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Cataloging Washington’s Hidden Costs: Part 1: The Loss of Liberty
Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so. —Quote frequently attributed to Galileo that he probably never said. Washington is teeing up…
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Are California Droughts Natural or Man Made?
A ongoing battle in court and public opinion rages in California over the environmental status of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (both rivers meet, and…
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Executive Branch Review of Federal Regulations — Still Highly Incomplete
In the 2014 fiscal budget proposal, the White House praised regulation of auto safety, energy efficiency and credit cards, and claimed, "…
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Congress to Mark Up Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Bill
The Regulatory Flexibility Act directs federal agencies to assess the effects of their rules on small businesses. How’s that going? A new book…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 15): Can We Please End This. Please.
Today, Monday, September 9, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 14): What Should Congress Do?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 13): What FCC Should Do Now
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 12): Why Net Neutrality Threatens Homeland Security and Cybersecurity
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 11): The Inappropriateness of Compulsory Transparency
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 10): Who’s Discriminating Online?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 9): How to Expand Consumer Choice and Access to Content
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 8): The Essential Elements of Non-Destructive Rulemaking
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 7): Mandatory Dumb Pipes? But Why Sacrifice Genius?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 6): Does “Market Failure” Demand Neutrality Regulation?
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 5): The Fallacies Motivating Net Neutrality
(Note: On September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 4): FCC Order Creates Political Vulnerability for All Market Participants
(Note: On Septe. 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s challenge of the…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 3): The FCC’s Disdain for Markets
(Note: On September 9, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World (Part 2): An Alternative Case for Agency Neutrality
(Note: On Sept. 9, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon’s…
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Before Net Neutrality Eats the World, Part 1: Net Neutrality vs. Infrastructure Wealth
On September 9, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Verizon's…
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How to Have Enough Water for Everybody
Last week I testified in the Water and Power Subcommittee in the House of Representatives (hearing linked…
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Costs Rise In Obama’s New 2013 Draft Report To Congress On The Benefits And Costs Of Federal Regulations
Last year, the Obama Office of Management and Budget’s 2012 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal…
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State Of The Union? Try “Over-Regulated”
In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama cannot be expected to pledge to roll back government in any manner whatsoever, a…
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The Cost Of Enforcing Government Regulation
Regulatory cost estimates of around $1.8 trillion encompass compliance costs paid by the public plus economic drag. But but those estimates do not include the…
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The Anti-Democracy Index
In compiling Ten Thousand Commandments over the years (alas, February 8 is going to mark 20 years of this project) it…
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How Much Does Federal Paperwork And Tax Compliance Cost?
Regulations notwithstanding, the off-budget costs of tax compliance for individuals and businesses are said to account for most of the federal paperwork burden, although there…
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Federal Regulation Update: 224 Economically Significant Rules In The Pipeline
The federal government's Fall Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions finally appeared the Friday before Christmas (the Spring 2012…
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Where Did All The Environmental Protection Agency Rules Go?
The Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations has always been squishy and has never bound agencies to issue solely the rules contained within; but the decline…
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Settlement: FTC Ends Google Antitrust Investigation
Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared Google of accusations of "Search Bias," and inappropriately harming rivals. The investigation lasted nearly…
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2012’s Year-End Regulatory Report Card
Both 2011 and 2010 finished with over 81,000 pages in the Federal Register, as tallied in Ten Thousand Commandments. These were the highest page counts…
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Beyond The Fiscal Cliff, Bipartisan Regulatory Reform
If I'm reading this right, the Progressive Policy Institute wants to roll back some over-regulation. It's not clear how much, but it does seem to…
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Where Is Obama’s Unified Agenda Of Federal Regulations?
Two primary federal documents by which we judge the regulatory record of the administration are missing in action this year. We at least can say,…
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Science And Technology Policy And The Democratic Convention
Now it's the Democrats' turn to gather for their convention in Charlotte and one element of the platform in common with basic Republican philosophy is…
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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…
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How to Fix U.S. Water Policy? Less Government, More Market Pricing
Late last week I received an invitation to testify in the Water and Power Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Natural…
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Record Red Tape
Over at Big Government today I noted the Federal Register of 2011 has almost reached the level of last year’s record. Given that 2011’s…
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Just in time for the Debt Super Committee–the new Hello Kitty Federal Budget Calculator
The Hello Kitty Federal Budget Calculator is here to ease tension created by hostile political climate in the wake of the debt-ceiling-increase debates. Yesterday,…
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Tea Party vs. Tea Partly
In noticing the upcoming debate tonight featuring Republican contenders, I wondered to myself under which candidate would the federal government actually be smaller after four…
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Obama’s Regulatory Reform: The Costs of Benefits
My colleagues commented above on the Cass Sunstein lecture at the American Enterprise Institute called "Regulatory Look-Back: A First Look," about agency's supposed eagerness to…
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The FCC is Broken
A new report in The Hill notes House Republicans’ concern over “dysfunction” at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the need for overhaul. Their…
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It’s Nothing Death, Poverty, and Ignorance Can’t Fix
The New York Times “Room for Debate” frets today about overpopulation (h/t Don Boudreaux). Julian Simon and liberty have long since come…
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Defending Nature via Property Rights
Elizabeth Brubaker describes why the institutions of private property are needed to defend nature, and why modern control policies that undermine them contribute to pollution…
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Deirdre McCloskey on “Bourgeois Dignity”
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The State of the Union Address in Five Words
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What Should POTUS Say During SOTU?
Freedom Action‘s Myron Ebell, while he isn’t optimistic, answers on a POLITICO forum: In an ideal world, President Barack Obama would use his…
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The Hidden Cost of Going Green
Here’s a sobering read at SmartMoney on how green products that are supposed to save money can take longer than expected for payback. This holds…
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Video Games are More than Just Good for Kids
They will be a primary way that we learn, teach, produce and advance in the future. Jane McGonigal of Institute for the Future has…
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Should Geoengineering be Banned?
Since one day the sun will expand into a red-giant star, humans in the distant multi-millennial future will either have to leave the Earth, geoengineer…
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The cut-and-paste Splinternet
The way Ben Kunz in a new Business Week artcle puts it, “Each device contains its own widening universe of services and applications, many…
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If we want elephants to die off, we only need to do what we’re doing
They can be saved, however. Dan Hannan in London talks about “privatising” the elephant (and watch the video): To us, elephants are…
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Obama Defends Misguided Spending Stimulus on One-Year Anniversary
Today on the anniversary of Porkulus, President Barack Obama and his staff are defending the massive spending stimulus and sweeping financial, health care, energy…