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Treasury: CFPB’s Arbitration Rule Falls Short
The Department of the Treasury has released its analysis of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Arbitration Rule, which bans the use of…
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Time to Eliminate Hidden Taxpayer Support of Union Activities
Tax dollars should exclusively support the public’s business. But a Mackinac Center for Public Policy open records request show this is not the case in…
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EPA Administrator Pruitt’s Welcome Efforts to End Sue and Settle
On October 15, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a directive taking on the practice known as “sue and settle,” whereby environmental…
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Senate Budget Resolution Breathes Life into ANWR
By a 51-49 vote, the Senate this past week passed a budget resolution that creates a fast-track process for writing legislation to permit drilling in…
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Would Coal Miners Do Better Under Obama than Trump?
That’s allegedly the big takeaway from a presentation given on Tuesday, October 17, to the Energy Bar Association by Brattle Group analyst Marc Chupka.
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The Importance of an Under-the-Radar Supreme Court Case on Sports Betting
New Jersey tried to repeal its own law against sports gambling, but a federal law banning sports gambling was used to stop New Jersey’s voters…
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An Appreciation: Atlas Shrugged at 60
Sixty years ago this month, Ayn Rand’s monumental novel, Atlas Shrugged, was published. It helped a vast number of people around the world to become…
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Congress Should Fix Fintech Lending Model
The House Financial Services Committee marked up a whopping 22 bills last week. While many are noteworthy, such as ending Operation Choke Point, repealing…
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Tax Reform Offers Opportunity to Boost Economic Growth
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Former U.K. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson Outlines the Environmental Benefits of Brexit
On October 4, 2017, Owen Paterson MP, who until 2014 was the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, visited…
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My Take on Energy Department’s Prompt Letter to FERC
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the federal agency responsible for regulating interstate power flows, but the Federal Power Act authorizes the Department of…
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Cook County, Illinois Voters not Fooled by Soda Tax’s Empty Promises
Less than two months after implementing a new “soda tax,” lawmakers in Cook County, Illinois, are repealing the cent-per ounce tax. The Washington Post…
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An Anniversary Toast for I, Whiskey
It’s been a tremendous year since we released I, Whiskey on YouTube and Facebook and co-hosted our red carpet premiere with the Distilled Spirits Council…
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Overcoming Regulatory Barriers to Serving the Underserved
How many people are pushed to the fringes of the banking system by Dodd-Frank regulations? How will the CFPB's new regulations prevent the underserved from…
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Fighting for Our Right to Party at WhiskeyFest
Don’t be afraid of sticking up for your favorite things – there’s always someone looking for the weakest target to tax, regulate, and restrict. If…
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Pension Liabilities Bite in the Present, Too
Politicians should close underfunded public employee pension funds to new enrollees and offer new hires other options, such as defined contribution or hybrid plans.
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Joint Employer Deception from Democrats
Democrats in Congress need to be honest about their opposition to restoring a commonsense joint employer definition.
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House Members Repeat False Claims about Passenger Facility Charges
The current Senate Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill is a step forward on modernizing airport financing and governance in the U.S.
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Financial Transactions Tax Not the Answer for Africa
French President Emmanuel Macron is advocating for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions to fund more foreign aid for Africa.
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Congress Should Roll Back New Payday Loan Rule
The hysteria in Washington around the release of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final short-term, small-dollar loan rule has been immense.
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EPA Proposes Clean Power Plan Repeal Rule
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will soon release the agency’s proposed rule to repeal the Clean Power Plan.
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Past-Due Nomination of EPA’s Number Two Official Is Welcome News
President Donald J. Trump nominated Andrew R. Wheeler to be deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on October 5th. Wheeler has worked since…
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New Study on Self-Dealing at the IPCC
According to a new study published this week in the journal Scientometrics, an in-depth analysis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s AR5 report…
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CEI Calls on EPA to Reconsider More-Stringent Fuel Economy Standards
On Thursday, October 5, the Competitive Enterprise Institute submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its Final Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of greenhouse…
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New Research, Same Story: Government Housing Policy Doesn’t Work
The Urban Institute today published an updated report, titled Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America. As part of the project, the authors highlight…
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Small Business Needs Relief from Federal ‘Joint Employer’ Scheme
Today, the Save Local Business Act was approved by the House Education and Workforce Committee, a great step forward from clearing up the confusion caused…
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Limiting Federal Control over State Policy: Christie v. N.C.A.A.
