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What Will You Achieve with Your 8,760 Hours?
Several years ago CEI launched Human Achievement Hour, an annual celebration of innovation and progress. During this hour—this year, Saturday, March 24th from 8:30pm to…
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How States Can Win Big from Legal Sports Betting
Every March, millions of Americans join friends, relatives, and coworkers in “March Madness” betting pools, centered on the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Men’s Basketball…
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National Labor Relations Board Recusal Saga Continues
Democrats and union allies have been transparent in their goal to block or delay any decisions by the Trump National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), as…
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‘Fair Shot’ by Chris Hughes: Facebook Co-Founder’s Book Rich in Anecdote and Emotion
Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook, has a new book out with a dramatic suggestion for changing the distribution of wealth in the United States.
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Melugin: Keep Online Sales Taxes out of Omnibus Budget Bill
Today Jessica Melugin, associate director of CEI’s Center for Technology & Innovation, joined U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and a number of other free-market…
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3 Reasons the Senate Should Pass Financial Reform
The Senate is expected to vote on its first major piece of financial reform this week since the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. A bipartisan bill…
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Trump Ousts Tillerson: What’s Next for the Paris Climate Treaty?
President Trump this morning ousted Rex Tillerson from his post as Secretary of State and plans to replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo.
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Growing Scandal at National Labor Relations Board
This has the look of a coordinated attack to hinder the current National Labor Relations Board’s ability to reform Obama-era policies. The Inspector General stirred…
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Judge in California Suit against Oil Companies Orders Climate Tutorial
A federal judge in California last week ruled that a suit brought by the cities of Oakland and San Francisco seeking climate damages from major…
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Everything You Need to Know about the Clean Power Plan
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, nineteen other state attorneys general, and the head of the Mississippi department of environmental quality recently filed a superb …
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European Food Safety Assessment Proves Nothing about Risks to Bees
As European Union risk assessments purportedly “confirm” that pesticides threaten honeybees and lawmakers quickly clamor for pesticide bans, the stark reality is that so far…
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The Supreme Court Case That Would Catch the Law Up to Economic Reality
As more and more services move into platform business models as the lower transaction costs they facilitate increase consumer welfare, platform firms need assurance…
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More Evidence of Growth in February Job Figures
Today’s jobs numbers shattered expectations—313,000 new jobs in February against an expectation of 200,000. The numbers provide yet more support to the…
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Happy Birthday to Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’
Being able to make voluntary transactions with others while having redress in the case of fraud sets the stage for larger, more complex, and longer-term market…
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Trump’s Recent Trade Decisions Could Spell Doom for the Economy
With President Trump’s announcement on steel and aluminum tariffs and his continued wrong-headed approach to trade policy, there are reasons to be concerned that a…
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Tracking Public Opinion on Trump, Tariffs, and Trade
A Pew study noted that Republicans’ views on free trade shifted in a more negative way during the 2016 presidential campaign, while Democrats’ views…
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Don’t Bring Net Neutrality Regulations Back from the Dead
Republicans on Capitol Hill are looking to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with their recently introduced net neutrality legislation, Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-LA) Open Internet…
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The Government Killed Free Checking—Can Amazon Save It?
Amazon's move into banking services spells good news for currently under-served consumers, who often rely on relatively expensive financial services such as payday lending or…
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If the Payday Lending Rule Stays, Ability-to-Repay Does, Too
Many in the financial services industry seem to believe the CFPB's ability to replay rule doesn’t impact them and it’s not worth fighting. That is…
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Millennials Love Entrepreneurship But Skeptical of ‘Capitalism’
If we want Millennials to have a greater appreciation for the virtues of capitalism, we need to convey how their entrepreneurial aspirations can only be made possible…
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Government Not Only Source of Regulation for Finance
One of the most misunderstood and underappreciated aspects of free market economics is the idea of private or “self” regulation. Up until recently, private enterprises…
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Don’t Let an Online Sales Tax Hike Creep into Omnibus Spending Bill
With the siren song of the omnibus spending bill calling, legislators would be wise to resist pressures to include increases in online sales…
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Seeing How People Really Live around the World
A recent TED Talk by Anna Rosling Rönnlund features images collected by photographers dispatched to 264 different homes in 50 countries around the world. They document the stoves, bed,…
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Chuck Schumer’s Unconstitutional Money-Wasting Machine
If you wanted a counterterrorism technology that could match Amtrak in terms of derailments, you couldn’t do much better than to use “stand-off explosive detection…
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Implement AEI-Heritage-R Street GSE Plan AND Honor Shareholder Contracts
It is welcome news that our friends from the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, and the R Street Institute put forth a plan this week…
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Some Critical Points Often Overlooked in the Climate Policy Debate
To date, the political process has determined that the potential risks of carbon dioxide regulation outweigh the benefits. That’s why despite more than 20 years…
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Job-Killing Joint Employer Standard Returns
In an abrupt and unexpected move, on February 26th, the National Labor Relations Board vacated its December 2017 decision in Hy-Brand, which restored longstanding Board…
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Clean Power Plan: Just Repeal, Don’t Replace
The Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of repealing President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, the principal regulatory component of his Paris Climate Treaty emission-reduction…
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Could Janus Ruling Open the Door to Pension Reform?
