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The Daily Economy
The Resurgence of Do It Yourself Economics
To listen to some people, you’d think that America had been run by economists — and specifically free-market economists — for the last fifty years…
News Release
Inflation increased 0.1 percent in May, less severe than previous months: CEI analysis
Today, the Consumer Price Index report for May showed inflation increased across all sectors by 0.1 percent, compared to 0.2 percent in April. CEI…
Blog
Trump’s newborn nest egg accounts
In the face of recurring economic shocks—we’ve suffered 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19 in the 21st century alone—the reflex to throw hundreds of…
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Letters
Coalition Urges Fiscal Restraint on Infrastructure Package
Dear Representative: The undersigned organizations ask you to place common sense parameters on the next legislation to address our nation’s infrastructure. As our economy continues…
National Review
Biden’s Executive Order Moves the U.S. One Step Closer to Rule by Decree
President Biden’s sweeping executive order on competition is a strange beast. It lurches from lofty claims about encouraging competition to niggling complaints about…
National Review
Biden’s Regulatory Pen and Phone Must Be Replaced with an ‘Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act’
For folks who talk about boring topics such as federal regulation, it’s normal to discuss costs and counts. I’m one of those people. I actually enjoy writing…
News Release
CEI Experts React to President Biden’s Wide-Ranging Executive Order on Competition
President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy today, which the White House claims is aimed at enhancing…
Real Clear Policy
Don’t Knock ‘Rainbow Capitalism’ – Business Is an Essential LGBT Ally
During last month’s pride celebrations, there was a lot of debate about corporations and their embrace of Pride Month. As with any popular holiday, corporate…
Blog
Digital Yuan Threatens Global Freedom
“[Bitcoin] is an escape hatch from tyranny and nothing less than freedom money.” – Alex Gladstein, Human Rights Foundation The world is recognizing…
Blog
Reviewing SEC Climate Disclosure Comments
Earlier this week, I wrote a short summary of the comments from myself and my colleague Marlo Lewis to the Securities and…
Blog
Boeing-Airbus Dispute Remains Unsolved: Tariffs Gone, Subsidies Stay
The European Union and the United States eagerly announced today that they had resolved their 17-year dispute over aerospace subsidies. They exaggerate their claims.
Blog
Climate Disclosure Comments to the SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Allison Herren Lee solicited comments on climate change from the public back on March 15, and the deadline for…
The FinReg Blog
How Policymakers Can Defuse a Major Esg Threat to Shareholder Rights
Since 2004, when the term “ESG” was first used in a report published by the United Nations Global Compact, there has been an explosion of interest…
News Release
Facebook’s Content Moderation Decisions Preferable to One-Size-Fits-All Government Regulation
Facebook announced today it suspended former President Donald Trump from the platform for two years retroactive to January 7, 2021. Responding to a ruling against…
Blog
What Inflation Is, and What It Isn’t
It looks like we’re in for a bit of inflation. After decades of stable 2 percent inflation, the latest indicators say it’s moving up…
National Review
When ‘Voluntary’ Becomes Obligatory — Regulatory Creep and the SEC
There was a time — not so long ago — when it was widely accepted that the primary purpose of a corporation was to generate return…
Fortune
The SEC May Get Tougher On ESG Claims—Shaking Things Up For Investors
As Gary Gensler takes the helm at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he’ll face decisions on a raft of high-profile issues—including cryptocurrency, the …
News Release
Report: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Goals Remain Vague but Pose Major Threat
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report takes a close look at environmental, social, and governance (ESG) theory, a trending cause aimed at pressuring for-profit…
Blog
Is the Biden Administration Socialist?
One of the points I make in The Socialist Temptation is that today’s “democratic socialists” don’t really know what they mean by socialism. Nor…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition of 23 in Urging Pro-Growth Business Tax Policy
View Full Document as PDF Dear Chairman Wyden, Chairman Neal, Ranking Member Crapo, and Ranking Member Brady: On behalf of the undersigned taxpayer,…
Fox Business
SEC’s Gary Gensler Eyes Crypto And Climate Change With Confirmation Official
Fox Business cites Research Fellow Richard Morrison on ESG: ESG advocates are likely to try to stretch the definition of material as…
FEE
Got Woke: A Review of ‘The Dictatorship of Woke Capital’
How did corporate America, long considered one of the most conservative American institutions, become a lead protagonist in a culture war over all manner of…
Blog
Americans Ambivalent about Billionaire Influence, Reject Left-Wing Hostility
New polling, recently written up at Reason, shows that the American public isn’t nearly as hostile to capitalism, and the leaders of big…
Las Vegas Review Journal
EDITORIAL: Infrastructure Package Meets Federal Red Tape
The Las Vegas Review-Journal cites Senior Fellow Mario Loyola on Biden’s infrastructure plan: The projects that might survive the legislative process as…
National Review
Corporations Don’t Pay Corporate Taxes. People Do
A mammoth infrastructure bill is on the way from Congress, and policy-makers are touting a corporate-tax-rate hike to help pay for it. Treasury secretary…
The Wall Street Journal
It Takes Lots of Permits to Save the Planet
President Biden’s infrastructure plan proposes to spend trillions of dollars toward achieving zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. It won’t reach that goal, for two reasons.