Our friend Damon Root over at Reason has a round-up of three important cases that will be decided in the Supreme Court’s upcoming term. One…
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Executive Order Disbands National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations
President Trump has signed an executive order disbanding the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations.
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A Good START for Automated Vehicle Technology that Should Extend to Trucking
Last week, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary…
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Cut Red Tape and Save Lives by Regulating Tobacco Alternatives Based on Risk
At the beginning of the year, President Trump issued an Executive Order aimed at cutting red tape. The order directs federal agencies to set…
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Public Health Community, Heal Thyself
We owe a debt of gratitude to the public health movement. Without its research and advocacy, we would not have learned to stop the spread…
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Bank Regulatory Relief in Time for White House ‘Deregulation Day’
Happy Deregulation Day! Today, the Trump administration is celebrating the benefits of an America liberated from red tape. As I mentioned in a blog…
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End Federal Pressure for Racial Quotas in Special Education
No child should be barred based on her race from a public education program needed to address her learning disabilities or educational deficits. But the…
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Red Tape Rollback: Trump Least-Regulatory President Since Reagan
The Trump mode has been to regulate bureaucrats rather than the public. New, large-scale regulation has largely stopped in 2017, and where it hasn’t, new…
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President Trump Outlines ‘American Model’ Tax Code
On Friday, September 29, President Trump outlined his tax reform package in a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in Washington, D.C.
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Celebrate National Coffee Day
In the modern American workplace, many people see coffee as essential to productivity and for socializing around the coffee machine, which makes it unsurprising that…
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Bank Regulator Report: ‘Arbitration Rule’ on Credit Cards Will Raise Costs on Consumers
A new report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency refutes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s argument that its Arbitration Rule will have…
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What White House ‘Deregulation Day’ Can Do for Finance and Banking
On Monday the Trump Administration is launching the first ever Deregulation Day, highlighting the benefits of an America liberated from bureaucracy.
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Taxes, Welfare, and Economic Inequality
At a time when comprehensive tax reform is dominating news headlines, concerns about income inequality and the distributional effects of future tax changes are again…
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Senate Introduces Regulatory Relief for Regional Banks
Removing burdensome restrictions on regional and community banks will ensure financial stability while helping local communities prosper.
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Nine Years on from the Financial Crisis and We’re No Safer
The real cause of the 2007-08 financial crisis was overwhelmingly the product of government intervention.
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Bailout Mentality Persists in International Banking Despite Reform Attempts
Europe, in an effort to ensure that the next banking crisis would not end in a taxpayer bailout, created bail-in rules and started performing stress…
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No Reason for Denying Puerto Rico a Jones Act Waiver
The Trump administration should immediately grant a Jones Act waiver to Puerto Rico and Congress should fully repeal the maritime cabotage prohibition.
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Fat-Cat Attorneys’ Bogus Arguments on Arbitration Rule
Fat cat class-action attorneys and their apologists are getting desperate.
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Coupon Settlements: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Coupon awards are notoriously bad for consumers in class action settlements. So bad that Congress targeted such relief, among other class action abuses, in the…
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Shining a Light on Bureaucratic ‘Dark Matter’
Federal agencies produce guidance documents, proclamations, memoranda, bulletins, circulars, letters—all with the force of the law but with no oversight from Congress.
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Crafting a Sensible Overtime Rule
It is important that the Trump administration avoid the pitfalls the Obama Department of Labor fell into on overtime regulation.
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Sen. Reed’s Harmful and Foolish Opposition to Arbitration in Consumer Finance Disputes
Sen. Reed and his allies are using hard cases to put the interests of trial lawyers above the interests of a free people.
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Education Department Withdraws “Dear Colleague” Letter Restricting Student and Faculty Rights
The Education Department recently withdrew two famous examples of regulatory “dark matter” issued during the Obama administration.
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Sen. Graham’s Perplexing Pivot to a Carbon Tax
Lindsey Graham's enthusiasm for a carbon tax may be less popular than he imagines.