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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
56 new rules, from school lunches to studying landfills.
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Overcriminalizing Childhood: Maryland Turns Distressing Speech Into A Crime
Under the First Amendment, the government has far less power to restrict speech when it acts as a sovereign (such as when it criminally prosecutes…
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Bitcoin: An Escape From Currency Debasement?
Although gold traditionally has been the alternative asset for those wary of fiat currency debasement, there is an emerging newcomer: virtual currency. Bitcoin, created in…
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Retailing As Liberating
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Dismal Jobs Figures Don’t Increase Official Unemployment Rate, As Job-Seekers Give Up, Or Go On Disability
The stock market has fallen this morning in response to the dismal March jobs report released this morning, which showed that a meager…
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Regulation Roundup
Man avoids jail time for falsely yelling out "Bingo!" during a game, plus more.
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CEI Podcast For April 4, 2013: Reining In The CFAA
Under the CFAA, it is currently a federal crime to enter an incorrect age on your Facebook profile or an incorrect weight on a dating…
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Lessons From Dutch Regulatory Reform: How The U.S. Could Save $450 billion Per Year
In 2003, the Dutch improved their regulatory situation through the “Dutch Administrative Burden Reduction Programme.” This program sought to reduce the cost of regulatory burdens…
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Mercantilism Is An Outdated Concept
There’s an excellent Letter to the Editor in the Financial Times today (“Trade is now about participation,…
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The Origin Of Interest Groups
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The Myth Of Welfare Reform
Welfare reform is largely a myth. Many people who used to be on welfare have since gone onto Social Security Disability. That benefits states…
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Regulatory Lessons From The United Kingdom (Continued)
Overview of the Red Tape Challenge In early 2011, the UK started the Red Tape Challenge to gather ideas as to how it could improve…
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Unions attempt to silence elderly in power grab
VTdigger.org Imagine if your elderly relative was seeking in-home care and was denied the right to negotiate the terms of care with the caregiver.
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Cyprus Is A Lesson For U.S. Policy Makers: Too Big To Fail Is Not Inevitable
American financial regulators could take a lesson from their European counterparts. The recent EU bail-in/bailout of Cyprus, despite its dangers, shows that reducing moral hazard…
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Incentives Matter, Even For Transportation
CEI’s Marc Scribner previously commented on how advocates for greater investment in transportation infrastructure frequently disregard the infrastructure measure that really matters -- the…
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The problem with Perez
The Washington Times If you saw a man standing outside the grocery store swinging a baton and glowering at passers-by, would you go inside?…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
100 new regulations, from collisions at sea to electronic forms.
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How the Government Could Save Move-And Protect Workers
By Trey Kovacs, Townhall.com In this era of sequestration, why is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) awarding millions in grants to an…
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CEI Podcast For March 28, 2013: The TSA’s Illegal Body Scanners
Despite a court order, the TSA is still dragging its feet on complying with the law. Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner has…
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Texas appellate victory for CCAF
We won the case of Kazman v. Frontier Oil, knocking out 100% of the attorneys’ fees in a $0 shareholder derivative suit that made shareholders…
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White House Immigration Bill Will Be A Disaster Without Accessible Work Visas
President Obama’s recently leaked immigration bill left off the most important component of an immigration bill: the immigration part. Given the fact that the Chamber…
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Education Department Joins EPA In Touting Communist Killers
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More on Citigroup Securities
I discuss continuing developments in the Citigroup Securities fee objection at Point of Law. Our objections (December, March) have attracted a lot…
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The Red Tape Challenge
Over at the Daily Caller, Christian Rice and I take a look at a successful regulatory reform model in the UK: the Red Tape Challenge:…
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When The Nanny State Kills
The government told people to switch from saturated animal fats to unsaturated vegetable fats. But that advice may have killed a lot of people.
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The Cancer Clusters That Weren’t
A recent post in ACSH Dispatch examines an interesting question: How likely is it that some U.S. communities have elevated cancer rates, a.k.a, "cancer clusters,"…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
59 new regulations, from patent fees to pork export reports.
