Blog
Union Spending against Right-to-Work Efforts
According to an Associated Press report, several states are eyeing labor law reforms to end the practice of forcing employees to pay union dues as…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
71 new regulations, from charitable donations to video programming for the blind.
Blog
Why Workers Deserve the Employee Rights Act, Part 2: Union Recertification
In Part 1 of "Why Workers Deserve the Employee Rights Act," the focus was on the ERA provision that mandates secret-ballot elections and how a…
Blog
Volcker Rule Overshoots Wall Street to Hit Utah
You might think after the disastrous debut of HealthCare.gov and thousands of insurance cancellations, those who call themselves progressives might just have a little humility…
Blog
BLS Data: Government Workers Miss Work 50 Percent More than Private Sector Workers
A blog post at buyhappiness.net cites recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data and reports that in 2012…
Blog
Cataloging Washington’s Hidden Costs, Part 4: The Costs of Poor Regulatory Sausage Making
In the first installment of “Cataloging Washington’s Hidden Costs,” the focus was the loss of liberty in…
Blog
CEI Podcast for December 18, 2013: The FDA Goes after 23andMe
The Food and Drug Administration recently banned 23andMe, a genetic testing service, from marketing its product to consumers. CEI Executive Director and Senior Fellow Gregory…
Blog
Why Workers Deserve the Employee Rights Act, Part 1: Secret Ballot Elections
In November, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Representative Tom Price (R-Ga.) introduced the Employee Rights Act, a bill that strengthens federal labor law to protect…
Blog
IRS Threatens to Curb Criticism of IRS and Bureaucratic Wrongdoing by 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) Groups
The IRS recently proposed rules “limiting political speech" by nonprofit 501(c)(4) groups. In Orwellian fashion, the proposed rules seek to redefine non-partisan, non-election-related criticism of government abuses as…
Blog
NLRB General Counsel: Guidance on Micro-Unions is Coming
Last Friday, at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Manhattan, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel Richard Griffin said the Board…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
56 new regulations, from toddler beds to eagle permits.
Blog
BPA Junk Science Headaches
Could your affection for bottled water be responsible for your bout with migraines? Apparently so, if you believe the latest headlines about the chemical…
Blog
Minimum Wage Increases Harm the Young, Unskilled, and Less Educated
Minimum wage increases eliminate some jobs. Real world examples abound. As a business owner explains: The minimum wage kills jobs. End of story. I am…
Blog
CEI Podcast for December 12, 2013: The Affordable Care Act’s Marriage Penalties
The Affordable Care Act's subsides and tax credits are structured in such a way as to cause thousands of dollars worth of penalties for many…
Blog
GOVERNMENT UNIONS BROKE – AND NOW MUST FIX – DETROIT
Government unions broke Detroit. And unions – over their most stringent objections – are going to play a significant part in fixing it.
Blog
The Volcker Winter Storm — Bad Rule, Worse Implementation
On a snowy day in Washington, several federal agencies packed some mean regulatory snowballs that will most likely overshoot their supposed destination of Wall Street…
Blog
Volcker Rule Curbs Useful, Profitable Proprietary Trading, Not Risky Lending
The government just approved a regulation called the Volcker Rule to curb proprietary trading by banks -- even though such trading did not cause the financial crisis,…
Blog
Driving the Market out of the Marketplace of Ideas
Blog
NLRB Ambush Elections Coming Soon
Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board's savvy legal maneuver takes the labor agency one step closer to finalizing its ambush election regulation.
Blog
Busybodies in Congress Prepared to Re-Prohibit Voice Communications During Flight
After two decades with a ban on the books, the Federal Communications Commission is set to consider allowing transmitting mobile devices on aircraft. On…
Blog
Sugar — Congress’ Favorite Sweetener
The sugar lobby’s sweet contributions and their day-in-day-out lobbying means broad bipartisan support for continuing the U.S. sugar program in the 2013 farm bill, as…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
95 new regulations, from mad cow disease to falconry federalism.
Blog
Fast-Track Trade Authority Is in the Works
It sounds like fast-track authority for trade deals is getting some traction, according to an article today in the Financial Times. The FT says that…
Blog
Retailers Only Sell Half a Loaf in their Analysis of the Costs of Interchange Fees
In a comment on my American Spectator article on the deleterious effects of debit card interchange fees on American households, Sara Durr, Spokesperson for…
Blog
President Pushes Welfare Rather than Opportunity and Social Mobility in Speech about Inequality
"President Obama on Wednesday declared that addressing income inequality would be the focus of 'all' of the White House’s efforts 'for the rest of…
Blog
CEI Podcast for December 5, 2013: Ending Corporate Welfare
Blog
The Administration’s Regulatory Uncertainty
Groups like the Center for American Progress are claiming that the possibility of another row over the budget and debt ceiling are creating “uncertainty”…
Blog
Union Release Time on the Ropes
Over two years ago, 16 NYPD officers were charged in a widespread ticket-fixing scam. And the criminal cases against the officers are still ongoing.
