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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The European Union fined Google a record $5 billion for antitrust violations, and the president raised foreign policy kerfuffles with Britain and Russia on…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was an uneventful week at regulatory agencies, with a lower-than-usual 51 new final regulations, ranging from skin disability ratings to garage door openers. For more data,…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
America celebrated its 242nd birthday on Wednesday, and new tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods came into effect on Friday. Meanwhile, during a…
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A Quick Lesson in Antitrust: Netflix and Comcast
Every time a major corporate merger is announced, pundits predictably warn of impending doom if regulators allow it to happen. Yet, pundits and regulators don’t know any…
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CEI Book Club: Peter Navarro and Greg Autry, Death by China
Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro has a longstanding animus against China. It is important to know Navarro’s thoughts on China. He played a major role…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a newsy week, with Justice Kennedy’s retirement announcement, along with some big Supreme Court decisions, including the Janus decision regarding public sector unions;…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Summer officially began last week, and federal regulators celebrated with new regulations ranging from almond kernel computing to rough diamonds.
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Last Chance for the 115th: Options for Regulatory Reform
With a possible party change in play this November in one or both chambers of Congress, the time might be now or never to pass…
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Minimum Wage Proposal Divides D.C. Workers, Voters
Washington, D.C. has a $12.50 per hour minimum wage. But for tip-earning workers, such as servers and bartenders, the minimum is $3.33 per hour—tips are…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Angry allies, North Korea, and Chinese tariffs dominated the news last week. Under the radar, regulatory agencies closed in on their 1,500th new regulation of…
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Last Chance for the 115th: Stop the President from Unilaterally Raising Tariffs
Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power of the purse. Under no circumstances may the president unilaterally raise taxes.
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Good News for Young Lemonade Stand Entrepreneurs
Every summer there are news stories about local authorities shutting down children’s lemonade stands over lack of licenses, permits, a lack of restaurant-grade kitchen or…
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Will Trump’s Tariffs Spell the End of Free Markets?
The president’s threats must be fought, but the good news is America’s fundamental institutions will withstand Trumpian bluster. For one thing, our economy remains a…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The week’s big headlines were about the G7 meeting and our allies’ efforts to avoid a trade war, and the meeting with north Korea…
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Here We Go Again: Steel and Aluminum Tariffs and Peter Navarro
A new 25 percent steel tariff and a 10 percent aluminum tariff have come into effect. The levies are aimed at our allies, such as Canada,…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Despite a four-day workweek, federal agencies still exceeded the previous week’s Federal Register page count by nearly a hundred pages, pushing the yearly total past…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Agencies took it comparatively easy in the leadup to the long Memorial Day weekend, though the FAA and Coats Guard were busy with rules for…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a relatively slow week, with 44 proposed regulations and 62 final regulations, though the Supreme Court did rule the federal ban on…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big news from the last week was the release of the spring edition of the twice-yearly Unified Agenda, which lists all planned agency regulations…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It is now May, and still only one economically significant regulation (costing $100 million or more per year) has been issued this year. With the…
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Regulatory Reform in Congress
While the president’s initial flurry of executive orders enacting some regulatory reforms was a pleasant surprise, the next president can undo them with the stroke…
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Steel and Aluminum Tariffs a Massive Net Loss for U.S. Economy
Following in George W. Bush’s footsteps, President Trump increased tariffs on foreign-made steel and aluminum by 25 percent in March. But he exempted U.S. allies…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new final regulations passed the 1,000 mark last week, with new rules ranging from sending mail to human reliability programs.
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Some Context for the Astronomical Cost of Government Regulation
Since any number with that many zeroes and commas in it is difficult for the human mind to process, let’s put it in a more…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big news this week was the release of the 2018 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. Agencies continued to provide fodder for next years edition…
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Lessons for Congress from ‘10,000 Commandments’: Regulatory Budgets
One of the lessons learned from this year’s “10,000 Commandments” study is that Congress needs to be more involved in the regulatory process. It needs…
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‘10,000 Commandments’ at 25: What Have We Learned, What’s to Come?
