The Open Market Blog

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/18/2007

Along with the launch of the Politico, the arrival of The Onion in print has been a boon to the nation’s capital’s…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/09/2007

Speaking of gas prices, from Wisconsin comes a story that illustrates just how stupid government can be in trying to meddle with prices…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/07/2007

One hopeful sign of the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President of France is the expectations among many of his supporters, some of whom the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/06/2007

While I agree with Richard’s observation “that most people who are skeptical of Wal-Mart’s business practices are entirely unaware of these hundreds of millions of…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/02/2007

Alvaro Vargas Llosa, co-author of the now-classic 1996 primer on Latin America's statist political economy, Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot ("a book…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/23/2007

It’s hard to believe this is even a question. The comments vary in opinion and quality, but one Venezuelan poster is worth quoting: The…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/23/2007

The decline of organized labor in America’s private sector is a well-known story, but less known to Americans is how much the rest of the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/06/2007

Anyone who doubts that Americans are living longer and healthier need only see the Stooges, Michigan’s godfathers of punk, who, pushing 60…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/05/2007

Authoritarian thugs are often puritanical and self-righteous, and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is earning his place in the pantheon of dictatorial killjoys, by limiting alcohol…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/03/2007

Today’s Washington Examiner features a very good editorial on the District of Columbia’s consideration of Public Labor Agreements in its proposed $2.3 billion…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/03/2007

Slate features a great essay on Leon Trotsky by British critic Clive James, excerpted from his volume, Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/21/2007

Keep up with Al Gore’s Capitol Hill appearance with Iain Murray, live blogging on Planet Gore. His latest entry follows: Al…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/16/2007

In preparation for Al Gore’s congressional testimony promoting his climate alarmist agenda, CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis presented a rebuttal to many…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/16/2007

CEI’s Capitol Hill global warming briefing for Congressional staff is now being broadcast live on C-Span 2, responding to Al Gore’s alarmist agenda. Watch…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/12/2007

Today on National Review Online, I contribute to a symposium on Hugo Chavez. There is little the United States can do about Hugo Chavez’s…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/05/2007

Last night’s new episode of “The Simpsons” skewers the No Child Left Behind Act’s testing requirements — in only a few seconds. School district…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/05/2007

Over at Planet Gore, Iain and our former colleague Peter Suderman have some further commentary on the silly Washington Post article by…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/04/2007

Many libertarian economists and commentators have long criticized professional licensing as a protectionist scheme that restricts competition to the benefit of some (licensed) producers and to the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/04/2007

Today’s Washington Post “Outlook” section features an article by science fiction writer Bruce Sterling that needs to be read to be believed. Suffice it…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/03/2007

Today’s Journal also reports that the two environmental groups that endorsed the recent buyout of the utility TXU Corp. after the company agreed to…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/03/2007

Today’s weekend Wall Street Journal‘s lead editorial (available free online at OpinionJournal.com) addresses the Climate Action Partnership, reitarating some of CEI’s arguments against this…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/02/2007

I noted yesterday that vetoing the Employee Free Choice Act, the mandatory card check bill that the House passed yesterday, would provide President George…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/01/2007

The U.S. House of Representatives today approved, by a 241-185 vote, the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800), which would destroy secret ballot protections in…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 03/01/2007

The misleadingly named "Employee Free Choice Act" (H.R 800) reaches the House floor today. This bill would essentially do away with secret ballot elections in…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/23/2007

Fred Smith’s presentation at Guatemala’s Universidad Francisco Marroquin on how markets can help protect antiquities is now available online.

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/21/2007

I’m quoted in today’s Investor’s Business Daily on organized labor’s struggle to remain relevant in the private sector, where its numbers have been declining…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/13/2007

A relatively flexible labor market has long been one of America’s great economic strengths — as well as of Great Britain relative to Continental Europe.

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/12/2007

This week’s new episode of  the Fox animated series”King of the Hill” centers around a great — and hilarious — illustration of the public…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/12/2007

It shouldn’t be surprising. In Arizona, the state’s minimum wage hike, which went into effect last month, has led to teenagers being laid off,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/11/2007

In the weekend Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore, quotes former CEI Warren Brookes Fellow Tim Carney from his book The Big Ripoff: How…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/09/2007

My good friend and fellow radical for capitalism — and former Warren Brookes Fellow — Brian Doherty (now with Reason magazine) will discuss his new…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/07/2007

Deroy Murdock writes about ethanol in National Review Online today, specifically on the effect on food prices, as the Mexican tortilla crisis illustrates: Existing…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/07/2007

After much anticipation, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, has introduced the Orwellian-monikered Employee Free Choice Act (H.R.800).

