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Freedom of Contract at Risk in Carcano v. McCrory
Virginia’s Dillon rule prevents cities and counties from regulating the employment practices of private businesses. That bars them from setting minimum wages higher than…
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Illinois’ Narrow Road to Pension Reform
On March 24, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a Chicago pension reform bill that sought to address the city’s considerable pension shortfall. In…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Satire, Art, & Politics
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Common Property, Gains from Trade—and Statehood
Historian Staughton Lynd argued that the contemporaneously drafted Constitution and Northwest Ordinance of 1787 were themselves components of a larger implicit package that harmonized the…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Friday’s Federal Register, the last before the Easter holiday, contained 1,005 pages, 14 final regulations, nine proposed regulations, and an impressive 119 agency notices. New rules…
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Advocates Attempt to Debunk Idea that Any Alcohol Is Beneficial
For most public health advocates, no amount of alcohol is safe. As they see it, any amount of alcohol increases a drinkers risk for certain…
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Glyphosate Saves Lives, Reduces Child Labor, and More
David Zaruk, aka the Risk Monger, has produced an excellent series of blog posts on why the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in “Roundup”) is…
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Free Speech Violation in St. Paul Schools Undermines Anti-Private Ideology
Leftists who seek to ban home schooling and school vouchers, and restrict private schools, argue that is needed to prevent “indoctrination” or “balkanization.” Rather than developing a…
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Doing Away with Government Flammability Standards
During the past several years, there’s been much hype in the news alleging that flame retardant chemicals used on upholstered furniture pose unacceptable health risks. With…
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The Sharing Economy Is More than Just Uber
In an article for The New York Times, columnist Farhad Manjoo worries that the Uber model of app-based service companies has run its course. He points out…
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Judge Orders White House OSTP to Explain Why It Shouldn’t Be Sanctioned for Undisclosed Records
OSTP failed to disclose the existence of some records in response to a FOIA request until after a federal judge had already ruled in the…
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NLRB Case against McDonald’s Shows Need for Labor Law Reform
At the beginning of the month, the National Labor Relations Board and McDonald’s trial began. The case will determine whether McDonald’s is a joint…
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Welcome Kent Lassman, CEI’s New President
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The Public Pays for Union Political Activity
Taxpayer dollars in state and municipal governments across the country are, normally without public knowledge, used to subsidize government union political undertakings. Clearly, this is…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Populism’s Critic & Supranational Heresy
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Along with nearly four dozen proposed regulations, new final regulations from the last week cover everything from cable boxes to Texas grapefruit. On to the…
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EPA: More Equivocation on SCOTUS Stay of Power Plan
The Supreme Court put a stay on EPA’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP) last month partly because five Justices thought there was a reasonable prospect the rule…
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Human Achievement of the Day: Don’t Buy the Hyperloop, Bet on Self-Driving Cars
Futuristic transportation technology often captures the imaginations of the press and public. Sometimes, it’s hype-driven nonsense: think the mysterious “IT” that became the mockery-inducing…
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Does Global Warming Cause Severe Cold Spells? Court Orders Release of Concealed Records
On January 8, 2014, the White House posted a curious video claiming that global warming causes more severe winter cold. Called “The Polar Vortex Explained…
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Berlau at SXSW: Let’s Cut Red Tape Strangling Uberization of Finance
AUSTIN, TX—President Obama traveled here to the ongoing South by Southwest festival from Washington, D.C., and so did I. In his March 11 presentation, he …
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Congress Proposes Bill to Nullify Overtime Regulation
This week, the Department of Labor took the last step before the final overtime rule is published and implemented. DOL sent the rule to…
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Human Achievement of the Day: Fighting Mosquito-Borne Diseases with Technology
For millennia, mosquitos have wreaked havoc on mankind, passing along myriad deadly or debilitating diseases. Mankind’s clever interventions—from screened windows to pesticides—have helped greatly control mosquito-transmitted…
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Senate FAA Reauthorization Bill Disappoints
This morning, the Senate Commerce Committee held a markup hearing on their Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S. 2658). A couple of positive…
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Human Achievement Hour: An Enlightened Choice for Saturday Night
It’s a fun time of year . . . at CEI HQ anyway. Once again we prepare to celebrate Human Achievement Hour—the holiday we started…
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Trade Is Good, Using Trade to Weaken Foreign Investment Is Not
Free traders have long promoted an expansion of the rights of the citizens of one nation to buy and sell to one another. The old…
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After the Incentive Auction: Reimbursing Broadcasters for Channel Relocation Costs
This month, the FCC will kick off a much-awaited incentive auction that could reshape America’s airwaves.