Blog
Labor Agencies’ Regulatory Agendas
As my colleague Wayne Crews comments in Forbes, the Obama administration tends to publish its regulatory agenda around holidays, or when "nobody is looking."…
Blog
Good News to Share Over the Holidays: The World Is Getting Better
In the middle of this holiday season my colleague Stephanie Rugolo over at the Cato’s new project, HumanProgress.org, is spreading cheer by getting…
Blog
Hypocritical New Yorkers Whine about High Housing Prices while Supporting High-Price Policies
The New York Post today has a story on what it describes as "new hipsters fight[ing] old hipsters in Brooklyn." The gist of it…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new regulations, from red porgies to homopolymers.
Blog
AT THANKSGIVING, BIG GROCERY & BIG LABOR ATTACK COMPETITOR WAL-MART
If you’re one of the millions of Americans who will visit a Wal-Mart on the biggest shopping weekend of the year, don’t be surprised if…
Blog
COOL Protectionism Still a Hot Issue
A protectionist meat labeling rule requires complicated labeling of beef, pork and poultry to indicate where the animals were born, raised, and slaughtered. Called country-of-origin…
Blog
CEI Podcast for November 27, 2013: Toxic Turkey Day?
Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini debunks scare stories about chemicals in your family's Thanksgiving dinner, from BPA in canned foods to naturally occurring pesticides in potatoes.
Blog
Disregard Toxic Advice on Turkey Day
Toxic chemicals lurk in the "typical" Thanksgiving meal, warns a green activist website. Eat organic, avoid canned food, and you might be okay,…
Blog
Cataloging Washington’s Hidden Costs, Part 3: The Costs of Regulatory Benefits
In the first installment of "Cataloging Washington's Hidden Costs," the topic was loss of liberty; in…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
60 new regulations, from salamanders to beans from Jordan.
Blog
Senate Abolishes Filibuster, With Potentially Profound Implications for the Rule of Law
Yesterday, the Senate voted 52-48 to effectively abolish the filibuster for nominations to federal offices, such as federal appeals courts and trial courts, and cabinet departments. It used a tactic Senate…
Blog
CEI Podcast for November 22, 2013: Daniel Hannan on Inventing Freedom
Blog
I, iPad – Sir Jonathan Ive and Leonard Read Sing the Same Tune
Apple recently released an ad for the new iPad Air that — whether intentionally or not — mimics CEI’s I, Pencil short film.
Blog
Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda to Show the “Evils” of Private Alcohol Sales
As if there wasn’t enough money in politics, now government agencies are using taxpayer dollars—our dollars—in an attempt to influence state policy. The National Institutes…
Blog
Can the Government Regulate Bitcoins?
Bitcoins themselves cannot be regulated under current law, at least not directly. But certain activities involving…
Blog
Government “Study” on Internet Tax Hides Harmful Small Business Effects
Under presidents of both parties, the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy has produced quality independent studies on the harmful tax and regulatory burden on…
Blog
Unions’ Taxpayer Subsidized Activity
Taxpayers expect their government to spend tax dollars only on activities that benefit the public. But in Kentucky, the City of Louisville and Jefferson County…
Blog
Urban Active Fitness class action settlement
The class in Gascho v. Global Fitness Holdings LLC, Case No. 2:11-cv-436 (S.D. Ohio), consists of the 606,246 individuals who signed a gym membership or…
Blog
Obamacare Fallout Continues: Obamacare “Winner” Turns Out to Be a Loser Instead
"You screwed me over," says a woman cited by President Obama as an Obamacare success story. Jessica Sanford was used as a prop in the president's "…
Blog
Dumbest Reason to Be Skeptical of Autonomous Vehicles: They Might Cost Auto Mechanics Their Jobs
Today, the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing on “How Autonomous Vehicles Will Shape the Future…
Blog
Cataloging Washington’s Hidden Costs, Part 2: The Unmeasured Impacts of Economic Intervention
Back in Part 1 of Cataloging Washington's Hidden Costs, the topic was the incalculable cost of the loss of liberty in…
Blog
A More Unequal America
Inequality grows hand-in-hand with the growth of the regulatory state. The proliferation of regulations increases economic inequality, since powerful people and politically connected companies know how to shape and manipulate…
Blog
Watch the Live Stream of The New York Meeting @ 6pm
Blog
Two More Strikes against the Export-Import Bank
Two common points made in defense of the Export-Import bank are its recent profitability and the number of jobs it supports. During the recent reauthorization debate,…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
66 new regulations, from corporate mergers to dried bacteria.
