Consumers get forgotten in all the politics. The best way to protect consumers is to protect an open, competitive market process, in which companies succeed or fail based not on their political connections or ideological correctness, but on how well they serve consumers.
Antitrust regulation’s problems are structural and incurable. The Competitive Enterprise Institutes advocates abolishing antitrust law, removing remaining government monopolies, and preventing the creation of new ones.
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Blog
DOJ’s proposed antitrust remedies against Google are a bridge too far
In early August 2024, Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia found that Google illegally maintained a search…
Blog
Trump’s deregulation shines, but tariffs and antitrust cloud the scene
The White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) this month released a new report on the Trump administration’s regulatory rollback efforts. Titled “The Economic…
Blog
Congress should overturn harmful anti-bank merger regulation
Yesterday, the Senate approved a resolution pursuant to the Congressional Review Act to overturn a regulation from the Biden administration that would sharply restrict…
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Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. INTERNET ABC announces a free two-month trial access to its most popular shows…
Op-Eds
Let the Internet Grow Up
America has developed a proud paternal bond with the Internet. We've watched and cheered the net's growth from its awkward, text-heavy infancy into…
Op-Eds
Waiting to Inhale: ‘Thank You for Smoking’
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Few industries are more demonized than Big Tobacco. From…
News Release
Ruling on Tobacco Settlement Payments Expected
Contact: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Christine Hall, 202.331.2258 Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252…
Op-Eds
Reform the Reformers
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> On the Saturday Show (Jan. 21), NPR commentator John Ydstie, in a…
Study
“But now all the stations are silenced, ’cause they ain’t got a government license”
Broadcasting has come a long way since the pioneer punk band The Clash blasted Britain's radio regulators with that line in 1979, but in some…
Products
CEI Planet: January – February 2006
President Concedes Moral High Ground on Energy by Myron Ebell "America is addicted to oil." With these five words in…
Op-Eds
Careful What You Wish For
If you wanted to lower electric energy prices in the US, what would you do? If you answered, “Cripple the domestic railroad industry,” you'd…
Products
Q&A With Jason Talley
Jason Talley heads the Bureaucrash pro-freedom activist network—in Bureaucrash’s own parlance, he is the Crasher-in-Chief. He spoke recently with CEI Planet on his…
Products
How Sarbanes-Oxley Hinders Technology Transfer
I grew up here in Kansas City, on the Kansas side, Johnson County. Ewing Kaufman left the Kaufman Foundation as his legacy, along with many…
Products
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
On February 9, the Competitive Enterprise Institute helped file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a federal agency…
Op-Eds
Speaking in Tongues
In Monty Python’s classic "Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch, a Hungarian tourist walks into a British tobacconist’s shop, and, consulting a faulty phrasebook, tells…
Op-Eds
Standing Athwart History…
Is there a point at which societal change moves so fast that some people not only do not see it, but emphatically deny…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. LEGAL Congress considers the question of what can be done with copyrighted material whose owner cannot…
Op-Eds
Sarbanes-Oxley Accounting Board: An Agency Without Accountability
In 2001, the energy giant Enron unexpectedly filed for bankruptcy, laying off 4,000 of its employees and consuming the life savings of thousands more. In…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. BUSINESS Civil rights leader Andrew Young joins the steering committee of the group Working Families for…
Op-Eds
Making a Meth of the PATRIOT Act
If you thought al Qaeda or Iraqi insurgents were the major threats facing America, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) says you’re wrong. According to Dent,…
News Release
Free Enterprise Fund and Competitive Enterprise Institute to Announce Constitutional Legal Challenge to Sarbanes-Oxley
WHAT: Sarbanes-Oxley was rushed into law in 2002 with good intentions following unprecedented corporate scandals. Yet, elements of Sarbanes-Oxley now serve as classic examples…
News Release
Free Enterprise Fund and Competitive Enterprise Institute Launch Constitutional Legal Challenge to Sarbanes-Oxley Act
CONTACT: Christine Hall, 202-331-2258, [email protected] Washington, DC (February 8, 2006)—The Free Enterprise Fund and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) on Tuesday launched a…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. LEGAL & CONSTITUTIONAL Finance company BB&T announces that it will refuse loans to developers attempting to…
Op-Eds
Open Federalism
