Blog
Today’s Links: May 29, 2012
Blog
When Schools Are Like Jails — Or Worse
A 17-year-old Texas honor student has been jailed for missing too much school. Diane Tran works both full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to taking…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
95 new final rules published last week, covering everything from crocodiles to the definition of "unblockable drain."…
Blog
Magical Thinking in Liberal Land
Blog
Classic Obfuscation: The New America Foundation’s Search for the “Public Interest”
Milton Friedman once quipped that “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” Perhaps he would add the outmoded idea of the “public interest”…
Blog
No, Obama Is Not “the Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower”
Blog
Today’s Links: May 25, 2012
Blog
Carbon Tariffs Again in the Spotlight
Here it comes again — talk of an EU carbon tax. This time it’s a member of the new administration of new French President Francois…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 24, 2012: Driverless Cars
A prototype driverless car made by Google recently made the rounds in Washington, DC, and Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner got to take…
Blog
Senate Vote Today on FDA, Supplements, and Energy Drinks
Today, the Senate will vote to reauthorize and modify the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) prescription drug and medical device user-fee program (…
Blog
MWAA: A Government-Authorized Fiefdom
Should Congress’s power extend to creating taxpayer-funded government entities that are free from state and federal laws concerning ethics, transparency, and disclosure? No, but it…
Blog
Empty Cupboards: The Legacy of the Greatest Generation
Blog
Is the Obama Administration Anti-Business?
If President Obama has found it hard in responding to critics who accuse him of being “anti-business,” he really only has his own administration’s policies…
Blog
EEOC Restricts Speech in Viewpoint-Discriminatory Manner in Dawson v. Donahoe: De Facto Ban on Confederate Flags
The First Amendment generally protects even offensive speech, so if you wish to wear a t-shirt celebrating a bloodthirsty thug like Mao, Stalin, or Che…
Blog
Facebook’s Fall and the Post-Sarbanes-Oxley “Cheers IPOs”
How Over-Regulation is Robbing Investors of Wealth from Smaller IPOs When I wrote pieces here and at the Daily Caller late last week injecting a…
Blog
An Economics Disaster
Blog
Today’s Links: May 23, 2012
Blog
H.R. 1909 — Unfinished Free-Market Business to Lift Barriers to Lending
They said it couldn't be done. That Congress couldn't pass a bipartisan bill in an election year to help the economy. Particularly one that lessens…
Blog
Techno-Phobic California Politicians “NHTSA” Google’s Driverless Car
Last week, I wrote about Google’s amazing new self-driving car, which CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman and I had the opportunity to test-ride in…
Blog
Congress Must End Taxpayers Vulnerability to Government Waste
Openmarket.org Fraud and abuse continue to be a barrier to effective government. According to the Cato Institute’s 2009 report, fraud or improper payments in government amount…
Blog
Obama: Promises Broken, Promises Kept
President Obama has broken many of his promises aimed at the general public and jobless Americans, but he has kept promises to his left-wing base…
Blog
Congress Must End Taxpayers Vulnerability to Government Waste
Fraud and abuse continue to be a barrier to effective government. According to the Cato Institute’s 2009 report, fraud or improper payments in government…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 21, 2012
Blog
Regulating Obama’s Regulators — And Those of Future Presidents
This month, President Obama released a new Executive Order building upon and making permanent the quest for regulatory savings in his…
Blog
A Fit of Sanity on ITAR
Over at Space Politics, Jeff Foust reports that the House has passed a bill allowing the administration to remove satellites from…
Blog
EPA’s Design to Strong-Arm the Chemical Industry
If you believe the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, its Design for the Environment (DfE) program is an example of a voluntary effort to protect…
Blog
Rep. Nick Rahall Responds, Agrees with Me on MAP-21’s “Sleight of Hand” Pay-Fors
This morning on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-W.V.) was read a passage from a blog post…
Blog
The Future of Automobility Is (Almost) Here: Google’s Self-Driving Car
[caption id="attachment_55209" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in the Google car. (Photo by Marc Scribner)"][/caption] This morning,…
Blog
Give a Man a Fish
Those with an interest in conserving our oceans’ fish stocks and those with an interest in promoting private property should both be interested in my…
Blog
Land of the Free? Part 2: The Real War on Women
"How could it be illegal to sell something that it's perfectly legal to give away?" -- George Carlin The recent extra-curricular exploits of American Secret Service…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 18, 2012
Blog
Before Immigration Was Regulated: Pre-20th Century Migration
Early large-scale human migration is the story of dispersal, spreading out as resources were used up and populations expanded past sustainability. The Agricultural Revolution brought…
Blog
Facebook, Overregulation, and the “Cheers IPOs”: Unshackling the Next Facebook and Its Investors
Whether or not a retail investor buys shares of Facebook when it finally goes public tomorrow -- and OpenMarket provides public policy, rather than investment,…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 17, 2012: Ethanol’s Overstated Benefits
Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis takes apart a study claiming that ethanol lowers gas prices by more than a dollar per gallon in some regions.
