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Today’s Links: September 29, 2011
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University of Wisconsin Administrators Violate the First Amendment to Silence Dissent and Criticism
Wisconsin college administrators attacked the First Amendment this week, both by censoring a professor's poster and criticism of fascism, and by inciting a flash mob…
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Poverty Skyrockets in the World’s Poorest Country Due to Racial Violence After Revolution in Neighboring Libya
Niger is the poorest country in Africa and the world: Many of its people go hungry every day, many children die before their fifth…
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Herbert Hoover, Father of the New Deal
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CEI Podcast for September 29, 2011: The End of Free Debit Cards
Every time you use your debit card, the merchant has to pay a fee to the company that issued your card, usually about 1 percent…
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Judge Censors Speech About Affirmative Action and Fraud in Racial Set-Asides
Political "commentator Andrew Bolt 'was found guilty Wednesday of breaking Australian discrimination law by implying that fair-skinned Aborigines chose to identify as indigenous for…
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Automatic Economic Stabilizers or Stable Economic Rules?
Former Obama OMB Director Peter Orszag (who joined Citigroup earlier this year as vice chairman for global banking) over at The New Republic thinks we’ve…
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Blame Not Banks — But Big Box and Big Government — For Free Checking’s Demise
Read it and weep, but don't say OpenMarket didn't warn you. Thanks to Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment, price controls on interchange fees --…
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Today’s Links: September 28, 2011
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Justice Department Promotes Bad English in the Schools
Arizona can't require teachers to speak proper English anymore. The federal government claims that monitoring whether teachers mispronounce words racially discriminates against Latinos, despite two…
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Google’s Rick Santorum Problem
Rick Santorum has a Google problem, and everybody knows about it -- mostly because Rick Santorum won't stop talking about it. Last week,…
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Trade Agreements are Not Job-Killers, Despite Sen. Reid’s Remarks
The Senate and House votes on the free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea seem inevitable, now that the main Democratic roadblock to…
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Today’s Links: September 27, 2011
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FDA Approves Device To Help Doctors Detect Skin Cancer
There's an unusual bit of good news out of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In March 2010 and again last November, the…
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Quantifying Capital Bikeshare’s Supposed “Success”
Last week, D.C.'s Capital Bikeshare program celebrated its millionth trip and one-year anniversary. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood celebrated the milestone with a…
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Congress is Killing the Postal Service
Openmarket.org The United States Postal Service has lost over $8 billion in the past two years and going for a third year in the red.
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Congress is Killing the Postal Service
The United States Postal Service has lost over $8 billion in the past two years and going for a third year in the red. Labor…
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Today’s Links: September 26, 2011
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Pull Out of Basel III: The Moral Hazard of Government Ratings
Recently and for different reasons, two high-profile players from different parts of the financial sector -- JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon and respected banking analyst…
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Obama Administration Attacks Religious Freedom and Separation of Church and State
The Obama administration is attacking religious freedom in court, even as Obama depicts his policies as ordained by God. At a Congressional Black Caucus…
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Obamacare Will Increase Health Insurance Premiums by 55 to 85 Percent in Ohio, Study Says
The Charleston Daily Mail’s Don Surber points to a recent study “that shows that 790,000 Ohioans will lose their private health insurance and premiums…
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The Constitution May Not Be Perfect — But it is Much Better than What We Have Now!
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Blame Congress and Pork, Not NASA
Over at National Review today, I have a lengthy but necessary rebuttal of a misbegotten post at…
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Regulation Roundup
In Seattle, Washington, the maximum length allowed for concealed weapons is 6 feet, plus more.
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Flushing Oral Oncology Drugs Down the Toilet?
An interesting article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (via yesterday's Jerusalem Post) argues that the U.S. Food and…
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Dodd-Frank Financial Law Uses Regulations to Outsource American Jobs
American jobs will soon be outsourced due to the Dodd-Frank financial "reform" law passed in 2010 with strong support from the Obama administration. That law…
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Today’s Links: September 23, 2011
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$16 Muffins a Hoax?
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CEI Weekly: CEI Thanks Pro-Worker Congressmen at Awards Ceremony
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Obama Wants a GM Bailout Tax on Bank and Insurance Customers
For all the talk about fairness and equity with the so-called Buffett Rule, there is one sneaky loophole in the Obama revenue proposal that…
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CEI Podcast for September 22, 2011: E-Verify
E-Verify is a program that checks the immigration status of new hires. The House is expected to vote on legislation that would make E-Verify mandatory…
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Not Easy to Disentangle the Legal and Value Aspects of Marriage — But it is Important!