Blog
We Didn’t Regulate Credit Cards, We Regulated People
That was the upshot of a panel I spoke at yesterday in New York at the Atlas Liberty Forum. It looked at the impact of…
Blog
Is the FTC Already Capable of Regulating Patent Demand Letters?
The answer is no, except under special circumstances. The question itself arises from comments by Julie P. Samuels of the Electronic…
Blog
The Federal Register Is about to Top 70,000 Pages — And it’s Not Even December
This morning, the Federal Register stood at 68,980 pages. It’s the daily depository of all federal regulations proposed and final. It is our unfortunate Principia Regulatica.
Blog
Illegal Change to Obamacare Is Designed to Scapegoat Insurers, Not Restore Canceled Insurance Policies
If aliens from outer space read today's newspapers, they would assume that America is a dictatorship, not a republic, and that President Obama has the authority…
Blog
Obama Allows Illegal Health Policies, Quickly Pivots to Economy
The furor over the Healthcare.gov website that is merely supposed to automate the process of determining if one is eligible or…
Blog
NLRB Considers Proposing Ambush Election Rule…Again
Finally, after a decade, the National Labor Relations Board is fully staffed with five Senate-confirmed members.
Blog
Wikileaks’ Latest — Draft IP Chapter in Major Trade Agreement
Wikileaks has made another big splash yesterday -- not about spying, but about a multinational trade agreement currently being negotiated. Wikileaks published a draft…
Blog
New Committee to Investigate Michigan Teachers Union Right to Work Violations
Although Michigan's right-to-work legislation took effect in March of this year, teachers have raised concerns that unions are using strong-arm tactics that prohibit them from…
Blog
Antitrust as Corporate Welfare: Imposed Concessions and Conditions on Mergers Are a Fundamental Error
As is now commonplace, American Airlines needed to relent to conditions imposed on the merger with US Airways to secure Department of Justice approval, primarily…
Blog
CEI Podcast for November 12, 2013: CEI’s I, Pencil Film Wins Award
Blog
Under Obamacare, People Pay More for Inferior Health Plans, Lose Health Insurance They Liked
A Colorado woman who championed Obamacare lost her insurance plan. As a CBS TV station in Denver noted, "Millions of people are getting cancellation…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from toy guns to tires.
Blog
FDA Trans-Fat Ban Sets Stage to Target Sugar, Salt, and More
On November 7, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced plans to change its classification of trans-fatty acids and remove the designation "Generally Recognized…
Blog
Why Obama’s Pivot from Obamacare to Infrastructure Makes No Sense
President Obama is in New Orleans today to pivot attention to what he’ll call leveraging investment in infrastructure. From the ones and zeros of the…
Blog
Enflaming, Not Enlightening: George Monbiot on Investment Treaties
George Monbiot in The Guardian, in his usual hyperbolic and specious way, describes the proposed U.S.-EU trade agreement’s purpose as to attack national sovereignty…
Blog
Obama Administration Rule Exempts Big Labor from Obamacare Tax
In September, the Obama administration rejected union demands for subsidies offered under Obamacare, which are reserved for the uninsured and low-income workers.
Blog
Twitter, the JOBS Act, and the Return to IPO Normalcy
The headline read that the company's initial public offering price is "high," and "so is its valuation." The accompanying story explained that the latest tech…
Blog
CEI Podcast for November 7, 2013: A Prohibitive Excise Tax
A new CEI study finds that the most expensive ingredient in beer isn’t grain, hops, or equipment: it’s taxes. Study co-author and Fellow in Consumer…
Blog
Labor Ballot Measure Roundup
Voters around the country faced numerous ballot measures yesterday, of which many involved labor policy.
Blog
Memo to Road Socialists: There Is Nothing Unlibertarian about Road Pricing
Virginia just elected Democrat Terry McAuliffe as governor, as had been predicted by every poll conducted during the past few months -- although at a…
Blog
Senate Poised to Pass Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Yesterday, the Senate voted 61-to-30 to invoke cloture on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban workplace bias based on sexual orientation or…
Blog
House Passes Bill to Delay DOL Overreach
Last week, 30 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representative joined Republicans to approve the Retail Investor Protection Act, which delays the Department of Labor's…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
92 new regulations, from student loan paperwork to government employee travel allowances.
