Blog
New Jersey fishermen challenge Chevron deference
Big news out of the Supreme Court this week as justices have agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging the so-called Chevron doctrine, a policy requiring…
Blog
Punishing success with higher mortgage rates?
The Biden administration recently implemented changes to fees on mortgages that are backed by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Our old friend…
Blog
Regulatory reform in the 118th Congress: Regulatory Accountability Act
In 2003, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published Circular A-4. A-4 is little-known but crucial oversight measure for new regulations. It gives…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Grow for tomorrow with Adam Millsap
In this week’s episode we talk about judicial deference at the Supreme Court, Biden’s new mortgage rate policy, how Americans are thinking…
Blog
Taking people’s stuff: Civil forfeiture is widespread, unjust, and resists reform
Civil forfeiture is a deeply unfair practice in which government agents take and keep billions of dollars of personal property every year – usually without…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Smart urbanism with Max Dubler
In the latest episode, we talk about John Berlau and Stone’s Washington’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed on financial regulation and free speech,…
Blog
The week in ridiculous regulations: Oklahoma emissions and Big Creek crayfish
GDP grew by 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Cable news hosts Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon were both fired. Meanwhile, agencies…
Blog
Has Gary Gensler turned the SEC into a regulatory ‘Hotel California’?
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler hadn’t testified before the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 months. Republican members made up for lost…
Blog
The week in ridiculous regulations: otter casualties and moving the goalpost
Fox News settled its defamation case over its false reporting on the 2020 election with voting machine maker Dominion. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…
Blog
Regulatory reform in the 118th Congress: Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) of 1980 was an important transparency measure for vetting new regulations. But it falls short in some important areas,…
Blog
Romney slams Labor nominee Su’s ‘so severely lacking’ record
Julie Su, the White House’s pick to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, had her first of two Senate hearings Thursday. Sen. Mitt Romney…
Blog
Texas v. EPA could save the day for cars that go vroom
The Competitive Enterprise Institute this week filed its reply brief for private petitioners in State of Texas et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency.
Blog
Congress shouldn’t party like it’s 2019 on national debt
Now comes the GOP’s turn to do its own version of a “lockdown.” Republicans should heed the advice of a member of the other party, Rahm…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 17: Political Fusionism with Stephanie Slade
In this week’s episode we talk about Michael Strain’s and Dominic Pino’s recent arguments for economic optimism, Jessica Melugin’s defense of…
Blog
Freelancers Find Little Sympathy from Left In Fight over Worker ‘Misclassification’
Kim Kavin is a freelance writer and an activist in the current political fight over the issue of worker classification. As co-founder of the activist…
Blog
The Supreme Court’s Axon decision shatters the in-house advantage of administrative law courts
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a significant ruling that upended the adjudicatory monopoly enjoyed by administrative law courts (ALCs). In Axon…
Blog
Don’t Cede Fairness to the Left
CEI’s Founder, Fred Smith, rightly understood that people will only listen to us if we communicate at the level of their values. And one value we know…
Blog
Data Alone Can’t Make the Case for Abundance
As public policy researchers, it’s absolutely necessary that our recommendations rely on strong, sound data. In our advocacy, though, that’s not sufficient. As I explain in…
Blog
Competitive Enterprise Institute Leads Coalition Comment Opposing Department of Energy Stove Regulation
On April 17, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and 30 free-market organizations filed a comment with the Department of Energy (DOE) critical of its proposed…
Blog
Biden Executive Order Harms Transparency
The Biden administration recently issued an Executive Order making major changes to the regulatory system, although almost nobody noticed thanks to culture war drama…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Headline CPI inflation went down slightly, but a deeper look shows that things got slightly worse. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from low-fat…
Blog
Skepticism about EPA’s PM2.5 Rule Is Healthy
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed to tighten the annual national ambient air quality standard for fine particulate matter. My colleague Daren Bakst…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 16: Tar Heel Activism with Brooke Medina
This week we talk about political pessimism in popular polling, the return of the Malthusian environmentalists, the problem with Buy American…
Blog
Free Enterprise Scholarship in Alabama
Some fans of economic freedom have been worried in recent years that anti-capitalism is rife on U.S. college and university campuses, from Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Blog
Too Clever by Half – EPA’s De-Facto Electric Vehicle Mandate
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced new, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles. The standards would increase in…
Blog
Making the Perfect the Enemy of the Good: Everything-Bagel Public Policy
Thanks to Caleb Watney of the Institute for Progress for recommending the great New York Times column by Ezra Klein about the red…
Blog
Blue State Bailouts on the Horizon?