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U.S. Government Responsible for So-Called Gambling Ponzi Scheme
This week U.S. investigators accused Full Tilt, the online gambling website, which was shut down during the black Friday raids of being a “Ponzi scheme.”…
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Senator Hatch: Good Reasons Not to Extend TAA
With Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) scheduled for a vote today, in debate on the measure yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) gave a spirited speech outlining…
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Government Fines Businessman for Creating Jobs
A CEO recently told Congress about how he was fined for hiring too many people: “I incurred more than $500,000 in legal bills to…
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It Gets Better: Sears Catalog Edition
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Obama: More Class Warfare, More Corporate Welfare, More Unemployment and Political Division
President Obama has implied that his critics don't understand math, which is odd given his inability to balance a budget (he's run up the…
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The Fable of the Shoes
Jonah Goldberg praises Ron Paul's stance on health care, and takes to task the status-quo bias of even many Republicans, recalling…
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Tax-and-Spend is Not a “Jobs” Plan
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Regulation of the Day 197: Planking
Threats to freedoms even as trivial as planking should not be taken lying down.
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Today’s Links: September 21, 2011
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More False Claims from Obama About Taxes and Spending
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Looking at TAA Worker Eligibility Last Year — Some Observations and Questions
Now that reauthorization of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) is all but a done deal -- a quid pro quo from Republican leadership to President…
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The Mythical Benefits of Plastic Bag Bans Debunked
Some municipalities have now imposed taxes or restrictions on plastic shopping bags, even though banning or taxing plastic bags has little effect on litter, and…
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The Establishment Turns Against Democracy!
The Financial Times‘ lead editorial today, “Democracy’s Slow Cure for the Euro,” illustrates a growing willingness of “experts” to argue that people are too…
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Sen. McConnell Introduces “Fast Track” Trade Authority; Hits Unions for Obstructing Trade Agreements
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made a gutsy statement on the Senate floor today, saying that he was introducing an amendment to give…
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Phony Breast Cancer Group’s Phony Findings on BPA
Activists at the Breast Cancer Fund are scheduled to release a new scaremongering “study” on the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) tomorrow,…
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Today’s Links: September 20, 2011
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How to Make Legal Advice and Legal Services More Affordable Without Taxpayer Subsidies
At Truth on the Market, I discuss how to make legal advice and legal services more affordable at this link. I also discuss…
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Federal Register Near Record Pace
This year's Federal Register is on pace to be 80,190 pages long. That's an average of 220 pages of fresh proposed rules, final rules, notices,…
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Obama’s Proposed New Tax Will Multiply Red Tape and Enrich Tax Lawyers and Accountants More than the Treasury
I have argued that "significant tax increases" may be necessary as part of a deficit reduction deal, given the enormity of the deficit and…
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Today’s Links: September 19, 2011
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Warren Buffett, Give Your Secretary a Raise!
So it has been decreed -- by Warren Buffett, by President Barack Obama, and by media members going gaga over to so-called Buffett Rule --…
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Some Commercial Crew Questions For NASA
One of the great controversies of the new space policy announced last year was the intent of NASA to turn over the transportation of cargo…
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Malcolm Wallop, Stand-Up Guy, R.I.P.
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Regulation Roundup
Flirting is illegal in Haddon, New Jersey, plus more.
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House Hearing on Effects of EU Privacy Directive
Yesterday the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing addressing the economic consequences of the European Union’s internet privacy regulations. The…
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Obama’s “American Jobs Act” Is A Wasteful “Blue-State Bailout,” Researchers Say
In the The Wall Street Journal, two researchers call Obama’s proposed “jobs” bill, the $450 billion “American Jobs Act,” a “blue-state bailout in…
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Obama and Sarbanes-Oxley Review — The One Sentence Worth 4,000 Words for Jobs
In President Obama’s 33-minute-long speech to Congress on job creation last week, one sentence was worth nearly all the rest of his 4,000 words.
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Infrastructure Si, Infrastructure Bank No
In his Forbes column, James Glassman provides a counterpoint to the Obama proposal to create a national infrastructure bank. Rather than direct funds through…
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CEI Podcast for September 15, 2011: Solyndra
Myron Ebell, Director of CEI's Center for Energy and Environment, takes a look at the brewing Solyndra scandal.
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WTO Issues Panel’s Findings on U.S.-Mexico Tuna-Dolphin Dispute
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute panel has found that the U.S. requirements for a “dolphin-safe” label on tuna products are more trade-restrictive than…
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Today’s Links: September 15, 2011
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Congressional Vote to Halt NLRB Job-Killing Regulations
Openmarket.org President Obama and the Senate Democrats’ agenda will be put to the test. GOP senators have called for the vote on the Protecting Jobs…
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Congressional Vote to Halt NLRB Job-Killing Regulations
President Obama and the Senate Democrats' agenda will be put to the test. GOP senators have called for the vote on the Protecting Jobs…
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Obama Justice Department’s Double Standard on Hate Crimes
The Obama administration has a double standard on hate crimes. When the victim is black or Hispanic, they prosecute the alleged offender. When the…
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Today’s Links: September 14, 2011
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“Strategic Misrepresentation”
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Obama Wants More Spending on Failed Federal “Job Training” Programs that Teach Welfare Recipients and Young People Bad Habits
In The Wall Street Journal, James Bovard, a former CEI Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow, takes aim at some of the billions in waste contained…
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Today’s Links: September 13, 2011
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The Lazy Non-Poor People Below the “Poverty” Line Who Get Welfare, and the Hard-Working Poor Above it Who Get Taxed
There are plenty of people below the poverty line who aren't really poor, and some people above the poverty line who are indeed quite…
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California Wins as Amazon Deals
Friday, I wrote for The Daily Caller about the negative impact a tax deal between Amazon.com and the state of California would have the debate…
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H.R. 1909 Brings Competitive Regulation to Small Loan Market
The Summer of 2011 will likely be remembered as a season that overregulation came to a boiling point -- at all levels of the U.S. government.
