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Agency Overload: Meet the Federal Bureaucracy One-Page Word Cloud
There exist various counts of agencies in the federal bureaucracy, but no particular tally is regarded authoritative. The “Agency List” page maintained at FederalRegister.gov probably…
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Drone Policy Update: FAA Proposes $1.9m Fine, 3 More Bills Vetoed in California, and More
FAA PROPOSES RECORD FINE FOR UNAUTHORIZED UAS OPERATIONS: On October 6, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it was proposing a $1.9 million civil penalty against…
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Reasons for Global Warming Skepticism
Democrats have developed a cottage industry in ridiculing and condemning Republicans as Luddites. How can any “reasonable” person deny that increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the…
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No, Politicians Shouldn’t Outlaw Driving to Usher in Self-Driving Cars
Over at Fusion, Kevin Roose has what is perhaps the worst article on automated vehicles (AVs) I’ve ever seen. In it, he calls for a near-term…
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Warren Bullies Not Just Litan But Consumers
Elizabeth Warren “drew blood,” writes Washington Post reporter Tom Hamburger. “Elizabeth Warren Claims Another Scalp,” reads the headline of an excellent piece by John Fund at National Review…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
In another busy week, federal agencies issued new regulations for everything from tomato plants to airplane seats. On to the data: Last week, 76 new…
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On Added Sugars, Canada Gets Right What the U.S. Got Wrong
Last month, I wrote about how the new nutritional labels might end up making Americans fatter and sicker. Particularly dangerous, in my opinion, is the addition…
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Are Tropical Storms Becoming More Destructive? Will They?
Lin & Chan, 2015, a study published in Nature Communications, finds that the destructive potential of tropical cyclones (“typhoons”) in the most active and…
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VW Diesel Scandal Exposes Conflicting Regulatory Mandates
The Environmental Protection Agency on 18th September charged that Volkswagen had sold approximately 480,000 diesel cars in the U. S. that contained “defeat devices” that allowed…
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Professor Who Advocates Criminalizing Global Warming Skepticism Has Taken $63 Million in Federal Grants
In early September, twenty professors sent a letter President Barack Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and White House science adviser John Holdren that congratulates the President…
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EPA Issues Job Killing Ozone Rule
The Environmental Protection Agency released its final rule to reduce ozone levels on 1st October. The current National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 75 parts…
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Why Isn’t There a Joint Union Standard?
On September 29, an official and members of Boston’s Teamsters Local 25 were indicted on extortion charges, which U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz described as…
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Fed Reacts to Job Reports, Why Doesn’t Department of Labor?
We had another jobs report below expectations this morning, coupled with a rare revision downwards of last month’s jobs report. This ends a summer of jobs…
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Ed Snider: A Sports CEO Talks Leadership and Success
This week the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business was host to an excellent event on business leadership, featuring Comcast-Spectacor CEO and…
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A Class Merger: CEI and the Center for Class Action Fairness Get Hitched
Litigation has been an important part of CEI since its earliest years—from our NYC rent control case in the 1980s, to our lawsuits against the…
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Bill Introduced in Senate to Strip NLRB of Adjudicatory Power
On September 28, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced The Protecting American Jobs Act, S. 2084, which would relieve the National Labor Relations Board of its…
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Betting on the Future: 25 Years Later
Today is the 25th anniversary of the famous bet between economist Julian Simon and biologist Paul Ehrlich over the price of five metals: chromium, copper,…
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USDOT Wants it Both Ways with Off-Peak Freight Movements
Over at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fastlane blog, Greg Nadeau, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, has a post touting USDOT’s support for off-peak freight…
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NLRB Doubles-Down on Expanded Joint-Employer Standard
As I detailed here last week, in a case involving Browning-Ferris Industries, the National Labor Relations Board decided to greatly expand when an employer is…
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Free Enterprise: Sometimes We Forget
When we find ourselves debating specific issues having to do with economics and business, we often forget how overwhelming the evidence is for the superiority…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