Whenever we see risky and poorly thought-out ventures in the business world, the negative consequences of those ideas will usually be limited to the shareholders…
Blog
Regulatory Reform in the 118th Congress: Separation of Powers Restoration Act
The separation of powers is a key aspect of American government. To decentralize power and ensure checks and balances, the Founders divided the federal government…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
An Executive Order from the Biden administration made some of the biggest system-level regulatory changes in years. It raises the threshold for “economically significant”…
Blog
FedNow Isn’t a CBDC, But Still Contains Many Dangers
Over the past few days, “FedNow” has been trending on Twitter in tweets that contain healthy doses of curiosity and skepticism, well-founded concerns about privacy…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 15: Eco-Modernism and Abundance with Alex Trembath
In this week’s episode of the Free the Economy podcast, we talk about the likelihood of blue state bailouts, issues with “…
Blog
Secondhand Antitrust: FTC Continues to Bully Industries that Can Save Lives
Altria Group, the largest tobacco company in the U.S., divested its 35 percent stake in the e-cigarette maker Juul Labs early last month. The Federal…
Blog
Debt Limit: When You Run Out of Other People’s Money, Keep Spending Anyway
Spending and deficit control are indispensable to a the long-term economic health and stability of a nation. But today, fiscal restraint is visible only in…
Blog
The EPA’s Premature Proposal on Particulate Matter: Highlights from CEI’s Comment to the EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is jumping the gun by reconsidering the existing particulate matter (PM) air quality standards.Under the Clean Air Act, the…
Blog
In Chicago’s Mayoral Runoff, It’s a Question of Which Union Wins
In Chicago’s upcoming mayoral race, the question is not whether organized labor will win, but rather which public sector union walks away with bragging rights.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Finland, which borders Russia, is joining NATO. Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
Finance Facts Trump Biden’s Blame Game on Banking Woes
Donald Trump dominated the news in more ways than one yesterday, as Biden officials attempted to place the Trump administration at the center of recent…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 14: Conservative Economics with Dominic Pino
This week we talk corporate mega-mergers that turned out for the best, political meddling with the Federal Reserve’s inflation policy, “woke” language…
Blog
Large Language Models are Great Tools but Lousy Researchers
Climate skeptic Newtuber Tony Heller asked ChatGPT some questions about the climate and found it lacking. It gave the sort of answers you would…
Blog
Eight Groups Support Supreme Court Consideration of Moore v. United States
The Moores’ Supreme Court challenge to an unprecedented tax—a tax which the government labels a income tax, but is actually a property tax—received a…
Blog
Amendments to H.R. 1: The Very Good, the Good, and the Ugly
The House of Representatives is currently debating H.R. 1, the “Lower Energy Costs Act.” As the House works its way through the bill,…
Blog
Michigan’s Right To Work Repeal Is a Repeal of Individual Rights
If right to work laws are so bad than why do their critics have such a hard time talking about what precisely the laws do? …
Blog
Three Important Policy Reforms in H.R 1
The House of Representatives this week is expected to consider H.R. 1, the “Lower Energy Costs Act.” Here are three of the most…
Blog
After Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Merge?
Did antitrust ideology play a role in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the slight contagion that destabilized the global banking system thereafter?…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 13: The Future of Online Privacy with Spencer Purnell
This week we talk about Silicon Valley Bank and political favoritism, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s climate agenda, the relationship of…
Blog
IPCC’s Synthesis Report Focuses More on Ideology than Science
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest Synthesis Report, released on March 20, reads like a far-left manifesto, promoting “redistributive policies,” social…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate, signaling it intends to hold firm on fighting inflation. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from…
Blog
Are Administrative Law Courts More Trouble Than They’re Worth?
As touched upon in an earlier piece, administrative law courts (ALCs) are a threat to the separation of powers, in which the executive branch…
Blog
Can HR 1 Rekindle The Blue Flame Of Freedom?