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Vitter Amendment To Ban Drug Patent Settlements Would Raise Pharmaceutical Prices
With time running out for the Senate to act on a continuing budget resolution, members are trying to find some magic pot of money that…
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Beyond Tom Perez: Why do we need a Labor Department?
The Baltimore Sun Well, America survived. Yes, it’s true, the United States was able to withstand two months without a labor secretary. The previous…
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Labor’s Loss: Secret Ballot Protection Advances In Virginia
Openmarket.org This week Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell struck a little heralded — but much needed — blow for privacy rights in the Old Dominion by…
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CEI Podcast For March 21, 2013: A Rainbow On The Right
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Labor’s Loss: Secret Ballot Protection Advances In Virginia
This week Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell struck a little heralded — but much needed — blow for privacy rights in the Old Dominion by signing two…
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Response To Drescher On Cancer And Chemicals
Last week, Fran Drescher responded to my Huffington Post article on cancer trends, and today I posted a reply on the…
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Administration Notifies Congress That Trade Talks With EU Will Begin
Earlier today, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative sent a notice to Congress that the Obama administration would begin negotiating a trade partnership…
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Bipartisan Dodd-Frank Derivatives Deregulation Advances In House — And Main Street Cheers
This afternoon, members of the House Agriculture Committee with strikingly different views on many issues came together to provide much need regulatory relief from the…
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Sorry, Progressives, But The ASCE Infrastructure Grade Boost Wasn’t The Result Of Obama’s “Stimulus”
I am generally very skeptical of the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) "Report Card for America's Infrastructure," as this self-interested group 1) gives…
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Minnesota’s 300% Alcohol Tax Hike Will Hurt Consumers And Businesses
Politicians love to sell alcohol tax hikes as pennies on the drink that won’t really hurt anyone’s pocketbook, while helping to pay for the…
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Obamacare Harms Colleges And Their Employees
The University of Virginia is expecting a roughly $7-million bill for Obamacare's new employer penalties, said Susan Carkeek, the University's vice president and…
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What Cyprus (Initially) Got Right — Remembering The 2008 WaMu Capital “Run”
There's no shortage of criticism of the Cyprus "bail-in" -- the one-time tax the government had proposed levying on insured and uninsured depositors to rescue…
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Rand Paul: No National ID System, Including E-Verify
E-Verify is the Internet-based national identification, which the Senate wants to impose on all workers and their employers. The system, as proposed by the White…
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Unions euthanize nursing homes
The Washington Examiner Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their…
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Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter Shows Contempt For First Amendment Freedoms
Philadelphia magazine published an article called "Being White in Philly," with the subtitle, “Whites, race, class, and the things that never get said.” Compared…
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Republican National Committee To GOP: Be More Libertarian
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A Quick Investigation Of Central Bank Redistribution
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
60 new regulations, from financial management courses to de-icing planes.
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Dallas Fed’s Fisher And CPAC’s Fishy Too-Big-To-Fail Event
If the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) organizers wanted a speaker or panel on the causes of the financial crisis and what to do about…
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Lobbying Can Be A Great Investment
Not only did health insurers convince the government to require everyone in the country to buy their products, now their premiums will go up sharply,…
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A Balanced Budget Isn’t The Primary Goal
Over at the Daily Caller, Wayne Crews and I take a look at Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed budget, the Path to Prosperity. While it would…
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SEC Charges Illinois With Securities Fraud And Lets It Off With A Warning
This week, Illinois became only the second state in U.S. history to by charged with securities fraud by federal regulators (New Jersey was the first,…
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More Calls For Censorship To Prevent “Bullying”
We live in a culture where harsh but truthful criticism, or exposure of wrongdoing, is viewed by some as "bullying," especially when it affects…
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Human Achievement Of The Day: Bionic Eye Restores Sight To The Blind
Curing vision problems has long been the domain of science fiction, but a recent breakthrough turns fiction into reality. The aptly named Second Sight Medical…
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CEI Podcast For March 12, 2013: Sunshine Week
This week is Sunshine Week, a celebration of openness and transparency. Myron Ebell, Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, is here to talk…
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Federal Pay Freeze Was Really A Pay Slowdown
The Huffington Post’s Dave Jamieson argues that Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget “ignores” a two-year pay freeze for federal employees. But Jamieson also ignores…
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Will Regulators Fail To Learn From The Past Mistakes Of U.S. Railroad Regulation?