A slow week closed with a bang, with Friday’s Federal Register containing 15 proposed regulations, 25 final regulations, and 502 pages. Throughout the week, new regulations cover…
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American and Chinese Presidents Agree To Continue To Work Together To Raise U. S. Energy Prices
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Hillary Clinton Opposes Keystone XL Pipeline
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Pope Francis Barely Mentions Climate Change in Speeches at the United Nations, Congress, and the White House
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Celebrating a Great Editor: Max Borders and The Freeman
Yesterday the Foundation for Economic Education’s “Anything Peaceful” blog carried the news that editor Max Borders was leaving his position directing content for FEE.org and FEE’s…
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Education Department Power Grabs Criticized in Congress
Yesterday, The College Fix published an interesting story titled “Department of Education shredded for lawless overreach in Senate hearing.” It was about Congress getting annoyed with…
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World Bank Increases Number of Poor
The World Bank is considering changing its definition of what constitutes extreme poverty, raising the level below which someone is treated as extremely poor from $1.25…
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Jeb Bush Unveils Regulatory Reform Agenda
Traditionally, presidents named Bush have not been friends of limited government. George H.W. Bush raised taxes after his famous “read my lips” speech, and oversaw…
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Corporate Ads Need to Sell Ideas, Too
Tim Montgomerie, a columnist for The Times of London and founder of ConservativeHome, writes in CapX this week about the visit of Pope Francis to the U.S. Reviewing…
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Pope Francis Cools It on Climate Change Rhetoric
Pope Francis in his speeches at the White House on Wednesday morning and to a joint session of Congress on Thursday morning toned down his…
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New CEI Paper: The Case for Closing OPIC
OPIC is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. It is a federal agency that offers financing for international projects by U.S. companies. Intended mainly as an…
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Transparency in Card Fees: Where Does the Argument Stop?
There are three ways banks that issue credit and debit cards can gain revenue from them: interest rates (in the case of credit cards) charged…
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You Won’t Believe All the Ways Federal Agencies Issue Rules
Recently, I’d pointed out that we don’t really know how many federal agencies there are. That implies we don’t know how many rules and regulations…
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Has Plain Packaging Reduced Tobacco Consumption?
In 2012, the Australian government instituted a plan tobacco packing requirement—that is, a generic package that removes all stylistic aspects of packaging: colors, imagery, corporate…
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Fantasy Sports Betting Isn’t a Federal Crime, as No Sports Betting Should Be
If you watched football during the open weekend of the NFL season, you probably saw an advertisement for DraftKings or FanDuel. Part of the rapidly…
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A Message from CEI Chairman Todd Zywicki
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NLRB Joint Employer Decision Creates Barrier to Job Creation
In a 2010 speech, President Obama said small business “is as American as apple pie. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.” He went on…
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Proposed Food Label Change Could Make Us Fatter and Sicker
There’s a new push to finalize the Food and Drug Administration’s new guidelines for nutritional panels. The changes, which include listing “added sugars” and updating…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Agencies last week proposed 51 new regulations, and finalized 77 other rules covering everything from aluminum to Peruvian citrus. On to the data: Last week,…
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Free Market Perspective on Pope Francis’s Forthcoming Speech to Congress
On Thursday of next week, Pope Francis will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. He will be the first Pope in history to…
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Decoupling Belied
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Wind & Solar Industries: They’re Mature, and They Can’t Cut It as Adults
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GE’s Ex-Im Scare Story Further Debunked
Earlier this week, I wrote that GE is moving 500 jobs overseas as a direct result of the Export-Import Bank’s expiration. A correction is in…
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Executive Wisdom from Down Under
Yesterday the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted Andrew Mackenzie of Australian natural resources giant BHP Billiton here in D.C. as part of their CEO Leadership…
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Time to Throw out Michelle Obama’s Lunch Program?
