “hostile work environment” for members of protected classes.

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

Sometimes an excuse for something is worse than the action itself. That's true of a recent court ruling rejecting a teenager's First Amendment challenge…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/13/2008

President Bush just signed the so-called “stimulus” package. As we explained earlier, it will do nothing to promote economic growth, and it actually…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/12/2008

Berkeley police, who routinely protect left-wing anti-war protesters, apparently won’t provide the same protection for demonstrators who support our troops. Anti-war demonstrators are attacking…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/12/2008

The Senate has voted to grant immunity to phone companies that assisted the federal government’s antiterror surveillance program. Those companies are now being sued…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/12/2008

A retired teacher has revealed that he was illiterate until age 48. John Corcoran "graduated from college and taught high school for 17 years…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Earlier, I wrote about how politicians want every high school student to go on to college, no matter how little aptitude or need for…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Crime is so out of control in Washington, D.C., that it is a “failed state.” That’s the gist of a brief filed by…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Most jobs don't require someone with a college degree. Yet politicians are always calling for more federal subsidies to send everyone, no matter how dumb,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

In Sunday’s Washington Post, researcher Eric Weiner (who is not a Republican) notes that Republicans are happier than Democrats regardless of income level, even…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

No matter how many times people use turgid euphemisms like “enhanced interrogation technique” to describe “water torture,” it’s still torture, as the The…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

People below the poverty line often aren’t really poor. Many of them receive tax-free income and welfare benefits that aren’t even considered in determining whether…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/11/2008

Congressional witch hunts make FDA officials leery of approving innovative drugs, resulting in delays and red tape that costs lives. That’s the message of two…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/08/2008

Yesterday, Congress passed a "stimulus package" that gives rebates to many people who don't work, but denies them to people who do work but whose…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/08/2008

A group of researchers told the Supreme Court that Washington, D.C.’s municipal ban on handguns and functional firearms is based on junk science. After…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/07/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, William Easterly explains why Bill Gates’ proposal for “creative capitalism” — a rejection of the profit motive in favor of…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/07/2008

Lawyers challenging D.C.’s ban on possession of handguns and functional firearms filed their brief yesterday in the Supreme Court, defending a court ruling…

• By: Hans Bader
• 02/06/2008

A lot of subprime mortgage loans are defaulting.  A big reason why is that, to avoid discrimination charges, lenders gutted their traditional lending standards in order…

• 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: 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: 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: 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…