Wayne Crews has ably documented the regulatory state for twenty-five years and running. But what will the next twenty-five years of “10,000 Commandments” look like?…
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Peter Navarro’s Economic Ignorance on Trade
Trump economic advisor and Death by China author Peter Navarro’s recent column in The Wall Street Journal, “China’s Faux Comparative Advantage,” is a…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The highlights from this week’s round of 36 proposed regulations and 72 final regulations range from licensing government inventions to the Department of Redundancy Department’s…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It may not feel like Spring yet, but regulatory agencies have turned their fancies to rulemaking, with 45 proposed and 70 final regulations ranging from…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
With a full quarter of 2018 in the books, agencies have issued just one economically significant rule—an increase in State Department fees amounting to $115…
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What’s Driving the New Economy: Reviewing ‘Tomorrow 3.0’
We truly do live in amazing times. And according to Michael Munger, who directs Duke University’s multidisciplinary PPE program (it stands for Philosophy, Politics, and…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As the reality television drama in Washington continues to unfold, regulatory agencies pushed the 2017 Federal Register past the 35,000-page mark and issued 75 new…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As summer marches on, regulatory agencies issued more than 60 new regulations in the last week.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Regulatory agencies were plenty busy last week, with new rules in the last week ranging from Maine’s gas stations to hammerhead shark herd size.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
81 new rules from the last week still range from work surfaces to spirulina extract.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
A recent EPA rule for dental effluence caused some controversy for violating President Trump’s one-in, two-out policy for new rules.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
New rules from the last week are as wide-ranging as ever, from dental effluence to reciprocating engines.
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A Birthday Wish List for the President
Here are four gifts Congress should give the president before its annual July 4th recess.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
After a lengthy delay, several Obama-era rules are starting to come into effect, especially energy-use rules ranging from refrigerators to ceiling fans.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new final regulations this year passed the one-thousand mark. While many of the new rules are delays or repeals of older rules,…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Another droll week on the regulatory front, with new rules ranging from UHF television to restaurant menus.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
While most of the week’s new final regulations are either routine or procedural, they still range from rural phone calls to airplane batteries.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Federal Register continues its slow march to the 20,000-page mark, but is still on pace for lowest page total since 1993.
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Archbridge Institute Releases Optimistic New Research on Economic Mobility
The best way to encourage more economic mobility is to foster a cultural and regulatory environment where innovation, openness, and change are encouraged.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2017 Federal Register had another sub-thousand page week, though it is still already more than 18,000 pages long.
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In Wake of United Debacle, Give Airlines – and Travelers – More Flexibility
Most of the time it’s actually government policies that end up ruining a traveler’s day.
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White House Should Drop Support for Cronyism of Export-Import Bank
With the Trump administration’s early emphasis on deregulation, there was hope that cronyist agencies such as the Export-Import Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and Economic…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Things remain slow on the regulatory front, with a large chunk of new rules being routine safety-zone and drawbridge scheduling regulations from the Coast Guard.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
There were 63 final regulations and 28 proposed regulations last week, but again, few of them amounted to much. We’ll have more to say on…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Trump administration’s 60-day regulatory freeze is now over, but many of this week’s new regulations are simply extensions of previous delays. So despite a…
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Human Achievement of the Day: The Written Word
Writing is a classic example of what the economist F.A. Hayek called spontaneous order.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Starting this week, many late-Obama administration regulations delayed by the Trump administration’s 60-day freeze will come into effect.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was another slow week for new regulations, but busy times are on their way. A slew of delayed regulations will come into effect on…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As the regulatory freeze marches on, most new regulations coming out are garden-variety FAA airworthiness directives and Coast Guard drawbridge and safety zone rules.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
43 new regulations last week, from toddler beds to potato proteins.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As with the previous few weeks, many of this week’s regulations were simply delays of previous rules.
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Deregulate to Grow the Economy Faster
Congress and the new administration have a real chance to make the economy grow faster, and to raise the labor force participation rate above its…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The White House regulatory freeze continues, and a wide range of recent rules, big and small, have been delayed until late March.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
With the new administration’s regulatory freeze now in full effect, there were just 8 proposed new regulations published last week. This was the lowest figure…
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‘One In, Two Out’: Trump’s Executive Order on New Regulations
President Trump's latest executive order on regulatory reform could be an important step in the right direction for reining in government red tape.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
For the next few weeks, the Federal Register will likely have fewer pages and regulations than usual.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The final pre-inauguration Federal Register was 1,464 pages long. A normal day’s edition is roughly 300 pages. Since there is a lag time of a…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
In a mere nine working days, the 2017 Federal Register has nearly reached 5,000 pages; the midnight hour approaches.
