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Agenda for the 116th Congress: The Second Decade of Crypto-Blockchain
As cryptocurrency and the associated blockchain celebrate their tenth birthdays, CEI’s new “Free to Prosper” agenda for the 116th Congress aims to ensure bureaucratic red…
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Introducing a Free-Market Agenda for Accountability and Prosperity
The governance of American life has been handed over to an operating system that subtly and perversely drives individuals’ behavior away from their own decisions.
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The Legacy of Economist Harold Demsetz (1930-2019)
Economist Harold Demsetz, a Chicago school theorist who was one of the pioneers of the approach now called New Institutional Economics, had died. The former…
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Environmental Protection Agency Proposes Changes to Mercury Air Rule
On December 28th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to rescind the Obama EPA’s justification for its 2012 Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. MATS…
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A Free-Market Agenda for the 116th Congress
After a contentious election season, we look forward to the nation’s elected representatives rolling up their sleeves and getting to work. Divided party control in…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Right now is a weird time for regulation. The shutdown has lasted for several business days, and the Federal Register has slowed to a trickle.
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Iconic NYC Bookstore Owner Pleads: Don’t Landmark My Property
Our friends at Reason have been following a fascinating story unfolding in New York City, in which a business owner is trying to fend off what many people would…
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Year in Review 2018: Consumer Financial Protection
2018 was a big year for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (also known, for a while, as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection). The past year…
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End of the Road for Net Neutrality Comeback Attempt
The end of the 115th Congress meant the end of using the Congressional Review Act to void the Federal Communication Commission’s repeal of Obama-era net…
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Great Jobs Numbers Don’t Assuage Trade War Worries
Today’s jobs numbers were a surprise to everyone—312,000 jobs added in December was almost twice the consensus view of economists of 176,000. Strong wage growth…
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What’s on Tap for Trade in 2019
At noon today, the 116th Congress convened. Over at Fox Business, Iain Murray and I look at what the coming year has in store for…
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The 2019 Unconstitutionality Index
Even in an administration attempting to cut regulation, the number of rules from hundreds of federal agencies (nobody really knows exactly how many) will vastly outstrip the…
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Trump’s 2018 Deregulatory Effort: 3,367 Rules, 68,082 Pages
At year-end 2018, how is President Donald Trump’s regulatory reform project going?…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The shutdown continued all through Christmas week. But because the Federal Register works on a few days lag for many of its publications, it still…
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Year in Review 2018: Climate Policy
The Trump administration this year took additional steps to dismantle key components of President Obama’s climate policy “legacy.” Supporting and guiding those efforts is a…
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VIDEO: What Qualifies as a ‘Water’ of the United States?
Our friends at the Regulatory Transparency Project have created a great new video to help explain the legal impact of the Clean Water Act and…
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An Executive Order to Shine Light on Dark Matter
Over at The Hill, Wayne Crews and I make the case for an executive order that would limit executive power. It’s more plausible than it…
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Best Books of 2018: Clashing over Commerce
Douglas Irwin’s magnum opus, published at the end of 2017, is already a classic. Given the prominent role trade is playing in politics right now, it…
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Year in Review 2018: Internet Sales Tax
On June 21, 2018, in South Dakota v. Wayfair, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed fifty years of precedent by allowing states to collect sales taxes…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
In an eventful week that included criminal justice reform, shutdown drama, and cabinet drama, this year’s new regulations exceeded 2017’s total with more than a…
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Year in Review 2018: Trade Policy
2018 was the year in which President Trump began to implement his campaign promises of using tariffs to change America’s trade policy. The ostensible reason…
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Best Books of 2018: Life after Google
Are Tucker Carlson’s predictions of Google taking over the future keeping you up at night? Sooth yourself with the creative destruction described in “Life after…
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Year in Review 2018: Antitrust
If 2018 was a bad year for antitrust skeptics, 2019 promises to be worse. We must hope that the Federal Trade Commission and Department of…
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Best Books of 2018: Suicide of the West & Enlightenment Now
Goldberg’s “Suicide of the West” is a literate, snappily written, and often humorous defense of Enlightenment values and a broadside against populism. Steven Pinker’s “Enlightenment…
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Year in Review 2018: Transportation Policy
CEI had a busy year in the transportation policy trenches. We worked at the federal, state, and local levels on a variety of projects. Below…
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Best Books of 2018: Factfulness
