The Open Market Blog

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 05/12/2011

The Washington Examiner had a piece that hits close to home, as I have seen this waste firsthand. I’m sure many in D.C. area…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/12/2011

The USDA is spending $2 million to take pictures of what San Antonio school children eat for lunch.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/12/2011

Surprisingly, no explosives were found during extra screening, including what a TSA official describes as a "modified pat-down" of the suspicious infant.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/11/2011

Today, at the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the committee chairman, ranking Republican, and the U.S. Trade Representative’s…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/11/2011

As surely as summer follows spring, it seems like every new Walmart store opening announcement in a major city is now followed by protests.  The…

Labor and Employment

• By: Marc Scribner
• 05/11/2011

If you’ve been following the free-market critiques of rail transit, you know that Portland, while frequently touted as “the city that works” by lefty…

Labor and Employment

• By: Gregory Conko
• 05/11/2011

Today's Washington Post Food section contains a number of articles following up on the Post's "The Future…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/11/2011

San Francisco is phasing out the distribution of hard-copy Yellow Pages.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Clyde Wayne Crews
• 05/11/2011

A new report in The Hill notes House Republicans’ concern over “dysfunction” at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the need for overhaul. Their…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 05/11/2011

By Chris Woodward/Onenewsnow.com A labor policy expert is blasting the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for filing lawsuits over secret ballot legislation. The legal complaints…

Labor and Employment

• By: Nicole Ciandella
• 05/10/2011

Last week, a New Jersey State Assembly committee considered a bill that would make it illegal to photograph minors without parental consent. The committee ultimately…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/10/2011

Congress might as well pass a law guaranteeing an above-average lifestyle for all Americans.

Labor and Employment

• By: Michelle Minton
• 05/09/2011

While some states seem to never change at all, this Monday's Alcohol Regulation Roundup highlights some pleasant possibilities on the horizon.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 05/06/2011

That state and local governments  face serious pension funding problems isn't a particularly controversial contention. However, the question of how much they're underfunded by is…

Labor and Employment

• By: Michelle Minton
• 05/06/2011

After years of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation trashing them in the media, the Adult Industry Medical Foundation (aka AIM) has closed its doors for good,…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/06/2011

NBC Miami's Brian Hamacher with the second-best lede I've read this week: "Floridians are going to have to start pulling up their pants and stop…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/06/2011

A new study says that high-salt diets may not be as harmful as once thought. Research Associate Daniel Compton takes a look.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Gregory Conko
• 05/05/2011

HRH the Prince of Wales delivered the keynote address at The Washington Post's "Future of Food" conference yesterday at Georgetown University.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/05/2011

This blog will be paying close attention to the heated legislative battle in Madison to give the delicious cream puff its due.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Fran Smith
• 05/05/2011

Looks like there could finally be some progress on long-pending free trade agreements (FTAs). Yesterday U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that the administration…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/04/2011

Over at the Daily Caller, I look at employment data and find out that the labor force has grown by 23 million people since NAFTA…

Trade and International

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 05/04/2011

Openmarket.org The Obama administration through Obamacare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) steadily gives competitive advantages to Big Labor. Benefits for top political donors of…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 05/04/2011

Big Government Only in Washington would running out of money and prematurely limiting a program be considered a success. This Friday (May 6,) Obamacare’s first…

Labor and Employment

• By: Jacqueline Otto
• 05/04/2011

According to Chris Frates’ article this morning in Politico, After years of wrangling, labor and business groups are gearing up for an epic showdown…

Trade and International

• By: Marc Scribner
• 05/03/2011

Washington, D.C., is one of the five taxicab jurisdictions in the country that allows for essentially free entry. While the cab situation in D.C. is…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/03/2011

Regulatory reform is at least as important as spending, taxes, and deficits, but it doesn’t get nearly as much attention. That’s why we are pleased…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Matt Patterson
• 05/03/2011

Capital Research Center Wisconsin is the birthplace of American public-sector unionism. In 1930s the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) first organized…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/03/2011

Kinder eggs are a type of candy that enjoys worldwide popularity. They are also illegal in the United States.

