The Open Market Blog

• By: John Berlau
• 12/16/2011

Let me begin this post with a disclaimer, of which many of our readers are already aware. The Competitive Enterprise Institute and OpenMarket.org do not…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 12/16/2011

The notorious Boeing vs. NLRB lawsuit is settled. Unfortunately, only Big Labor and the Obama administration gain from the Boeing and IAM agreement. Boeing chose…

Labor and Employment

• By: Gregory Conko
• 12/16/2011

Way back in September 2009, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would begin using the social media site Twitter to share news and other…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/15/2011

Student loan debt is rising at an exponential rate, as an illustration at the Daily Dish shows (at this link). A college tuition…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 12/15/2011

Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner looks at House Republicans' "drilling for roads" proposal and finds it wanting.

Labor and Employment

• By: Marc Scribner
• 12/14/2011

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday called on all states to ban "the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Gregory Conko
• 12/14/2011

I didn't have a chance to write about it then, but a few weeks back the Food and Drug Administration denied a…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Iain Murray
• 12/14/2011

David Hogberg of Investor’s Business Daily and The American Spectator has a very complimentary review of my book, Stealing You Blind: How Government Fatcats…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Iain Murray
• 12/14/2011

On Monday, I sent this letter to the editor of the Financial Times in response to an appalling column by former British apparatchik Jonathan…

Trade and International

• By: Brian McGraw
• 12/13/2011

File under Hypocrisy 101. Sheldon Adelson, the CEO and Chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns some of the largest casinos in…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Daniel Rivera
• 12/13/2011

Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia are joining the list of states with tough anti-immigration laws. On January 1, most of those laws…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/13/2011

The State of Maryland spends millions of Medicaid dollars on dead people, “about half of it from the federal government,” notes The Washington Examiner.

Labor and Employment

• By: David Bier
• 12/13/2011

As most of the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination try to outdo each other in blasting undocumented immigrants, they should take a break to…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 12/13/2011

Openmarket.org Recently, the Goldwater Institute filed suit against the city of Phoenix for inappropriately subsidizing government unions. The complaint alleges that collective bargaining agreements between the…

Labor and Employment

• By: Mytheos Holt
• 12/12/2011

Senator Dick Durbin has a truly backwards view of how capitalism is supposed to work. Thanks to price controls produced by his amendment to the…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 12/12/2011

Recently, the Goldwater Institute filed suit against the city of Phoenix for inappropriately subsidizing government unions. The complaint alleges that collective bargaining agreements between…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 12/12/2011

The TSA has allegedly strip-searched an elderly woman for wearing a back brace. They wrongly suspected it was a money belt. This search was security-unrelated;…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Jackie Moreau
• 12/12/2011

Regulatory war has been waged against another job-creating sector of the American economy. The U.S. Department of Labor has set forth new proposals restricting children…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/12/2011

If you were planning to go-a-Wassailing along this Christmas, you may want to read this post carefully so that you can plan your booze-buying accordingly…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Marc Scribner
• 12/09/2011

The Occupy movement is planning to force a shutdown of West Coast ports, claiming they are standing in solidarity with the International Longshore and Warehouse…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 12/09/2011

Boy, 7, kicks bully in the groin, school officials threaten sexual harassment charges, plus more.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/09/2011

At Bloomberg News, Virginia Postrel writes about how federal subsidies intended to make college more affordable have instead encouraged rapidly rising tuitions, in a column…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 12/09/2011

Today, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that it has decided to drop its case against Boeing, over the airplane manufacturer’s opening of…

Labor and Employment

• By: Marc Scribner
• 12/09/2011

Over at National Review Online, I have an op-ed up explaining why fiscal conservatives should oppose House Republicans’ plan to direct oil and gas…

Labor and Employment

• By: Matt Patterson
• 12/09/2011

What’s worse than the federal government deliberately arming gangsters? Answer: The federal government deliberately arming gangsters with the express intent of undermining the 2nd…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Matt Patterson
• 12/08/2011

The Washington Times Trade unions are a school of communism. –Vladimir Lenin L labor leader Andy Stern has seen the future. There’s no freedom there,…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 12/08/2011

Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews talks about the impact REINS could have on increasing transparency and accountability. He also offers up a few more…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Gregory Conko
• 12/08/2011

Back in March 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum on scientific integrity to the heads of executive branch agencies and departments.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 12/08/2011

