The Open Market Blog

• By: Brian Bisek
• 07/11/2011

Energy Secretary Steven Chu admitted the paternalistic motivation for the effective ban on incandescent light-bulbs on Friday. Such honesty from a bureaucrat is somewhat…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/11/2011

Apparently British regulators don’t think their subjects are sponge-worthy.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2011

Not content with just using American tax dollars to subsidize foreign "green jobs" that replaced U.S. jobs, the Obama administration used stimulus dollars…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/08/2011

Having solved the state’s fiscal crisis, California’s state legislature has moved on to more important issues, such as the legal definition of “hot dog.”…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/08/2011

The next someone tells you the economy is dangerously unregulated, refer them to this list:…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/07/2011

One federal study says federal regulations cost $1.75 trillion. Another says it's $62 billion. The difference is almost a factor of 30. Vice President for…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Marc Scribner
• 07/07/2011

Today, House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Highway and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R-Tenn.) announced they would be introducing a $230-billion,…

Labor and Employment

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 07/07/2011

The Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy released a study showing that the burden of government regulation disproportionately falls onto small businesses. Specifically, those with…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Marc Scribner
• 07/07/2011

Reason.tv has a new video up today, “D.C. Taxi Heist: How a new law would screw drivers and riders,” that explains why Washington’s proposed…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/06/2011

Virginia seems likely to increase its child-support obligations on non-custodial parents, based on flawed methods of calculating child-rearing costs that overstate child-rearing costs. As I…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 07/06/2011

Openmarket.org The cozy relationship between liberal governors in Northeast states and Big Labor is becoming strained. Elected Democrats are realizing how strongly strings were attached…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/06/2011

A political party in Switzerland is seeking to ban Microsoft PowerPoint presentations in meetings.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Michelle Minton
• 07/05/2011

Hopefully, this Independence Day weekend you liberated some nice libations from their containers. As Founding Father Ben Franklin said, “there can’t be good living where…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 07/05/2011

The cozy relationship between liberal governors in Northeast states and Big Labor is becoming strained. Elected Democrats are realizing how strongly strings were attached to…

Labor and Employment

• By: Adam Michel
• 07/05/2011

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) turns 76 today. This day should give pause to those who have been following the National Labor Relations…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 07/05/2011

Tennessee drivers can be fined $50 if someone else finds their bumper sticker offensive.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Gregory Conko
• 07/05/2011

In a letter to the Washington Post over this past weekend, a “food safety consultant” in northern Virginia named Thomas L.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Marc Scribner
• 07/05/2011

Late last week, the Department of Transportation announced it was launching a third round of TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery -- I feel…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/05/2011

Last week, a divided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which amended Michigan's constitution in 2006 to ban racial…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/04/2011

In the Daily Caller, Chris Edwards has an interesting article about why government spending doesn’t “stimulate” the economy over the short-run or the long-run. Rather than…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 07/01/2011

Leaders of government employee unions must be feeling lonely these days. Across the country, Democratic state and local elected officials — traditional union allies —…

Labor and Employment

• By: Luke Pelican
• 07/01/2011

Back in April of this year Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley issued emergency regulations prohibiting Internet gambling at “cyber cafés” and “phone card businesses,”…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Nick DeLong
• 07/01/2011

Yesterday, Senate Republicans successfully blocked a Finance Committee meeting to consider free trade agreements (FTA) with Korea, Colombia, and Panama. The reason? President Obama…

Labor and Employment

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 07/01/2011

A California Democrat is seeking to expand the bureaucracy of the FCC in order to protect Americans from dropped calls. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.)…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/30/2011

One of the major developments in regulation over the last 30 years has been the rise of cost-benefit analysis. At first, agencies squirmed and resisted.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 06/30/2011

President Obama signed an executive order on June 15 to create SelectUSA, a new bureaucracy that acts as a one-stop-shop for government subsidies, in the…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 06/30/2011

Of the various hyperbolic leftist talking points against the recently enacted Wisconsin collective bargaining law, the “war on teachers” was easily the most shrill, dumb,…

Labor and Employment

• By: Marc Scribner
• 06/30/2011

Those who know me are aware that one of the two weird -- so I've been told -- policy issues I'm obsessed with is urban…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Will Tew
• 06/30/2011

You might’ve read about the unintended consequences of Georgia’s crackdown on undocumented workers. Well, the same thing is about to happen in Alabama.