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 05/02/2011

A British man was arrested for singing the 1970s hit “Kung-Fu Fighting”.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Nicole Ciandella
• 04/29/2011

On Thursday, the federal government once again appealed to the food industry to stop marketing junk food to kids. This time, though, government officials…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 04/29/2011

Openmarket.org Recent National Labor Relations Board actions have revealed some disconcerting truths about the vision of the Obama Administration. The litigation against South Dakota…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 04/29/2011

Recent National Labor Relations Board actions have revealed some disconcerting truths about the vision of the Obama administration. The litigation against South Dakota and…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/29/2011

In Hopewell Township, New Jersey, chickens are only allowed to mate on 10 pre-selected days per year.

Consumer Freedom

• By: John Berlau
• 04/29/2011

Thanks Iain, for your kind comments on my Wall Street Journal op-ed celebrating the Middleton's entrepreneurship and for the great info on how…

Trade and International

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/28/2011

Land Use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner looks at China's experience with high-speed rail, and finds that it may not be a very good…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/28/2011

While the nation's attention has focused on government employee unions' fight to retain their collective bargaining privileges, unions in the private sector are in an…

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/28/2011

In his 2008 campaign, Obama demagogued about “outsourcing,” but his own policies have outsourced thousands of American jobs, at taxpayer expense, as I…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/28/2011

Over the last five years, the DC Metro has spent $2.4 million on back pay... for work that was never performed.

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/28/2011

In today's Investor's Business Daily, Wayne Crews and I argue that reformers shouldn't forget about regulation:…

Regulatory Reform

• By: Ivan Osorio
• 04/28/2011

One reason the ongoing debate over collective bargaining for government employees has been so loud is that the stakes are so high -- for unionized…

Labor and Employment

• By: Michelle Minton
• 04/27/2011

National: Seventeen state attorneys general are asking Pabst Brewing Co. to lessen the alcohol content of its new “Blast” product. Blast, the 12 percent…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Marc Scribner
• 04/26/2011

Cato’s Randal “Antiplanner” O’Toole discusses replacing the gas tax with tolls and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) taxes, the importance of signal coordination and adaptive…

Labor and Employment

• By: Marc Scribner
• 04/26/2011

Today, Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network hosted Andy Kunz, the honcho of the lobbying outfit U.S. High Speed Rail Association. His advisory…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 04/26/2011

By Chris Wodward/Onenewsnow.com According to one researcher, union hypocrisy has been sighted in Seattle, Washington. CleanScapes, a private trash collection company based in Seattle, offered…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/25/2011

Wayne Crews and I have a piece in today's Sacramento Bee summarizing the main findings of Wayne's "Ten Thousand Commandments" study.

Regulatory Reform

• By: Fran Smith
• 04/22/2011

The inestimable Indur Goklany has an important new report on biofuels and developing countries. “Could Biofuel Policies Increase Death and Disease in Developing Countries?”…

Consumer Freedom

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/21/2011

Carrie Lukas, Managing Director of the Independent Women's Forum, argues that the pay gap between men and women isn't due to discrimination.

Labor and Employment

• By: Hans Bader
• 04/21/2011

The Education Department tried to restrict the use of financial aid by for-profit colleges by barring them from getting more than 90 percent of their…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/19/2011

Workforce Central Florida, a government agency, is spending $73,000 to give away 6,000 capes and some cardboard cutouts.

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/19/2011

Air traffic control is simply too important an issue to leave to the free market. It is time to put the government in charge of…

Labor and Employment

• By: Trey Kovacs
• 04/19/2011

Labor unions of late have been fighting an uphill battle in public perception, attempting to justify the significance of unions for the middle class and…

Labor and Employment

• By: Ryan Young
• 04/18/2011

The 2011 edition of Wayne Crews’ “Ten Thousand Commandments” was released today. The annual study gives a big-picture view of the regulatory state. You can…

Regulatory Reform