News Release
CEI Experts Say Biden “Infrastructure” Plan Will Harm Economy, Raise Taxes and Costs for Consumers
President Joe Biden’s proposed legislative package to increase taxes and spend trillions was released today by the White House. The wide-ranging bill included provisions on…
News Release
CEI Commends Sen. Lankford for Introducing Pandemic Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Act
On Thursday, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) introduced the Pandemic Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Act. The bill would establish an independent commission to…
Small Business Advocate
AUDIO: How Much Does Private Crypto-Currency Threaten Sovereign States?
Senior Fellow John Berlau joins Jim Blasingame to debate the influence private cryptocurrencies could have on the marketplace, our relationship with government, and the viability…
Small Business Advocate
AUDIO: Dealing With the Reality of Digital Payments and Crypto-Currency
Senior Fellow John Berlau joins Jim Blasingame to discuss the difference between the government’s idea of a digital or crypto-currency and that of the private…
Small Business Advocate
AUDIO: What George Washington would think about 2021 America
Senior Fellow John Berlau joins Jim Blasingame to report how America’s father, George Washington, would think about the 2021 marketplace, and why he wouldn’t be…
Marketplace
Next on Democrats’ Agenda, a “Holistic” Infrastructure Bill
Marketplace cites Senior Fellow Mario Loyola on the Biden administration’s infrastructure package: “Once you’re starting to spend, you know, a trillion or…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in Opposition to State Mandate for No Tax Cuts
View Full Document as PDF We, the undersigned organizations, representing millions of Americans and thousands of state and local officials, write to express…
News Release
CEI Offers Reform Ideas to Congress Aimed at Fostering Resilience and Promoting Economic Renewal
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) offered a set of policy reform goals for the 117th Congress focused on economic stimulus and regulatory…
Study
Free to Prosper
View Full Document as PDF Free to Prosper: A Pro-Growth Agenda for the 117th Congress highlights specific steps lawmakers can take to rein in…
Forbes
Republican Surrender To Regulatory Progressivism Is The Wind Beneath Biden’s Wings
Republican senators may have voted in lockstep against Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, but they still played a role. A year ago, Senators…
News Release
Covid ‘Relief’ Bill Spends Billions on Items Unrelated to Crisis Recovery and Risks Inflation
The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on final passage of the ‘American Rescue Plan Act,’ a $1.9 trillion proposal touted as…
The Washington Times
Biden Overturned Trump Deregulation Rule That Saved U.S. $160 Billion: Analysis
The Washington Times cites Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on regulations and the Biden administration: “Biden has jettisoned … most of…
Blog
New President, Same Bad Policies
The Trump administration’s trade war gave economics teachers countless real-world examples of bad policy they can use in the classroom. A new open letter…
Blog
Gensler Agenda at SEC Bears Close Watching
President Biden has chosen former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Gary Gensler as his nominee to be chair of the Securities and Exchange…
Blog
Toward Simplifying Antitrust Regulation
Antitrust regulation is a complex mess. Multiple agencies have overlapping jurisdiction with no set rules for determining who takes which cases. One of the antitrust…
Blog
Best Books of 2020: Joseph Henrich – The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
It’s early, but The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich will likely be…
Blog
Best Books of 2020: Virgil Henry Storr and Ginny Seung Choi – Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)
Most people see markets as dens of greed and moral corruption. In their new book, Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals?, Virgil…
Blog
Some Frequently Asked Questions about Socialism
During my virtual “tour” for the release of my book, The Socialist Temptation, certain questions came up regularly. I have already set out my…
News Release
Corporate Transparency Act Threatens Small Businesses, Privacy Rights
The House today is expected to pass a controversial bill impacting a wide swath of American businesses, as part of the must-pass National Defense Authorization…
Blog
Biden Team Expected to Take Hatchet to Pension Protection Rule
The Department of Labor, under the leadership of Secretary Eugene Scalia, implemented an important (though widely misunderstood) rule this year, regarding how federally regulated pension…
Blog
Retro Review: The Communist Manifesto (1848)
The manifesto of the Communist party, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847 and first published the next year, has a legendary pair…
Watch Rushing In: The John Wood Story
New CEI Documentary Spotlights Entrepreneur Who Kept Diner Open To Feed Thousands during Lockdowns
During this pandemic and time of social unrest, many people wish they could take action and might not think that small, organized steps could positively…
Blog
High CEO Pay Isn’t Making Anyone Poor
While most American are still following the final vote counts in the 2020 presidential election, many lower-profile, but still important, issues have been decided at…
National Review
Free-Market Victories down the Ballot
The top of the ticket got most of the press, but for free-market enthusiasts, much of the real 2020 action was down ballot. As of…
Blog
James Madison on Why Politics Ruins Everything
Politics has a way of ruining everything. Even kind and intelligent people go through an instant metamorphosis when the conversation changes to politics. Their body…
Blog
New CEI Paper: Antitrust Policy in Europe, Lessons for America
Today, CEI is releasing a new paper on antitrust policy in the European Union by Swiss competition commissioner Henrique Schneider. Europe’s approach to competition…
Blog
Not the Strongest Case: DOJ’s Google Antitrust Complaint
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust complaint against Google. It marks the beginning of the first major monopolization case since the…