Think Julian Simon, Matt Ridley, and Steven Pinker’s data-driven optimism, mixed with Michael Shermer and Bryan Caplan’s awareness of human cognitive biases, as told by…
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Kent Lassman’s Christmas Wish List
The holiday season is a good time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and what we can look forward to in the next year. That’s…
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Year in Review 2018: Labor and Employment
There was a mix of good and bad news in the labor and employment policy space in 2018. A tremendous gain was made in the…
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Year in Review 2018: Operation Choke Point
Every Halloween, there exists the temptation for commentators to describe routine events in the news with adjectives like “scary” and “frightening.” Sensitive to sounding clichéd…
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Best Books of 2018: Judicial Fortitude
My pick for one of the best books of this year is “Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State” (Encounter Books,…
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EPA Takes on Costly, Unnecessary Wood Heater Regulations
The Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency cranked out so many bad major rules that it was hard to pay attention to all the also-bad, but relatively…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
A partial federal shutdown looks more likely than it did a week ago, the federal deficit will likely top $1 trillion next year, and Theresa…
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CEI Takes on Antitrust
There is a concerted effort from elements on both sides of the political aisle to use antitrust law to regulate and ultimately break apart Big…
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Attacks on Trump Administration Environmental Federalism Fall Short
Today’s Energy & Environment News (subscription required) has an article titled “Wheeler preaches federalism on water, not cars.” The gist is that various critics claim…
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5 Myths about E-cigarettes and Public Health
My colleague Michelle Minton recently released an excellent new study on the health impact of e-cigarettes and why some people are misrepresenting the risks involved…
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Infrastructure Bill Should Attack Climate Red Tape, Not Increase It
Enacting legislation will be more difficult in next year’s divided Congress, but an infrastructure bill is something that could get done. Democrats and Republicans may be…
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New Joint Employer Rule Means More Jobs, Not Lower Wages
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is in the process of implementing a regulation that would restore the traditional standard for when a worker is…
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Report from United Nations Climate Conference: Heckling the Hecklers
Katowice, Poland—“Le temps est mauvais,” an African delegate told a colleague as they wrapped themselves up against the early evening chill. The weather wasn’t as…
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85 Years after Repeal, Prohibition Lingers in Your Beer
On December 5, 1933 the federal government’s nationwide prohibition against alcohol ended. Eighty-five years later, the beer market seems to have finally recovered. Today, there…
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Top Ten Antitrust Targets
Columbia University professor Tim Wu is author of the new book The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age, which calls for a…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Former President George H.W. Bush was laid to rest, and no Federal Register was published on Wednesday. President Trump created a new superhero, Tariff Man,…
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American Association for Justice Places Trial Lawyer Interests over Saving Lives
The bipartisan AV START Act would create the first national highly automated vehicle regulatory framework in the U.S. This legislation is necessary to speed deployment…
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Five Priorities for New BCFP Director
Kathleen Kraninger was confirmed as director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. She has promised to implement a free market reform agenda, focusing on…
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Fighting for Small Business: Whiskey Edition
This week marks the 85th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, and we still have a lot to learn from that dismal experiment in government overreach.
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How Realistic Is National Climate Assessment’s Worst Case Scenario?
How realistic is the National Climate Assessment’s worst-case emissions scenario? A report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday sheds some interesting…
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Last-Minute Delay in CVS-Aetna Deal Could Threaten Consumer Benefits
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon surprised many on Monday when he announced he may halt the integration of CVS pharmacy’s assets with the nation’s…
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Don’t Blame Google for a Feature Consumers Want
It’s very rare I disagree with the great freedom-loving journalist John Stossel, but his column at Townhall this week made me raise an eyebrow. In…
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Senate Democrats’ Report Misses Mark on Mulvaney
While President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Kathleen Kraninger, awaits a final confirmation vote in the Senate, Senate Democrats have…
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Conflict of Interest over Vaping Threatens Public Health
Cigarette smoking kills nearly half a million Americans every year, and for every person who dies due to smoking, at least 30 people live with…
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Can You Buy Alcohol on Christmas (and New Year’s Day) in Your State?
The holidays bring parties, feasts, and libations. But some celebrants may find themselves without a cup of cheer if they wait until the day of a…