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New York Times Highlights Minimum Wage Tradeoffs
Minimum wage increases have obvious winners, which is why they are so popular. Their tradeoffs are less obvious.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The midnight regulatory rush continues, with more than 2,100 Federal Register pages, despite a four-day work week, along with 51 proposed regulations and 52 final…
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Regulatory Reform in 2017: How Much Do Existing Regulations Cost?
The Regulatory Responsibility for our Economy Act (RREA), sponsored by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), would help fix basic transparency problems with federal regulations.
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Regulatory Reform in 2017: REINS and the Regulatory Accountability Act
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations: 2016 Wrap-Up
The 2016 Federal Register’s record-setting page count ends at 97,110 pages—more than 15,000 pages above the previous record, set in 2010. The difference is more…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As the Obama administration heads into its home stretch, agencies passed new rules ranging from gloves to canned vegetables.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
On Tuesday the 2016 Federal Register topped 90,000 pages for the first time ever, and continues to extend its page-count record every day.
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Three Regulatory Reforms Congress Can Pass in the First Hundred Days
Here are three they should pursue in the new administration’s first hundred days.
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Ratios, Not People: The Wrong Approach to Inequality
Thomas Piketty, the best-selling author of Capital in the 21st Century, has a new paper on economic inequality with coauthors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2016 Federal Register will likely top 90,000 pages next week for the first time ever.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
As the Federal Register climbed above 87,000 pages for the first time in its 81-year history, agencies issued new rules ranging from landfills to movie…
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O’Hare Airport Strikes: Will Anybody Notice?
If 500 workers are absent for several hours and it hardly affects a thing at the airport, then how essential are they?…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Thanksgiving week was a busy one, with new regulations ranging from potatoes to royalties.
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O’Hare Workers to Strike for $15 Minimum Wage
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
On November 17, the 2016 Federal Register set an all-time record page count—an impressive feat for a document that has been published continuously since 1936.
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Counteracting the Midnight Rush of Regulations
Now that the White House will officially be switching parties, the outgoing Obama administration will likely pass as much of its regulatory agenda as quickly…
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Congress Should Use REINS Act to Reform Regulation
CEI released a new report today about the REINS Act, which would require Congress to vote on all new executive branch regulations costing more than…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Veterans Day made it a short work week, but agencies still filled more than 1,300 Federal Register pages with rules ranging from trailer tires to…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Federal Register continued its record pace last week, with Friday’s edition alone having 1,177 pages.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
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Maine’s Proposed Minimum Wage Increase Has Tradeoffs
Maine is one of several states with a minimum wage increase on the election ballot this year, along with several cities and other smaller jurisdictions.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The number of new federal regulations passed the 3,000 mark last week, and the Federal Register continues its record pace.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Federal regulators enjoyed a short work week due to Columbus Day, but still published more than 1,300 Federal Register pages with new regulations ranging from…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Federal Register will crack the 70,000-page barrier early this week. New rules found in last week’s 2,000-plus pages range from foreign cars to beetles.
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Export-Import Bank Supporters Dealt Setback in Congress
The Export-Import Bank’s supporters and beneficiaries very nearly scored a major victory last week. Ex-Im, as it’s called for short, was shut down for about…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It was a busy week, with Friday’s Federal Register alone containing 52 final regulations and 809 pages.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Agencies issued more than six dozen new final regulations last week, ranging from minerals to dates.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Agencies issued 78 new regulations last week, ranging from cherries to dairy.
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When It Comes to Trade Our Leaders, Not Other Countries, Are Ripping Americans off
In recent weeks, trade has repeatedly come up in discussions and speeches by presidential candidates. Donald Trump says he would renegotiate NAFTA, while Hillary Clinton’s…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Despite a Labor Day-shortened work week, agencies still found time to issue regulations from soap to whales.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2016 Federal Register broke the 60,000-page mark last week, and became the 25th-largest edition in the Register’s 81-year history before Labor Day.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
In one of their busiest weeks to date, agencies passed more than a hundred new regulations covering everything from rubies to frogs.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Friday’s Federal Register was one of the year’s biggest, with 74 agency notices, 4 proposed regulations and 15 final regulations spanning 1,119 pages.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
88 new regulations last week, from poultry improvement to nuclear philosophy.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Congress is on its August recess, but agencies stayed busy with more than 2,000 Federal Register pages, 51 proposed regulations, and nearly 100 final regulations…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The 2016 Federal Register broke the 50,000-page mark on Friday, and remains on a record pace. New regulations for the week ranged from cement to…