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AMA Calls for Trade Agreements to Exclude Alcohol and Tobacco
The American Medical Association is calling for alcohol and tobacco to be excluded in all new U.S. trade agreements. New Zealand’s NZWeek, at the…
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Today’s Links: September 12, 2011
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Belt Tightening At FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Last week the House Appropriations Committee released its draft bill for funding of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. Of particular note is the appropriation…
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NLRB Decisions Diminishing Workers’ Rights
By Trey Kovacs/Openmarket.org Under the What We Do heading on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) website, the board states: “The National Labor Relations Board is an…
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NLRB Decisions Diminishing Workers’ Rights
Under the What We Do heading on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) website, the board states: “The National Labor Relations Board is an independent…
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State Losing Control of Pennsylvania Liquor
Privatizing Pennsylvania's liquor stores has been a subject of debate for decades. Proposals in the past have been met with fear about the effects privatization…
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Obama’s Job Creation Proposal Will Be Ineffective, Experts Say
Despite its massive price tag of $450 billion, President Obama's recently-proposed American Jobs Act seems like a useless dud to experts who've analyzed it, and the…
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AP: Obama’s “Jobs” Plan Will Increase Deficit, Is Not “Paid For”
Associated Press fact checkers took issue with President Obama's claims about his new $450 billion federal "jobs" plan: President Barack Obama’s promise Thursday that everything…
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Regulatory Roundup
Here’s another batch of regulatory bloopers: In Little Rock, Arkansas, it is illegal to honk your horn at a restaurant after 9:00 pm. It has…
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CEI Weekly: A Ten-Point Plan to Create Jobs
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Davis-Bacon, the Pork of the American Jobs Act Boondoggle
Openmarket.org President Obama made the astute observation in his speech that, “the millions of Americans who are watching at home right now, they don’t care…
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Davis-Bacon, the Pork of the American Jobs Act Boondoggle
President Obama observed in his speech that “the millions of Americans who are watching at home right now, they don’t care about politics.” Obama harkened…
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Time To End Apollo Redux
Over at Cosmic Log, the blog of MSNBC science correspondent Alan Boyle, there is an interview with me based on a…
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CEI Podcast for September 8, 2011: The Infrastructure Bank
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Union vs. Union Fight
A band I was in years ago had a song titled, “Sheet Rockers vs. Aluminum Siders,” about a fight our singer saw at work on…
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Obama’s Costly, Unaffordable, Harmful New Stimulus: The “American Jobs Act”
President Obama wants Congress to pass a $447 billion proposal called the "American Jobs Act," a costly set of recycled stimulus plans that contains no new ideas…
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Today’s Links: September 8, 2011
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My Fantasy Obama Jobs Speech
The following is my fantasy speech on jobs from Barack Obama. He looks at CEI's websites, realizes his big-government approach has been all wrong, but…
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The “Overhead Smash” Of ITAR
Over at Beltway Confidential today, Tim Carney asks if one of the unintended (or perhaps not-so-unintended) consequences of Dodd-Frank will be to…
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The Inconsistencies of Food Nannyism: Are Potatoes Worse Than Soda?
The federal government has rejected a proposal from New York’s Mayor to exclude sugar-sweetened drinks from the food stamp program. But the government…
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TSA Agent: Be Quiet About Alleged Sexual Assault, or Pay $500,000
Give some people a badge, and the power goes to their head. A TSA agent has threatened to sue a female traveler who complained…
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Do We Really Need Government-Funded Anti-Piracy Training?
Just introduced by New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R), the Piracy Suppression Act of 2011 aims to improve U.S. policy with respect to ocean pirates…
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Borzi’s Fiduciary Burden on Broker-Dealers
Openmarket.org Who ought to have greater fiduciary duties: a consumer-selected, paid adviser whose advice is optional, or an adviser who you legally must pay and…
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Today’s Links: September 7, 2011
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Borzi’s Fiduciary Burden on Broker-Dealers
Who ought to have greater fiduciary duties: a consumer-selected, paid adviser whose advice is optional, or an adviser who you legally must pay and whose…
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NASA’s Costly Risk Aversion
Over at Pajamas Media this past weekend, I describe the current travails of the International Space Station in the wake of…
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Obama Infrastructure Stimulus: Union Payoff Filled with Rail Boondoggles and Pork
Obama's proposed infrastructure stimulus is a payoff to Big Labor, as economist Ronald Utt explains. It "represents tens of billions of dollars in high,…