Here’s a letter I sent to The Wall Street Journal: In “Central Banks Take Coordinated Action” (Nov. 30), Mr. Sparshott and Mr. Hilsenrath rightly…

Trade and International

• By: Gregory Conko
• 12/07/2011

By now, there's been plenty of news highlighting last week's decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the National Organ…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/07/2011

Anti-smoking advocates were in full throttle in Germany after former Chancellor of West Germany Helmut Schmidt kept puffing on his cigarette during a television…

Consumer Freedom

• By: David Bier
• 12/07/2011

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has called the Obama administration “far and away the most liberal administration that we've ever had in the White House.”…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Michelle Minton
• 12/07/2011

Arizona: Liberalization of beer laws in Arizona has kick-started the state’s craft brewing market. The state allows small producers to skip the wholesaling tier…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 12/06/2011

Kidney sales should be legal, explains kidney donor Alexander Berger in The New York Times. Berger is a research analyst for GiveWell, a nonprofit that…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Fran Smith
• 12/06/2011

David Brooks’ article today in The New York Times belittles the cost of regulation to American businesses and the U.S. economy and praises the…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Matt Patterson
• 12/02/2011

Legendary labor leader Andy Stern has seen the future. There's no freedom there, but he's OK with that. Stern, a former president of the Service…

Regulatory Reform

• By: John Berlau
• 12/02/2011

Ten years ago today, Enron Corp. filed for bankruptcy. Today, with all of its dealings with banks, it would probably have been deemed "too big…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 12/01/2011

Don’t let his short stature and friendly grandpa beard fool you. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has the power to control the money in your…

Trade and International

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 11/30/2011

Openmarket.org Yesterday, National Labor Relations Board Chairman Mark Pearce issued a statementdescribing the proposed rule changes to the union election process. The changes were expedited…

Labor and Employment

• By: John Berlau
• 11/30/2011

There are other factors at play, but has anyone noticed how much the stock market has surged since Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) announced he…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 11/30/2011

Yesterday, National Labor Relations Board Chairman Mark Pearce issued a statement describing the proposed rule changes to the union election process. The changes were…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 11/30/2011

Last year, about 138,000 horses were taken to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico, defeating the very purpose of the ban. Recognizing its failure, the ban…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Daniel Rivera
• 11/29/2011

The infamous “secret farm bill,” negotiated by the leadership of the agriculture committees with little transparency and discussion, will not pass as part of…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Fran Smith
• 11/29/2011

In a free-trade lesson the U.S. should study, Canada announced that it was eliminating tariffs on imports that Canadian manufacturers use to help spur…

Trade and International

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 11/29/2011

Openmarket.org Yesterday, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis wrote an indignant blog post titled, “Long Overdue: Winning Back Pay and Benefits for Workers,” in which…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 11/29/2011

Yesterday, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis wrote an indignant blog post titled, “Long Overdue: Winning Back Pay and Benefits for Workers,” in which she…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 11/28/2011

When reporters write stories about the cost of regulations, they only focus on regulations found in formal codes of regulations. But most regulations aren't formal…

Labor and Employment

• By: John Berlau
• 11/28/2011

Congress will certainly be different and, for the country, better with the absence of Rep. Barney Frank, who announced today he will not seek reelection.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 11/28/2011

Entitlement reform. Those words alone make politicians’ ears bleed. Or in the case of Italy, it makes their fists literally fly at one another. I…

Trade and International

• By: Ryan Young
• 11/28/2011

Quebec officials are starting to listen in on what children are talking about on school playgrounds during recess to make sure they are speaking French.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Marc Scribner
• 11/28/2011

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency tasked with writing and enforcing safety regulations for large trucks and buses, is due today to…

Labor and Employment

• By: Matt Patterson
• 11/28/2011

Americans have the notion that liberty equals elections, and therefore feel themselves still living in a free country so long as elections proceed as scheduled. But the growth of government bureaucracy…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Michelle Minton
• 11/28/2011

If you're a regular reader of OpenMarket.org, then you know we at CEI have written quite a bit on the issue of Four Loko.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 11/23/2011

Millions of Americans are taking to the skies to spend time with their families over Thanksgiving. Many of them will be carrying leftovers on their…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 11/23/2011

The Hill recently ran my letter to the editor responding to Sen. Tom Harkin’s column, “Republican attacks on workers’ rights won’t create jobs.” I make…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 11/23/2011

What is the single most expensive regulation of all time? Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman has one candidate: the EPA’s proposal to regulate mercury emissions…

Consumer Well-Being