It’s not easy to choose the Biden Administration’s single most foolish climate change policy amongst many deserving candidates, but worst of all may be the assault on the residential use of natural gas. The costs of this agenda are substantial, and it’s all…
Blog
The Many Harms of Unlimited Deposit Insurance
Unlimited deposit insurance – the government guaranteeing that bank accounts of any size be made whole-in the event of a bank failure – would create…
Blog
Fed Credibility Depends on it Continuing to Raise Rates
Today’s federal funds rate hike is good news because it signals commitment. That will help the public to expect the Fed to continue to…
Blog
Desperately Seeking Regulatory Restraint
Our friends at the Wall Street Journal editorial board recently published a timely warning about the surge in federal regulation being pushed by the…
Blog
Protecting Pensions from Politics
Congress recently voted to protect pensions from politicized mismanagement and ESG fads, but President Biden has announced that he will be vetoing the measure. I…
Blog
Silicon Valley Bank, ESG, and Political Favoritism
Last weekend we all saw the beginnings of what has now become a major meltdown for Silicon Valley Bank. The bank was quickly closed by…
Blog
Legislation Introduced to Curb Federal Forfeiture
Earlier this month, Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI) reintroduced the Fifth Amendment Restoration Act (FAIR) Act. This measure is aimed at curbing federal forfeiture…
Blog
FTC Budget Request: More Money, More Staff, and More Problems
Instead of increasing the FTC’s budget, Congress should increase oversight of an agency gone rogue. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) submitted its annual budget…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Silicon Valley Bank’s failure was the confluence of bad management and bad regulations. It could also complicate the Fed’s inflation-fighting efforts. Meanwhile, agencies…
Blog
When the Policy is This Bad, Politics Might Be the Only Explanation
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently proposed a tech agenda as his “Digital Bill of Rights” for the state’ blessedly short 60-day legislative session. While there…
Blog
Senators Should Reject WOTUS Overreach
The Senate is soon expected to consider legislation that would reject the Biden administration’s final rule defining “Waters of the United States,” otherwise…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 12: Consumer Welfare and Big Government with Patrick Hedger
This week we talk about the drama with Silicon Valley Bank and the proposal from Wayne Crews for an Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act, how…
Blog
Congress, Please Reform the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
My Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) colleague Devin Watkins recently testified on Capitol Hill before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary…
Blog
CEI Advises CEQ to Withdraw Its NEPA Guidance on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change
Last week I submitted comments advising the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to withdraw its proposed guidance on consideration of greenhouse gas (GHG)…
Blog
The Risks of Bailing Out Silicon Valley Bank’s Uninsured Depositors and How to Make the Banking System Resilient
On Sunday evening, the Biden administration decided that all customers of the failed Silicon Valley Bank will have their millions and possibly billions in the…
Blog
Why Congress Must Think Twice About Adopting Biden’s Brazen Budget Proposal
Last Thursday, President Joe Biden finally unveiled his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year 2024. This marks the third straight year that Biden…
Blog
Congress Should Appropriate Money for the CFPB Through the Congressional Appropriation Process
Last week, I had the honor of testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy on how Congress should…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Biden released a $6.8 trillion proposed budget. The labor force grew by 311,000 people in February. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
What Are Administrative Law Courts? Why Do They Matter?
The judicial branch is presumably an independent branch of government, alongside the legislative and executive branches. But many regulatory agencies have their own in-house court…
Blog
Regulatory Reform in the 118th Congress: The ALERT Act
Transparency is a vital part of good government. It is also lacking in the regulatory process. H.R. 262, The All Economic Regulations are Transparent…
Blog
The War On Natural Gas – Pipeline Edition
The Biden Administration’s climate change-inspired war on natural gas continues on multiple fronts. Most recently in the news are the regulatory attempts to curtail the use…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 11: True Diversity and Economic Opportunity with Patrice Onwuka
This week we talk about a warning from Wayne Crews and The Wall Street Journal on the burden of over-regulation, the policy…
Blog
Trust, but Verify via Congressional Oversight
Is the Federal Trade Commission’s request that Twitter hand over the names of “all journalists and other members of the media to whom” the social…
Blog
Rep. Duncan Leads Letter Expressing Concern over Foreign Regulatory Overreach
I’ve written before about the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, its main antitrust regulator. It has already blocked one US company from taking over another…
Blog
Some Things are Just Business, Not Politics – and That’s a Good Thing
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was the predictable venue for Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy to portrait DirecTV’s recent decision to stop carrying the channel…
Blog
Don’t Ban Technology of Tomorrow to Save Jobs of Yesterday
Recently in Episode 10 of the Free the Economy podcast we returned to one of our favorite topics, economic opportunity and jobs in…
Blog