The history of U.S. railroads provides an interesting case study on federal regulation. They were the first sector of the economy to come under heavy…
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Human Achievement Of The Day: Replacing Herbicides With Lasers
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Should Agencies Be Self-Funded?
If an agency is doing a poor job pursuing its mission, it needs to be held accountable; there is a reason Congress holds the power…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
69 new regulations, from grading almonds to lost luggage.
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No, Hugo Chavez Did Not Improve Health Or Human Development In Venezuela
Reuters’ recent obituary for Venezuela’s anti-American strongman, Hugo Chavez, obscured the fact that he made life worse for his countrymen — worse, that is, than…
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Sequester Show May Not Have Jumped The Shark, But Its Format Has Changed
Are you watching the Sequester Show? In today's Wall Street Jorunal, my friend Kim Strassel says the sequester drama has "jumped the shark," a phrase used when…
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Lessons On Regulatory Reform: The United Kingdom
In 2001, the United Kingdom passed the “Regulatory Reform Act” which allowed a government minister (similar to the head of a government agency in…
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Washington Examiner: “Congress: Obamacare To Boost Premiums To $7,186 — A Year”
Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reports on massive premium increases due to Obamacare: Health insurance companies, facing new and costly rules and…
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CEI Podcast For March 7, 2013: The Three-Sided Immigration Debate
Immigration Policy Analyst David Bier recently wrote for USA Today about a third side in the ongoing immigration debate: population control advocates who oppose immigration…
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Human Achievement Of The Day: Using HIV To Cure Leukemia
The title of the Vimeo video below is “Fighting Fire with Fire,” which conveys fairly well what doctors from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and…
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Obama’s Immigration Bill Forces Employers To Pay Illegal Immigrants
Nothing in this headline is a typo or an exaggeration. President Obama’s recently-leaked Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2013 would require employers to employ…
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Costco CEO Favors Minimum Wage Hike
An overlooked argument in the minimum wage debate is that a high minimum wage gives big businesses an artificial competitive advantage over their smaller competitors.
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Making The FCC More Transparent
If there's one thing the regulatory state could use more of, it's transparency. In today's ?Washington Times?, I shine a little light on the FCC:…
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Capitalists Do It With The Lights On: Human Achievement Hour 2013
It’s that time of year again when we at the Competitive Enterprise Institute celebrate the innovative power of humanity and demonstrate our commitment to protecting…
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Lessons On Regulatory Reform: Texas
Overview of Regulatory Reform in Texas In 1977, the Texas legislature passed the Texas Sunset Act which would forever improve state government.
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Immigration Restrictions Should Treat People As Individuals, Not Groups
Private discrimination based on national origin has been prohibited in the United States since 1965, yet the United States government continues to discriminate based on…
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Austerity Is Worth The Cost
In a January National Review article, I explained how Baltic countries such as Estonia that had undertaken short-lived but severe cuts to government spending…
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Harvard’s Jeffrey Miron: Sequestration Will Help National Economy
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
74 new regulations, from the Citrus Administrative Committee to pecan insurance.