The businessman puts the cash in an envelope. He leaves it on the agreed upon restaurant table. Another man, a government bureaucrat, walks over…
Op-Eds
Why Cable ‘A La Carte’ Won’t Roll
Americans love channel surfing, and many spend their evenings flipping through the vast ocean of inexpensive programming available through cable television packages. But…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. BUSINESS A new Maryland law requiring Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health benefits has other…
Op-Eds
Sarbanes-Oxley vs. the Free Press
Back in June, when New York Times reporter Judith Miller was about to go to jail on contempt charges for refusing to testify…
Op-Eds
A Boon for U.S. Consumers
Although Wal-Mart has been America's largest retailer since 1990, the company has only recently begun expanding into California, and the reaction from many quarters has…
Op-Eds
Some Hard Truths About Bird Flu
The issues surrounding the possibility of a pandemic of the H5N1 strain of avian flu are extraordinarily complex, encompassing medicine, epidemiology, virology and even…
Products
Let a Thousand ISPs Bloom: A Hands-Off Approach to Global Tech Development
Simply uttering the phrase “Internet governance” is enough to make some people cringe with visions of Big Brother. But Internet governance is not—and shouldn’t be—some…
Products
The CEI Planet – November – December 2005
Full Document Available in PDF Europe’s Global REACH: Chemical Regulations…
Op-Eds
Black Gold: Syriana soars on substance, sinks on politics.
Syriana opens with a throng of Arab men quarreling over the right to board a bus. The camera peers at the scene through…
Op-Eds
Point, Counterpoint: Wal-Mart on DVD
Documentary film has long been mired in debates about objectivity. Once strived for amongst serious documentarians, the notion of an objective documentary slowly degraded as…
Op-Eds
The Long REACH of the EU
The European Union's Council of Ministers is expected to vote soon on the proposed chemicals regulation called REACH, an acronym for Registration, Evaluation, and…
News Release
Bill Clinton’s Shifting Policy on Climate Change
Contacts: Marlo Lewis, 202.669.6693 (Montréal) Myron Ebell, 202.320.6685 (<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C.)…
Op-Eds
Who’s afraid of big business?
Everybody agrees, it seems, that big business has too much influence in Washington. Most people are confused, however, as to what big business is doing…
Op-Eds
A Windfall of Bad Ideas
In the third-quarter of 2005, the major U.S. oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP America, and Shell Oil Company—collectively earned almost $26 billion in profits, an…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. TELECOMMUNICATIONS The Federal Communications Commission is expected to announce renewed efforts toward forcing cable companies…
News Release
CEI Experts Available on UN Global Warming Talks
Contacts: (<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />U.S.) Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252 (Montreal) Richard Morrison, 202.441.9652 Washington,…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. HEALTH & SAFETY Drug maker Merck & Co. announces layoffs of 7,000 workers amid uncertainty surrounding…
Op-Eds
An analog armageddon?
Hollywood movies are replete with bad guys nefariously plotting to control the world, but these days, music and movie industry associations are looking awfully…
Op-Eds
Cardiac arrest at the FDA
The photograph on your Tuesday front page headlined “Hillary health care” shows Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, in Jerusalem holding a CardioPump—a device…
News Release
Wal-Mart Critics Reading from an Old Script
Contact: Richard Morrison , 202.331.2273 Washington , D.C. , November 18, 2005—The success of retail giant Wal-Mart has generated criticism of its…
Op-Eds
The UN’s War Against Innovation
The leadership of the United Nations is truly the gang that can't shoot straight. Even if the recent incidents of corruption and profiteering—exemplified…
News Release
CEI to Host Congressional Seminar on Windfall Profits Taxes
UPDATE: Download a written transcript of the event, complete with PowerPoint slides, here (PDF format). Listen to a…
News Release
U.S. to U.N. in Tunisia: Hands Off the Internet
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” /> Contact: Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 Washington, D.C.,…
Letters
An Open Letter to Congress: Franchise Reform
Dear Member of Congress: Much has changed in the decade since Congress passed the 1996 Telecommunications Act. As Congress is considering changes and updates…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
1. TOBACCO The U.S. declines to ratify the World Health Organization’s anti-tobacco treaty which calls on countries to enact limits on…
News Release
Telecom Scores Merger Success — With Strings Attached
Washington, D.C., October 31, 2005—The Competitive Enterprise Institute welcomes the Federal Communications Commission’s decision approving the two major telecommunications mergers. Unfortunately, the conditions…
News Release
CEI to Co-sponsor CSR Reconsidered 2005
The CSR Reconsidered conference was a success. Human Events covered the conference and wrote about it here. ‘Wolves in CSR Clothing’ is…
Op-Eds
UNESCO to U.S.: Drop Dead!