House Financial Services Committee Leans on SEC’s Gensler for More Transparency
House Financial Services Committee Leans on SEC’s Gensler for More Transparency Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee and some allies in the Senate are…
Blog
Trust, but Verify via Congressional Oversight
Is the Federal Trade Commission’s request that Twitter hand over the names of “all journalists and other members of the media to whom” the social…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
CEI published a new paper on right-to-repair legislation and held a hill briefing about regulatory reform and other topics. Meanwhile, agencies issued new…
Blog
Congress Hands Biden His First Legislative Defeat by Overturning DOL ESG Rule Affecting Retirees
Republicans in Congress have just teed up the first major legislative rebuke to the Biden Administration’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. On Tuesday,…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 10: Legalize Jobs with Shoshana Weissmann
Welcome back to the Free the Economy podcast. In this week’s episode we talk about Mercatus Center’s Michael Farren’s case for the…
Blog
How Ofcom can develop more flexible net neutrality rules for specialised services
The United Kingdom needs more flexible net neutrality rules as the Rishi Sunak government seeks to bolster the country’s leadership in emerging technologies. Creating more…
Blog
DOL Nominee Julie Su An Aggressive Enforcer, Inept Manager
President Biden’s announcement Tuesday that he would nominate Department of Labor Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su to replace departing Labor Secretary Mary Walsh is…
Blog
Regulatory Reform Bills in the 118th Congress: The Article I Regulatory Budget Act
The federal government is supposed to put out an annual budget to track its spending. Why doesn’t it do the same thing for regulation? The…
Blog
Congress must ensure more efficient and transparent broadband funding
Improved Internet connectivity can help reduce socioeconomic inequality at home and improve America’s global economic competitiveness abroad. Thanks to growing private investment, competition, and innovation,…
Blog
New CEI Paper Outlines Problems with “Right to Repair” Legislation
At least 20 states have filed or refiled “right to repair” legislation since the start of the new year. Two states passed right to…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Last Friday marked the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. CEI released a new paper on the FTC’s upcoming merger guideline…
Blog
Fed Economist: Study Shows Danger of Government-Mandated Financial Misinformation
Study from Fed Economist Shows Danger of Government-Mandated Financial Misinformation The “Twitter Files” have made some shocking revelations about government entities…
Blog
Covid Lockdowns Did Not Improve Outcomes: Lessons from Florida and California
My Competitive Enterprise Institute colleague Dr. Joel Zinberg is the co-author of a new report, published by the Paragon Health Institute titled “Freedom Wins:…
Blog
Study from Fed Economist Shows Danger of Government-Mandated Financial Misinformation
The “Twitter Files” have made some shocking revelations about government entities muscling social media companies to deplatform people in the name of preventing so-called…
Blog
We Won’t Need More Lithium for EVs if We Just Ban Cars (and the Suburbs) Instead
Seaver Wang of the Breakthrough Institute published a fascinating analysis recently on the need for more mining and resource development in order to fuel…
Blog
Collusion Is Harmful and Illegal—Except When a Federal Agency Does It?
The Wall Street Journal reports today, thanks to FOIA requests by the Chamber of Commerce, that it appears the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) conspired…
Blog
College-Educated Women Advance in Workforce
The Pew Research Center recently published some interesting data on women in the workforce. For the first time ever, women with college degrees have…
Blog
Bad Trade Policy Still Bottling up Baby Formula
Scott Lincicome and Gabriella Beaumont-Smith brought us an update last week on the infant formula pipeline problems we’ve been seeing for the last…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 9: Unconstitutional Taxation with Dan Greenberg
Welcome back to the Free the Economy podcast. In this week’s episode we start by perusing National Review’s series on Adam Smith’s 300th…
Blog
CFPB Court Defeat a Welcome Reminder of who Makes the Rules
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suffered a stinging reverse in court last week when its action against Chicago-area mortgage company Townstone Financial was dismissed.
Blog
Happy 300th Birthday, Adam Smith
Our friends at National Review have created a fascinating publication series to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith, legendary…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2023 Federal Register topped 10,000 pages on February 16. Inflation remained high, but is still below its peak. FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson…
Blog
The Judiciary Is Skeptical of FTC Power Grabs in Meta/Within Case
The FTC tried to stop a merger between Facebook’s parent company Meta and the virtual reality app developer Within Unlimited. A court recently ruled against…
Blog
New CEI Paper on New Merger Guidelines
Any day now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will release new merger guidelines. FTC Chair Lina Khan has not yet released a draft of the…
Blog
Regulatory Reform Bills in the 118th Congress: The Less Is More Resolution
Often, spending is regulation in disguise. The 185,000-page Code of Federal Regulations is not the only way Washington regulates the economy. The federal government…
Blog
Hearing Shows Bipartisan Momentum for Focused Financial Deregulation
Last week, I had the honor and pleasure of testifying at the first hearing of the newly constituted Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy subcommittee…