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in case Janus v. AFSCME, which could significantly impact unions representing government employees. A ruling in…
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Landmark Supreme Court Case Can Restore Worker Freedom
Today at oral argument in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said “You're basically arguing, do away with unions,” when questioning Bill…
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President Trump in CPAC Speech Says Deregulation Is as Important as Tax Cuts
President Donald J. Trump in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference today spent seven minutes discussing his deregulatory agenda, ending the war on…
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CEI’s Ryan Radia Weighs in on Latest in Net Neutrality Debate
CEI has done its share on the topic for more than 10 years. Tune in to FreedomWorks live streams on February 26 to hear CEI’s…
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CEI Appeal May Be the Cy Pres Case Supreme Court is Looking for
CEI’s petition in Gaos v. Google may give the Supreme Court the opportunity to revisit cy pres recovery to unrelated parties.
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Skepticism of Driverless Car Hype Is Warranted But Shouldn’t Sacrifice Innovation and Safety
Applying the precautionary principle to the regulation of self-driving cars could mean more highway fatalities, by delaying the introduction of new, lifesaving technologies. …
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The Dues and Don’ts of Government Union Life
No worker should be forced to financially support a union to speak and bargain on their behalf with the government. Check out CEI's video on the…
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Rep. Dave Brat’s Pro-Competitive Free to Fly Act Is a First Step in the Right Direction
The Free to Fly Act would eliminate a generations-old anti-competitive federal law governing domestic airline ownership.
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CEI Reacts to Trump’s FY19 Budget Proposals for CFPB, EPA, and Regulatory Reform
CEI experts react to provisions in President Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal released on February 12, 2018.
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Trump’s Infrastructure Plan: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
This morning, the White House released its long-anticipated, 53-page infrastructure proposal. It is an expansion of the leaked six-page summary that I commented…
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Fourth National Climate Assessment: Pat Michaels Calls for “Reset” of U.S. Global Change Research Program
The comment period for the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate Assessment closed on January 31, 2018. Cato Institute scientist Patrick Michaels identifies two…
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Lawson v. Grubhub a Big Win for Flexible Work Arrangements
Classyfying sharing economy workers as employees, rather than independent contractors, would undercut why many individuals find sharing economy work appealing. Sharing economy workers can choose how much and…
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SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s Comments on Cryptocurrencies Are Cause for Concern
Recent comments by SEC Chairman Jay Claytonmay signal an increasingly heavy-handed regulatory approach toward cryptocurrencies. Such an approach could curb innovation and prove counterproductive in fighting…
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A Movement toward Descriptive Representation
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CEI Asks State Department to Turn Over Records of Contacts with Paris Climate Treaty’s Media Cheerleaders
The Obama State Department pushed the line, via media contacts it called "validators," that the Paris Climate Agreement was not a treaty and didn’t need…
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Competition in Tech is More Vibrant than It Looks
Calls for regulatory action against big tech firms, including Amazon and Google parent company Alphabet, have intensified after they reported record profits. The case against…
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State Net Neutrality Regulations Constitutionally Unsound
Since the Federal Communications Commission voted to roll back federal net neutrality regulations, many states have opposed the measure with executive orders, lawsuits, and legislation.
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Is Administrative Law Unlawful?
Philip Hamburger's book Is Administrative Law Unlawful? will remind readers that much of modern bureaucracy violates the careful separation of powers that the Framers wrote into…
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In Illinois, Public Pension Funding Cannot Keep up with Pension Benefits’ Growth
Public pension shortfalls result from too little money being paid into the pension funds. Or so government employee unions and their political allies would have…
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Exploring the Frontiers of Free Speech at Scalia Law School
Free speech fans were treated to a fascinating and informative day of discussion recently when the Center for the Study of the Administrative State presented…
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CEI Asks Supreme Court to Review Ulbricht Conviction
CEI has joined an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the conviction of Ross Ulbricht, who is currently serving a life sentence…
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The Myth of Independence at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The myth of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau independence invalidates the Bureau’s protection from the President and Congress. The extreme insulation is predicated on protecting the…