The Open Market Blog

• 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When it comes down to outdated business model of the Post Office vs. taxpayers and postal workers, Rep.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

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 06/20/2011

Wiretaps, surveillance, and searches of private property cannot be authorized and executed without a warrant issued by a judge, who (hopefully) maintains the commitment to…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/17/2011

As legal commentator Ted Frank notes, ABC was rewarded for deliberate scaremongering and deceptive reporting that created needless fear and anxiety among Toyota owners…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/17/2011

Lemonade stands are technically illegal in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 06/17/2011

The SEC is bringing fraud charges against leading credit-rating companies for not being thorough enough in their research to determine ratings on mortgage-backed securities…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Luke Pelican
• 06/17/2011

Josh Smith reports in National Journal that Representative Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), has proposed legislation to provide subsidized Internet services to low-income Americans. The…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/15/2011

"While pursuing a PhD in “homicide studies” at the British taxpayers’ expense, a man with a long history of criminal violence became a…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/15/2011

In a recent NBC interview, President Obama blamed ATMs for taking away bank tellers' jobs. Communications Coordinator Lee Doren points out that innovation doesn't affect…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/15/2011

In a 4-to-3 vote, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld the state's new law limiting collective bargaining with government-employee unions. As the Heritage Foundation's…

Labor and Employment

• By: Gregory Conko
• 06/15/2011

AEI resident fellow Scott Gottlieb has a new paper out explaining why the FDA should not force…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Matthew Melchiorre
• 06/15/2011

The FDA is rolling out new labeling rules for sunscreen. First, sunscreens that don’t offer “enough” UVA protection (which has been shown to prevent…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/15/2011

Children would be far better served if government were to take a leading role in K-12 education… oh, wait.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Iain Murray
• 06/15/2011

President Obama has belatedly realized that the “shovel-ready projects” he touted so much in his stimulus bill two years ago were anything but: “Shovel-ready…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 06/14/2011

Openmarket.org In a vote today, the House of Representatives will determine whether federal construction projects will be open to competitive bidding. In 2009, President Obama…

Labor and Employment

• By: Adam Michel
• 06/13/2011

The June publication of the American Sociological Review contained research on right-to-work states. The research in “Laws of Attraction: Regulatory Arbitrage in the Face of…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/13/2011

Last year, a New Mexico court issued a domestic-violence restraining order against David Letterman on behalf of a deluded woman who had never met…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 06/13/2011

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…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 06/13/2011

In a vote today, the House of Representatives will determine whether federal construction projects will be open to competitive bidding. In 2009, President Obama issued…

Labor and Employment

• By: Michelle Minton
• 06/13/2011

The oncoming legalization of online poker charges ahead this week with more lawmakers “seeing the light” or at least the potential revenue dollars that online…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Matt Patterson
• 06/13/2011

The Examiner With an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, South Carolina is in dire economic straits, and so in desperate need of the 1,000 jobs…

Labor and Employment

• By: Brian McGraw
• 06/13/2011

Roughly one week ago, an article appeared in The Odenton Patch covering an Anne Arundel County Police Department press conference where our benevolent…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Michelle Minton
• 06/10/2011

Reporting from around the nation on the ridiculous, the sad, and the sometimes positive news about the state of alcohol regulations. National: BuyaBeerCompany.com, a…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/10/2011

A new Senate bill would make lip-synching to other people’s music a jailable offense, plus more.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Michelle Minton
• 06/10/2011

If you thought leaving a spouse was tough, just be thankful that you're not a brewery in need of a divorce from your dead-beat distributor.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/10/2011

In the Washington Examiner, I discuss the brief I recently filed on behalf of Minnesota and North Carolina legislators challenging Obamacare, which…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 06/10/2011

Cato’s latest endeavor, downsizing the Federal Government: Labor Department, emphasizes the ineffectiveness and restrictions put in place by the Department of Labor. DOL has…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/09/2011

Online poker has been illegal since April 15, now called Black Friday by poker fans. Policy Analyst Michelle Minton goes over the controversy and explains…

Consumer Freedom

• By: John Berlau
• 06/09/2011

Anywhere but the Senate, getting 54 votes out of 100 is a victory. And yesterday, a bipartisan group 0f 54 Senators responded to concerns…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/08/2011

Businesses often use regulations as a cudgel to bludgeon their competitors. Occupational licensing is one of the most-abused types of regulation.

Regulatory Reform

• By: John Berlau
• 06/08/2011

Today is the day, as a bipartisan amendment comes to the Senate floor delaying draconian price controls on debit card transaction fees from Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment, that the Senate has an…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Luke Pelican
• 06/07/2011

In response to calls by lawmakers for the Fairness Doctrine and related measures to be permanently removed from the Federal Register, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/07/2011

As part of its broader attack on safeguards against false accusations, the federal Education Department is urging colleges to strip students and faculty of…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/07/2011

Mounting evidence shows that the auto bailouts weren't worth it. They have been far more costly, and less successful, than claimed, as even liberal…

Labor and Employment

• By: Michelle Minton
• 06/06/2011

In the battle between international brewing giants SABMiller and ABInBev, Wisconsin craft brewers could bear the heaviest burden. On May 31, the state legislature’s Joint…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/06/2011

Last Wednesday, three people were arrested in Orlando for giving food to homeless people.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Gregory Conko
• 06/06/2011

Although it’s not 100 percent certain at this time, German health officials are becoming increasingly certain that the recent E. coli…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Hans Bader
• 06/03/2011

"Only 16 percent of executives in the auto industry" support the Chrysler bailout, according to the Washington Post’s editorial today. I think the bailout…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 06/03/2011

Mike Haege, a tree-trimmer in Hastings, Minnesota, was threatened with jail and fined $275 for helping clear damaged trees from tornado victims' yards.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Jacqueline Otto
• 06/03/2011

In Sacramento, California, a bill that would regulate social networking is reportedly on its death bed after failing by five votes last week. The online…

Consumer Freedom