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/04/2007

Also worth reading in the weekend Journal is an article by Philip Stott, professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London, in which…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/03/2007

Today’s Journal also features an op ed by Coca-Cola CEO E. Neville Isdell, on his company “corporate social responsibility” policies. He cites some specific examples…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/03/2007

Today’s weekend Wall Street Journal features a favorable editorial on CEI’s national survey of orthopedic surgeons, which was released earlier this week. As…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 02/01/2007

Pubs in Ireland, pubs in Great Britain, bard in New York — in recent years, long-established smoking traditions have been snuffed out in the unlikeliest places — and the country whose…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/29/2007

Over at Townhall.com, columnist Mary Katharine Ham comments on the premiere of the documentary Mine Your Own Business (the screening was co-sponsored…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/26/2007

The management of risk has long been an area of interest at CEI, so we will be watching with interest the development of a…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/23/2007

That the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a far-left political activist group is hardly news. Yet the point needs to be made repeatedly, given…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/19/2007

It had to happen. Jokes about Starbucks’ ubiquity have become, well, ubiquitous, much like the coffee chain itself — so it was only a…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 01/07/2007

It should be expected that climate doomsayers would try to seize the unseasonal warm weather the Northeastern U.S. has been experiencing as another “sign” of impending global…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/21/2006

Yesterday, President Bush announced that he may go along with Congressional Democrats’ proposal for an increase in the federal minimum wage, in exchange for…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/20/2006

It’s almost cliched now to say that free market advocates expecting Republicans to control the growth of government shows the triumph of hope over experience,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/16/2006

The intersection between commerce and culture is a space that few people have occupied as successfully as Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who passed away…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/12/2006

New York’s increased competition from other world financial centers, such as London and Hong Kong, due to the increased regulatory burden imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley in…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/11/2006

CEI and Fred Smith make appearances in Radicals for Capitalism, the upcoming history of the modern American libertarian movement by Reason Senior Editor and…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/05/2006

Some Oprah viewers are posting their thoughts on Al Gore’s appearance on “Oprah” today — and CEI’s Marlo Lewis’s response — and the comments exhibit…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/05/2006

CEI’s Marlo Lewis will be appearing on “Oprah” this afternoon, answering Al Gore’s claims of impending global warming catastrophe, as seen…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/21/2006

Al Gore may indeed, be Captain Planet, as Iain Murray notes in NRO today. But he’s stepping…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/17/2006

Earlier this evening, I attended the Washington premiere of Freedom’s Fury, a new documentary about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The film…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/17/2006

“Organized Labor Pushes Pro-Worker Agenda,” reads the headline of a November 14 Associated Press news story. It is safe to assume…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/17/2006

Researchers have found resveratrol, a substance found in red wine and other foods, to help fight obesity and diabetes in laboratory…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/17/2006

It speaks volumes of a man — and of his career — when people don’t wait until he’s passed away to pay him tribute. That’s…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/16/2006

The title says it all. Unlike many libertarians, for me it didn’t begin with Ayn Rand, but with Milton Friedman, specifically his classic manifesto,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/06/2006

This weekend, CEI co-hosted the conference, “Empowering Green Bureaucrats: How Global Environmental Treaties Threaten National Sovereignty and Hurt the World’s Poor,” with Universidad Francisco…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/05/2006

This morning, CEI co-hosted the conference, “Empowering Green Bureaucrats: How Global Environmental Treaties Threaten National Sovereignty and Hurt the World’s Poor,” with Universidad Francisco…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 11/02/2006

It’s not every day that an award competition ends in a tie, but that’s what happened last night at this year’s International Policy Network‘s…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/26/2006

If, as Saul Alinsky, said, “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon,” then it’s effective against even hiding foes, like Iraq’s violent insurgents—and especially when the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/24/2006

Clods’ Letters to Mad, a compendium of the most unintentionally funny letters received by Mad magazine during the 1970s, gives a great—albeit fictional—example of the…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/23/2006

“Socialismo o muerte” (“socialism or death”) may be the choice that Fidel Castro has imposed upon Cuba’s population for decades, but many Cubans are responding,…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/23/2006

Ever feel like you’re aiding the oppression of workers every time you order a mocha latte at Starbucks? According to the Industrial Workers of…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/18/2006

The deadlocked fight between Guatemala and Venezuela over the United Nations Security Council’s rotating Latin America seat is being reported as the latest setback…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/11/2006

One of capitalism’s greatest virtues is the wide array of preferences it allows entrepreneurs to cater to—including the preferences of those who claim to disdain…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 10/05/2006

But would Progressives against Progress endorse this great invention?…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/27/2006

I don’t know how on in the world I end up on some loony email lists, but they’re at least good for the occasional chuckle.

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/12/2006

Tonight in D.C., I will be moderating an America’s Future Foundation panel on Latin America in the age of Chavez. At issue: For the region’s…

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 09/07/2006

This Tuesday, September 12, I will be moderating an America’s Future Foundation panel on Latin America, here in D.C. At issue: Is the region turning…