As I wrote in The Hill today, Congress this month will decide whether or not to continue funding Michelle Obama’s favorite Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The goal…
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GE’s Outsized Reaction to Ex-Im Expiration
General Electric recently announced it would not move its headquarters to Cincinnati. The reason for this earth-shattering news is that some members of Ohio’s congressional…
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Missouri Can Make History with Right to Work Override Vote
Today, the Missouri legislature is scheduled to vote on overriding Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of right to work. If Republicans can muster enough votes—several…
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Drinkers Give More than They Take
Public health advocates love to make the case that “sinners,” those folks who drink, smoke, or eat “unhealthy” foods, cost society money and that gives…
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Rebuilding Liberty with Charles Murray
My colleague Fred Smith has a new review up, this time of Charles Murray’s most recent book By the People: Rebuilding Liberty without Permission. Murray argues that…
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Drone Policy Update: California Bill Vetoed, New Model Aircraft Guidance, and More
CALIFORNIA UAS BILL VETOED: On September 9, California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 142 that would have imposed trespass liability on unmanned aircraft system (UAS)…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a short work week due to the Labor Day holiday, but agencies still found the time to finalize new regulations covering everything from…
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Southern Ocean Carbon Sink Stronger than Previously Thought
Two new studies, one published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), the other in Science, find that the Southern Ocean carbon sink has become stronger rather than…
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California’s Path to Climate Nirvana Hits Some Snags
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Rep. Paul Gosar Will File Articles of Impeachment Against EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy
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Australian Reserve Bank Gets the Economics Wrong on Interchange Fees
A new report commissioned by the International Alliance for Electronic Payments, of which CEI is a member, finds that the Reserve Bank of Australia…
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New York City’s Salt Warning: Useless and Potentially Harmful
You may have heard on the news that New York City is, once again, on the cutting edge of interfering with consumers and businesses. This time…
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A First Look at Markets without Limits
Georgetown University professors Jason Brennan and Pete Jaworski (left) have a new book out with a fascinating premise: anything that it is morally permissible…
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NLRB’s BFI Decision Deserves Overturning
Who’s the boss? That’s not often a difficult question to answer. But thanks to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), it’s no longer so easy.
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Education Department Harms Innocent Colleges and Students through Illegal Title IX Mandates
The Education Department, where I used to work, is becoming more and more extreme in how it interprets and applies federal law. Sometimes this comes…
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Cato, CEI File Amicus Brief to Protect Donor Confidentiality and Freedom of Association
The Cato Institute and CEI recently filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, urging it to stop California Attorney General Kamala Harris from making intrusive…
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Ten Major Energy Companies Support Paris Accord, But 18 Don’t
CDP—formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project—this week announced in a press release that: “Disclosures from thousands of the world’s largest listed companies reveal…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
A new International Trade Commission regulation gives a useful reminder of the holy trinity of price regulation: if a company charges a higher price than its…
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UN Climate Negotiators Make Slow Progress in Bonn
Another week of UN climate negotiations ended in Bonn, Germany, on 4th September with expressions of mild optimism that progress was being made from negotiators…
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President Obama Uses Alaska as a Backdrop for Climate Agenda
President Barack Obama followed up his disgraceful speech in Las Vegas last week with an insulting tour of Alaska, which included another disgraceful speech,…
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Workers Deserve Labor Law Reform
Unions use Labor Day as an occasion to remind workers of their past good deeds and deploy their usual rhetoric claiming to have workers’ best…
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More Punishment for Thrifty Seniors from Federal Medicare Laws
If two couples make almost the same amount of money, should one of them be charged $2,000 more in Medicare Part B premiums? Logically, no,…
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How to Fix Regulation without Representation
Before it departed for its August recess, the House passed the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. It would require Congress…
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Court Upholds Legality of NSA’s Bulk Collection of Telephone Records
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down its much-awaited ruling in Obama v. Klayman, one of several lawsuits…
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NLRB’s Joint-Employer Ruling: Payback for Unions at Workers’ and Business’ Expense
In a radical new ruling, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) late last week threw all American franchise and contract businesses into a state of…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
As the 2015 Federal Register topped 50,000 pages, federal agencies issued new regulations for everything from bicycles to tuna. On to the data: Last week, 73 new…
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Cooler Heads Coalition News
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CEI’s Coalition Letter to Prevent New Bailouts of Fannie and Freddie
As the Dodd-Frank “financial reform” celebrated its fifth anniversary this summer, just about every financial business—as well as many nonfinancial firms—have come under its thumb.
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Did North Dakota Just Authorize Pepper-Spraying Police Drones?