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Human Achievement of the Day: Fashion
On March 19, I will celebrate Human Achievement Hour instead of Earth Hour. The choice is easy: take an hour out of the evening to feel…
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Human Achievement of the Day: Polio Eradication
Polio used to be a parent’s worst nightmare. The virus mostly affects children, and hampers the brain’s ability to communicate with muscles. While its…
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Questions for CFPB Director Richard Cordray
Tomorrow, Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will face questions from the House Financial Services Committee. Here are some of the questions…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Free the Market: Ending the Corporate Welfare Racket
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Oversight Hearing Will Find Federal Regulatory Transparency Quite Opaque
The 2015 edition of White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) annual Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations was latest we’ve seen…
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USA Act Increases Accountability, Restores Congress’ Power of the Purse
Separation of powers is one of the United States government’s most basic principles. But for several decades, presidents from both parties have gradually concentrated more…
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DOT Compromises Safety and Efficiency for Union Favoritism
Today, a draft proposed rule from the Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration has been making the rounds. It will be published in the…
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Collusive Deals with Class Action Lawyers before the Supreme Court
Class-action lawsuits are commonly settled for things that benefit the lawyers bringing them, not the class of allegedly victimized people they are supposedly suing on…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was just another week in the world of federal regulation, with new rules covering everything from Nixon’s archives to black bears. On to the…
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Advancing Capitalism at the New Intellectual Forum
Yesterday, my colleague Fred Smith and I co-hosted the New Intellectual Forum, an exciting event that brought business leaders and free market intellectuals together for…
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FCC’s New Privacy Mandates – What’s Next, Internet Czar?
Today, the Federal Communications Commission unveiled a proposal to regulate how broadband providers may collect and use their customers’ information. If the FCC’s impending privacy…
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Bashing Trade Is a Popular Election Year Target
Pundits are opining that Bernie Sanders’ significant win in the Democratic primaries in Michigan was primarily due to his vehement anti-trade stance. Donald Trump’s surge…
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NLRB vs. McDonald’s: The Trial Begins
The long awaited McDonald’s trial in National Labor Relations Board joint employer case begins today. In RealClearPolicy, I discuss the less-than-transparent proceedings leading up…
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Beware of Misleading CBO Score of the AIRR Act
The AIRR Act (H.R. 4441), the FAA reauthorization bill in the House, contains badly needed reforms of U.S. air traffic control. See my FAQ on what…
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In Memoriam: Giancarlo Ibarguen
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Not Much Business Sense on Capitol Hill
Members of Congress, even some Democrats, are finally coming to terms that the Department of Labor’s proposed overtime rule may be bad for business. Why…
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RealClear Radio Hour: Unauthorized Climate Treaty & Biofuel Scandal
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Regulation Poses Biggest Threat to Monarch Butterflies
Like many nature lovers and gardeners, last year I launched a milkweed garden for monarch butterflies, starting from seed. After a long summer of manually picking pesky…
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Obama Administration Policy Threatens Youth Job Opportunities
The National Labor Relations Board’s long-awaited trial involving McDonald’s will begin this week on March 10. The case puts the franchise model in the…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
After several years and multiple lawsuits, the TSA deigned to issue a formal rule for its use of full-body scanners. CEI’s Marc Scribner finds that the…
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Oregon Legislature Approves Aggressive Renewable Power Law
Oregon lawmakers this week approved a bill (S.B. 1457) to increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard from the current target of 25% by 2025…
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Chairman Smith Turns Spotlight on RICO20 Ringleader
Who says climate politics is a battle between greedy corporations and idealistic scientists? In “The Climate Change 1%,” the Wall Street Journal reports that…
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Is Conservative Opposition to the Passenger Facility Charge Softening?
CEI is a strong supporter of transportation user fees. We prefer tolls over fuel taxes, and local airport user fees over tax-funded federal…
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Australian Bank Devalues Rewards Scheme in Anticipation of Interchange Fee Cap
I fear I am beginning to sound like a broken record on the subject of payments card interchange fees, with the needle stuck on “We…