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Alcohol Regulation Roundup: March 1, 2013
National: The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit to block Anheuser-Busch Inbev from taking full control over Negro Modelo. A few weeks later…
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E-Verify: Opening The Door For More Regulations
President Obama and the Gang of Eight senators want E-Verify -- the electronic employment verification system -- included in any comprehensive immigration reform proposal this…
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Hoover Didn’t Cut Spending
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Cut spending: Permanently furlough ‘official time’ workers
By Matt Patterson and Trey Kovacs, The Washington Times As politicians of both parties ride through the country Paul Revere-like in their warning…
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CEI Podcast For February 28, 2013: Italy’s Troubling Election Results
The results of Italy’s general election were announced this week, setting markets on edge across the Eurozone. Warren Brookes Fellow Matt Melchiorre finds the outcome…
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The Dangers Of Crying Wolf On BPA
Anyone with an interest in the science of bisphenol A (BPA)–a chemical used to make hard, clear plastics and resins that line food containers — should read…
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Chicken Little Lives Vicariously Through Federal Union Bosses
Openmarket.org We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an…
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Chicken Little Lives Vicariously Through Federal Union Bosses
We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an acorn.
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Progressives Should Be Wary Of A Minimum Wage Increase
Over at the American Spectator, I argue that progressives should look elsewhere for ways to help the poor:…
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Wells Fargo Economists: Sequestration Helps The Economy In The Long Run
Yet again, the Obama administration is busy engaging in scare tactics about sequestration, inflating its impact on the government and the country (to the point…
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VAWA Bill Likely To Pass Congress This Week, Despite Violating First Amendment
Congress never lets the Constitution get in the way of passing a law with a catchy title. Thus, the Senate’s version of the bill…
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The Myth Of British Austerity, And Why It Was Concocted
Opposition to spending cuts in America has been based heavily on “the myth of British austerity,” even though “if the British government is practicing…
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Immigration Restrictions Violate Americans’ Liberty
Immigration restrictions are more than just violations of the liberties of foreigners. Truly a society that restricts the freedom of certain groups restricts the freedom…
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National ID, By Itself, Violates Liberty
As I have pointed out over the past month and The Wall Street Journal’s Danny Yadron noted last week, many members of…
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Why The Sequester Budget Cuts Are Good
As we noted earlier, the automatic budget cuts contained in the sequester will help the economy in the long run, even if they are…
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Europe’s Latest Wake-Up Call: Italian Elections
Europe, which has been enjoying a recent respite from financial chaos, is about to get a rude awakening: Italian elections. Voters will go to the…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
53 new regulations, from the mental states of federal employees to giving rides to sick or injured people.
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Baby Products press coverage
Lots of people are talking about Baby Products, some of whom talked to me. [Fisher @ Forbes; Legal Intelligencer; Reuters;…
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Why is Jaafar & Mahdi Law Group trying to squelch criticism of a bad class action settlement?
A class action accusing local McDonald’s in Dearborn County of falsely advertising its chicken as “halal” was settled. A class member, Majed Moughni, an attorney,…
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The Real Birthday Of America’s First Entrepreneur
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Regulatory Report Card: Federal Communications Commission
Regulatory agencies need to be much more transparent. One way to do that is through an annual report card with important information about each agency…
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CEI Podcast For February 21, 2013: The Wages Of Sin Taxes
CEI and the Adam Smith Institute have teamed up to publish a U.S. edition of Christopher Snowdon's study "The Wages of Sin Taxes." He argues…
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Free Trade Si, Regulatory Harmonization No
Politics ruins everything, and in few areas is that truer than in international trade. Over the last two decades, the term "trade agreement" has become…
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VAWA Bill Still Contains Provisions Violating First Amendment And Other Constitutional Provisions
Legal scholars say the Senate-passed bill reauthorizating the Violence Against Women Act contains provisions that violate the First Amendment and Articles II and III of…
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Stirrings of Pension Reform in Montana
Pension obligations’ strains on state budgets have made pension reform a priority for state policy makers across the nation. Over the last couple of…
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CalPERS: Model Of Pension Dysfunction
Few state governments are as in as much fiscal trouble as California's, so it's not surprising that few state pension funds have been as mismanaged…
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Setting The Stage For Regulatory Reform — Part I
Just about everything in your life is regulated by the government; from the alarm clock that wakes you up in the morning to the size…
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Third Circuit win
We won reversal of the settlement approval in the Baby Products Antitrust Litigation, No. 12-1165 (3d Cir. Feb. 19, 2013). The settlement…