Blog
Tuna-Dolphin Issue — Again a WTO Decision
No, tuna-dolphin is not a hybrid fish, but the subject of a long-standing trade dispute between Mexico and the United States arising from a 1990…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 17, 2012
Blog
Bailouts Wanted — All Taxpayers Solicited!
Blog
Government Lost Tons of Money in the Auto Bailouts, Despite Benefiting from Blind Luck
As John Lott notes, “Having just $34 billion to show after a $100 billion-plus investment would get a chief executive of any private company…
Blog
Senate Rejects Obama Budget, 99-0
Blog
Let’s Lose LOST
The Law of the Sea Treaty would drastically undermine American sovereignty, giving massive powers to the U.N. (aka the Dictators’ Club of New York), but…
Blog
Cut Military Spending to Prevent Tax Increases; Obama Administration Endangers Anti-Terrorism Efforts by Exposing Undercover Agent
The Cato Institute has identified $17-20 billion in readily-achievable savings to the 2013 military budget. Such cuts can help stave off tax increases. As…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 16, 2012
Blog
Court Slaps NLRB — Again
In yet another victory for workers and job creators, a federal district court has struck down the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) ambush election rule.
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Survey of the Regulatory State
The latest edition of my colleague Wayne Crews’s annual snapshot of the regulatory state, “Ten Thousand Commandments,” is out. This year’s lowlights include: Estimated…
Blog
More First Amendment Violations from Obamacare, Thanks to HHS
Obamacare will drive up costs for most patients and insurance policyholders. Yet "health-insurance companies must tell customers who get a premium rebate…
Blog
Labor and Occupy: Comrades in Arms
CEI Brookes Warren Fellow Matt Patterson Featured in Openmarket.org The Washington Examiner is reporting that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is helping Occupy…
Blog
The Constellation Empire Strikes Back
Constellation, the Bush administration's plan to return to the moon, was canceled a couple years ago. But not all of Constellation was canceled. The Orion…
Blog
The Highway Bill and Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s Anti-P3 Propaganda
I've written extensively about federal surface transportation reauthorization, which is currently pending in conference. CEI, along with The Independent Institute and Reason Foundation,…
Blog
Greek Tragedy Nears a Dramatic End
With the prospects for a Greek pro-austerity coalition fading rapidly, here is a round-up of the most useful stories on the Greek tragedy: The…
Blog
Immigration and Demographic Doom
America -- the world’s most recent great civilization -- faces a demographic problem that calls for a solution from the dawn of civilization. When civilization…
Blog
Why Are Statists So Inconsistent?
Blog
Today’s Links: May 14, 2012
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
62 new final rules and 1,577 new Federal Register pages covering everything from sunscreen to commericial driver's licenses.
Blog
FCC Delays Threaten to Hurt Wireless Consumers
America’s communications regulatory regime is broken. Case in point: prior government approval is needed for what should be a run of the mill marketplace transaction.
Blog
Austerity Is Mythical, But It Would Have Real Benefits
Left-leaning commentators are wrong to decry “austerity” in Europe, since, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch notes, such “austerity” is largely mythical: European nations have not…
Blog
Framing the Debate on Chemical Regulation
Last week, CEI hosted a congressional briefing on chemical policy and regulation (the video of the event is forthcoming). A news story in…
Blog
Politics Is About Power, Not Ideology
Blog
GAO Releases Study About a Study on Studies
Blog
Why JPMorgan Chase’s Mark-to-Market Losses Don’t Bolster Case for Volcker Rule
There is much still to be known about the $2 billion in losses JPMorgan Chase is reporting due to a flawed hedging strategy. But this lack of…
Blog
Cyberbullying and Bullying Used As Pretexts for Censorship
In the name of fighting “cyberbullying,” many New York legislators would like to force blogs to remove blog comments that offend readers, unless they…
Blog
PATTERSON AND KOVACS: Labor bosses demand their dues
CEI Policy analyst Trey Kovacs and CEI Warren Brooks Fellow Matt Patterson. Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/10/labor-bosses-demand-their-dues/ Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 11, 2012
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 10, 2012: Freeing Our Farms
Current immigration policy keeps many immigrants in dangerous black markets, raises food prices for consumers, makes it difficult for farmers to hire workers and create…
Blog
Legacy Risks
European and American political and private institutions have made many non-sustainable retirement promises over the last 50 years. These promises cannot be kept and that…
Blog
Intellectuals Are the Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite
“Why do so many intellectuals lean politically to the left?” CEI President Fred Smith has written extensively on that question. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Harvard…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 10, 2012
Blog
Amendments That Take Away Rights
The Supreme Court, like European courts, has long recognized that corporations have constitutional rights, ever since its 6-to-1 decision in Dartmouth College…
Blog
Labor and Occupy: Comrades in Arms