Blog
November 4 Press Release
US SUPREME COURT DENIES FACEBOOK USERS CY PRES SETTLEMENT CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY OPENS DOOR FOR FUTURE CHALLENGES WASHINGTON, D.C. – The US Supreme…
Blog
Cataloging Washington’s Hidden Costs: Part 1: The Loss of Liberty
Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so. —Quote frequently attributed to Galileo that he probably never said. Washington is teeing up…
Blog
CEI Study Supports Tax Cuts for Beer
If you’ve read Lauren French’s Politico article on the two beer tax reduction bills currently under consideration in Congress, you might think that the Competitive…
Blog
Mel Watt Fails Taxpayer, Privacy, and Transparency Tests
Former Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., failed his procedural confirmation vote today to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the government housing entities Fannie…
Blog
Towards a More Transparent Fed
Iain Murray and I have a piece in today's American Spectator breaking down the new paper we co-wrote with John Berlau.
Blog
Corporate Culture Makes a Difference — In Business and in Baseball
Blog
Happy Halloween! FAA to Allow Portable Electronic Devices During All Flight Phases
A month ago, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) recommended that the agency drop its ban on portable electronic device (PED)…
Blog
Congressional Scorecard Update–Richard Griffin Confirmation
Yesterday, the Senate voted 55-44 to confirm Richard Griffin as the National Labor Relations Board general counsel, with Senator Lisa Murkowski as the sole Republican…
Blog
Jane Brody’s Uninformed Attack on Cars and Suburbia
While at a conference where participants discussed the wannabe social engineers cum urbanists' war on automobility and housing affordability, Jane Brody's broadside against Americans'…
Blog
Fairy Tales and Astroturf
Blog
CEI Podcast for October 30, 2013: Bringing Transparency to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
George Mason University law professor and Mercatus Center senior scholar Todd Zywicki discusses his paper, "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Savior or Menace?"…
Blog
Don’t Let FTC Shut Down Legit Credit Repair Services
Next to the infamous Healthcare.gov, the website that featured the most bugs of the last month was FTC.gov, the site of the Federal Trade Commission. During…
Blog
Questions for Janet Yellen
Even if it is nominally independent, the Federal Reserve is arguably the government’s most important agency. It has control over the price system, the most…
Blog
Racial Preferences in Obamacare, and Discrimination, Too, Based on Weird Ideology
The Daily Caller has an interesting story about race-conscious provisions and racial preferences contained in Obamacare. It's a subject that has received remarkably little…
Blog
An Alarmist Vocabulary: Chemical Is “Linked To,” “Study Suggests,” “Consistent With”
Headlines continue to appear to claiming that a recent study has shown that the chemical bisphenol A increases the risk of miscarriage, which I addressed…
Blog
Racial Preferences and Red Tape Grow Under Federal Dodd-Frank Act
Last Friday on National Review's The Corner, Roger Clegg wrote about the 2010 law governing the financial sector, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the racial "diversity quotas"…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
78 new regulations, from energy-efficient urinals to interstate turtle requirements.
Blog
Contradictory Financial Regulations Cause Problems
It’s a case of “When Regulations Collide.” As we’ve seen in the energy field, contradictory regulations cost jobs as employers struggle to comply with…
Blog
Glitches and Errors Widespread on Obamacare Health Insurance Website
In addition to the Obamacare web site glitches that left people unable to purchase insurance despite hours or days of trying, the website dramatically…
Blog
CEI Podcast for October 24, 2013: The Social Cost of Carbon
Like anything else, carbon emissions have both costs and benefits. Marlo Lewis, a Senior Fellow in CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, discusses a new…
Blog
Alcohol Crimes Decline in Washington After Liquor Sales Privatization
In the lead up to Washington State voters approving privatization of liquor sales in the state, opponents claimed—as they always do—that the increased availability and…
Blog
The Implications of Kludgeocracy
Steven Teles tells us in the fall issue of National Affairs that over the next decades, the challenge of "kludgeocracy" will come to the forefront of…
Blog
Scientific Literacy and a Storm in a Tea Party Cup
Blog
Stop Watching Us: End Suspicionless NSA Mass Surveillance
By now, pretty much everybody has heard that the U.S. National Security Agency is indiscriminately collecting private information about all Americans who use a…