The Daily Beast’s Justin Glawe has written an article about a North Dakota law aimed at limiting law enforcement use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or…
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Federal Labor Agencies Attack Workers and the Economy
Today, CEI released a report on the Obama administration’s effort to pay back its union allies by way of federal labor agencies. The National Labor Relations…
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CEI Issues Report on the Nation’s Six Worst State Attorneys General
Today, CEI issued another of its periodic “worst state attorney general” lists, in a lengthy report explaining why those attorneys general received that dubious distinction. (Previous …
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Nobody Knows How Many Federal Agencies Exist
As bureaucracy sprawls, nobody can say with complete authority exactly how many federal agencies exist. The twice-annual Unified Agenda of Federal Deregulatory and Regulatory Actions, which…
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Clean Energy Incentive Program: Why It Makes EPA’s Power Plant Rule Even More Unlawful
EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), which imposes carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rate targets and tonnage caps on state electric power sectors, is unlawful in at…
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Study “Wounds” the Carbohydrate-Insulin Theory of Obesity
Last week a very interesting and, by all accounts, very well-done study made waves among the nutritional science community. For many years, the idea that reducing…
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CEI’s Battled Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Nearly 2,000 Federal Register pages contain regulations for everything from pay ratios to apricots. On to the data: Last week, 76 new final regulations were published in…
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Savers Oppose “Fiduciary Rule” Sold by Labor Department as “Protecting” Them
“A fundamental shift in Wall Street culture” is what the Department of Labor is aiming for with the “fiduciary rule.” That’s what DOL Deputy Assistant…
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Feds Double Down on Failed Affordable Housing Mandates
Federal affordable housing mandates do little to increase homeownership rates, but they did help cause a devastating financial crisis in 2008 by encouraging risky lending. Yet the Federal…
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The FTC Targets Apple Music: Part III
This is the third in a series of essays on the FTC’s investigation of Apple Music. In Part II of this series, we demonstrated that, even…
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Back to School Lunch Scares
It’s back to school season, which for many parents means spending money on new clothes, shuttling young people from sports games to ballet, and increasingly,…
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NLRB Denies Petition to Form College Athlete Union, for Now
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) yesterday denied a petition by Northwestern University football players to form a union. While this is a rare…
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The NLRB Declines Jurisdiction in College Athlete Unionization Case
The National Labor Relations Board has declined the opportunity to rule on whether or not college athletes are employees and can therefore be…
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New York Times Editorial Board Clueless on Smart Car Safety and Security
On Sunday, August 9, The New York Times ran an editorial, “Protecting Cars from Hackers,” discussing the recent publicized hacking incidents of Fiat Chrysler and Tesla vehicles, with…
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“Flypocalypse” Shows Air Traffic Control Too Important to Be Left to FAA
This past Saturday, hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled due to an air traffic control software glitch in the Washington, D.C. area. Naturally, #flypocalypse began…
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Is President Obama’s Energy Wish Coming True?
In a January 17, 2008, interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, then-Senator Obama said that “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” under his plan to…
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Dodd-Frank Act Strangles Small Banks
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act was enacted partly to end “too-big-to-fail” banks, but it has done quite the opposite. It has curbed competition with big banks…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The number of this year’s new regulations zoomed past the 2,000 mark, though the pace is still slower than usual. This week’s new rules cover…
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The Government Makes a Terrible Boyfriend
He’s from the government, and he’s here to help. That’s the comic premise of this summer’s best YouTube video series, “Love Gov,” from the…
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Thorny Issues in Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations
Trade negotiators from 12 countries left Maui at the end of July 2015 without reaching a final agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade…
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Mount Vernon Cheers: A Song to Commemorate “I, Whiskey”
Our Indiegogo campaign for CEI’s new documentary “I Whiskey” is closing soon. So far, we have raised almost $75,000, but it’s not over yet.
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The Administration Is about to Upend American Business Practices
It is probably the biggest change in American employment law since the National Labor Relations Act and its reform in the 1930s and ‘40s, but…
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Party Bias in EPA’s Power Plant Rule?
What’s the main difference between EPA’s final rule to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from state electric-power sectors—the so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), released August 3—and…
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Regulations Endanger Democracy
The House has passed some key regulatory reform measures this year, including the REINS Act most recently (which stands for “Regulations from the Executive In Need…
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Government Nutritionists Wrong… Again
Add it to the list of things that the government got wrong when it comes to nutrition: skipping breakfast may not make you fat. It…
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CEI and Allies Submit Evidence to Australian Senate Inquiry on Credit Cards
Today, CEI and other members of the International Alliance for Electronic Payments joined the Australian Taxpayers Alliance in submitting evidence to an Australian Senate inquiry into credit…
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William Faulkner Said it Best: “Civilization Begins with Distillation”
"Making whiskey is but one piece of the Great Story of Spirits. The Big Picture is the story of incremental progress, of continual innovation by…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
As it zoomed past the 45,000-page mark, the 2015 Federal Register saw new regulations covering everything from space particles to raspberries. On to the data: Last week,…