CEI Warren Brookes Fellow Matt Patterson Featured in Openmarket.org The Washington Examiner is reporting that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is helping Occupy DC become…
Blog
Labor and Occupy: Comrades in Arms
The Washington Examiner is reporting that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is helping Occupy DC become a “more permanent fixture” of the Washington, D.C., landscape…
Blog
Republican Space Socialism Update
Last time we checked in on this topic, House Appropriations Chairman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) was decrying the wastefulness of competition. Well,…
Blog
Watch Livestream of Cybersecurity Event Featuring CEI Analyst
Blog
Today’s Links: May 9, 2012
Blog
Farm Bill Needs Real Reform, Not New Entitlements, Say Free-Market Groups
CEI joined with 10 other free-market groups in a letter today urging Congress to take on real reform of agricultural subsidies in the next…
Blog
Austerity Bites – But It Isn’t the Problem
The election results in Europe, we are told, are a vote against the austerity of "savage" spending cuts. Veronique de Rugy, in National Review Online,…
Blog
There Is Nothing Left to Cut
Blog
European Lessons for America
George Will warns that America’s system of competitive federalism is threatened by our own “Greeces.” (“In Illinois the bills are coming due,” April 27). Europe…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 8, 2012
Blog
The Great Unanswered Question About the Eurozone
In a column for the FT today, Wolfgang Munchau lays out what may be the only plausible solution to the Eurozone crisis – for…
Blog
H-2A Visas: Open in Theory, Closed in Practice
[caption id="attachment_54582" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="An Immigrant Worker in Idaho"][/caption] “Our immigration problem’s not going away.” That was the title of my article for…
Blog
IRS Pays Out Billions in Fraudulent Tax Credits, Ignoring Warnings from Whistleblower and Inspector General
Like whistleblowers, inspector generals often tell the government things it does not want to hear, or let the public know about how government agencies have wasted their…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 7, 2012
Blog
The Remote Sensing Problem
Over at the Washington Post, in discussing the coming crisis in weathersats, the editorial board can't resist taking an ignorant dig…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
70 new final rules, covering everything from Pell grants to underground storage tanks.
Blog
Endocrine Disrupters: Should We Fear Mother Nature?
A recent article published in the The New York Times touts a new report that claims to have finally proven that trace…
Blog
Alcohol Regulatory Roundup: Honor Mexico Edition
In honor of Cinco de Mayo I'll start today's alcohol regulatory roundup with some international news from Mexico: People are up in arms over…
Blog
Law Professors: I’m Shocked to Find Gambling In This Casino!
Just as a character in Casablanca claimed to be shocked to find gambling in a casino, race-conscious employers typically deny that they considered race…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 4, 2012
Blog
Education Department Pushes Racial Quotas in School Discipline
At Point of Law, Ted Frank of the Manhattan Institute criticizes the Obama Administration's demand for de facto racial quotas in school discipline:…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 3, 2012: Paving the Way for Innovation and Job Creation
Unemployment remains stubbornly high, more than three years after the financial crisis hit. John Berlau, CEI’s Senior Fellow for Finance and Access to Capital, suggests…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 3, 2012
Blog
Center-Right Coalition Calls For Credit Union Deregulation to Lift Lending
The recent viral video sensation "If I Wanted America to Fail" confirms that the regulatory state is a major focal point for the center-right…
Blog
Today’s Links: May 2, 2012
Blog
On May Day, Why Do We Still Have Unions?
Openmarket.org Big Labor and Occupy are using May Day protests in hopes of reinvigorating their movements. Unions are digging up the same old talking…
Blog
How Elites Milk Racial Preferences for Their Own Gain
One of the pitfalls of race-based affirmative action is that many disadvantaged people are less able to take advantage of it than the legal and…
Blog
When Commodities Analysts Should Stick To Commodities
Some analysts at Barclays attempt to understand the business case for Planetary Resources, and massively fail: Their…
Blog
On May Day, Why Do We Still Have Unions?
Big Labor and Occupy are using May Day protests in hopes of reinvigorating their movements. Unions are digging up the same…
Blog
Liquor Tax Hike Would Hurt the Little Guys
D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham’s proposal to increase the alcohol excise tax by “6 cents a drink” is not as innocent as he makes it…
Blog
Court Rules State Biotech Food Labeling Mandates Preempted By Federal Law
It’s been a few years since biotech foods have been regular front page news. The anti-technology activists cried wolf a few too many times, and…
Blog
Central Bankers are Playing a Losing Game
The supposed economic “recovery” is faltering. The sugar high of freshly printed money from the world’s central banks is beginning to wear off. In…
Blog
Student Loans Drive Up Tuition, Create Demographic Time Bomb and Higher-Education Bubble
Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes in the New York Post about how student loan programs have contributed to skyrocketing debt and rising defaults:…