Labor and Employment

• By: Will Tew
• 06/30/2011

Two days ago, the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog filed an anti-trust complaint with the FTC seeking an investigation of Facebook’s allegedly anti-competitive practices. These…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Adam Michel
• 06/29/2011

Late last night Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the California farm workers “card check” bill SB 104 for. The bill would have abolished workers right to…

Labor and Employment

• By: John Berlau
• 06/29/2011

Today, at around 3:30 pm, the Federal Reserve will vote on a final rule that will make price controls from the Durbin Amendment of Dodd-Frank…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/29/2011

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the individual mandate contained in the 2010 healthcare law by a 2-to-1 vote, claiming that…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/29/2011

The Senate Judiciary Committee is bashing the Supreme Court today as pro-business in a hearing that began at 10:30 a.m. Two of the…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 06/29/2011

UAW local 599 President Bill Jordan misses the forest for the trees, as is typical for union officials. A photo from the Carpe Diem…

Labor and Employment

• By: Nick DeLong
• 06/29/2011

In his article “…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/29/2011

"Millionaires are now legally entitled to collect food stamps as long as they have little or no monthly income. Thirty-five states have abolished asset tests…

Labor and Employment

• By: Fran Smith
• 06/28/2011

As summer heats up, so does Congress as it looks at legislation that should be considered before the August recess. The three pending Free Trade…

Trade and International

• By: Iain Murray
• 06/28/2011

Rioters have taken to the streets in the Greek capital of Athens. While not as unusual an occurrence as it is in Athens, Georgia,…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 06/28/2011

Openmarket.org The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a new rule to broaden the definition of fiduciary. Fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/28/2011

King County's $86 fine for swimming without a life vest, plus more.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 06/28/2011

The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a new rule to broaden the definition of fiduciary. Fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/27/2011

California's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors has been struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation…

Consumer Freedom

• By: F. Vincent Vernuccio
• 06/23/2011

When it comes down to outdated business model of the Post Office vs. taxpayers and postal workers, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sides with taxpayers and…

Labor and Employment

• By: Marc Scribner
• 06/23/2011

On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I've been involved in an ongoing proceeding before the Surface Transportation Board, the independent Department of Transportation agency…

Labor and Employment

• By: Will Tew
• 06/23/2011

Who’d of thought it: cracking down on immigrant workers hurts the economy? Georgia’s learning the hard way as farms lose laborers and crops go…

Labor and Employment

• By: Iain Murray
• 06/23/2011

The Congressional Budget Office has released its latest edition of the Long-Term Budget Outlook, and it makes for grim reading. Federal debt is currently…

Labor and Employment

• By: Adam Michel
• 06/23/2011

Last week the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) announced a major policy shift regarding Social Security. Formerly seen as the largest opponent to…

Labor and Employment

• By: Iain Murray
• 06/23/2011

One of the themes of Stealing You Blind is how public sector unions have worked with politicians to organize an industrial-scale transfer of wealth…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/22/2011

Most of what people call regulation doesn't have anything to with regular commerce. These kinds of rules are more accurately called interventions.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 06/22/2011

Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius recently made a revealing statement on how she perceives the role of government and her place within…

Consumer Well-Being

• By: Gregory Conko
• 06/22/2011

By now, this story about the city of Portland, Oregon, deciding to drain nearly 8 million gallons of water from one…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/22/2011

The TSA has a habit of confiscating security-unrelated items. Over at The American Spectator, I recall just such an experience that I had at O'Hare.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Michelle Minton
• 06/22/2011

President Obama made a big show about cutting “red tape” government regulations that kill jobs and hurt the economy. In addition, members of the…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/22/2011

Schools in right-to-work states (where unions are weak) are getting better and better over time compared to schools in heavily-unionized states. As Walter Russell Mead…

Labor and Employment

• By: Michelle Minton
• 06/22/2011

As my colleague Angela Logomasini noted in a post in January, the EPA has rebuffed the desperate pleas of lawmakers and residents to un-ban…

Consumer Freedom

• By: John Berlau
• 06/21/2011

As those engaged in the policy battlefield, our focus is often on taking apart arguments used to advanced proposed solutions we disagree with. But sometimes…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Michelle Minton
• 06/21/2011

Yet another online gambling bill to add to the pile, Rep. Jim McDermott introduced the igaming taxation and regulation bill that he unsuccessfully…

Consumer Freedom

• By: F. Vincent Vernuccio
• 06/21/2011

Today the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed a new regulation that would speed up the union election process from 45-60 days to about 10-21…

Labor and Employment

• By: Fran Smith
• 06/21/2011

Get ready to see nine sensationalistic images depicting the dangers of smoking on cigarette packs beginning September 2012. Rotted lungs and teeth, chest holes,…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Marc Scribner
• 06/21/2011

This morning, the Department of Transportation should receive the two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests I submitted on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/20/2011

CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko has an excellent piece in today's Wall Street Journal. Greg doesn't think it's right that the FDA is denying terminally…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/20/2011

Yahoo! News reports that "the Supreme Court has ruled for Wal-Mart in its fight to block a massive sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of…

Labor and Employment