Last Thursday, the United States was sucker-punched by an international organization. A majority of countries belonging to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and…
News Release
CEI Congressional Seminar: Tailoring Telecommunications Reform
Date: Friday, October 28, 2005<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Time: 12:00 – 2:00 pm <?xml:namespace prefix…
News Release
Trade Liberalization Again Threatened by Agricultural Special Interests
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., October 20, 2005— The world's best hope for eliminating poverty – the continued liberalization…
News Release
New Study Provides Outline for Telecom Reform
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., October 18, 2005—The rules that govern the telecommunications industry in the United States have…
News Release
Supreme Court Turns Away Justice Department Demand in Tobacco Lawsuit
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., October 17, 2005— The Supreme Court today rightly rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to…
News Release
New Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow to Join CEI
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Washington, D.C., October 12, 2005— The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce…
Products
Challenge to the State Attorney General-Tobacco Cartel
On August 2, 2005 the Competitive Enterprise Institute launched a legal challenge to the multi-state tobacco settlement of 1998. Nearly seven years after the settlement was…
Op-Eds
Tobacco Ruling Erodes Charter
In Thursday’s ruling in British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco, the Supreme Court of Canada gravely eroded the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by…
News Release
Statement from CEI Counsel Hans Bader on Today’s Ruling in British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, DC, September 29, 2005—In today’s ruling in British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco, the Supreme Court…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. HURRICANE KATRINA President Bush addresses the nation from New Orleans, pledging additional assistance to areas…
Op-Eds
Tobacco Deal-Breaker?
“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, . . . enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State.” —- U.S. Constitution, Article I,…
Op-Eds
Suffocating Small Companies
The Washington Times is on target in pointing out the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s strangulation of small public companies in even more layers of red tape (“Relief…
Op-Eds
CAFTA, beneficios y despropósitos (Spanish), by Frances B. Smith
Washington (AIPE)- El Senado de Estados Unidos aprobó el acuerdo de libre comercio con Centroamérica y República Dominicana (CAFTA) el 30 de junio y…
Op-Eds
Slicing Telecom the Right Way: Making a Real Market is the Best Cure for Monopoly
Mergers involving SBC and Verizon and a recent Supreme Court decision exempting cable-modem companies from open-access regulation have reignited fears of market domination…
Op-Eds
Unraveling CAFTA: Lobbyists vs. free trade, by Frances Smith
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The Bush administration is taking a risky tack to garner House support for…
Op-Eds
All Cost, No Benefit
Tomorrow, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on Sen. Jeff Bingaman's (D-N.M.) Climate and Economy Insurance Act. Originally…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. LEGAL & CONSTITUTIONAL Property rights activists organize and a Montana Congressman introduces legislation to counter the Supreme…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ENERGY The Senate passes major new energy legislation. From CEI: Director of Global Warming &…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Dispatch
Issues in the News 1. TECHNOLOGY Microsoft and the EU Competition Commission have apparently reached an agreement over the Commission’s 2004…
Study
The Revolution Spins toward More Regulation
Full document available in pdf format. …
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ANTITRUST Microsoft submits its final proposal for complying with the latest order by the…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ECONOMIC LIBERTY The union campaign against Wal-Mart expands in the Washington,…
Op-Eds
One Bundle, Many Antitrust Laws: The Dilemma for Digital Products
Alongstanding question in the software debate is whether operating systems and components such as browsers and media players are really separate products bundled as one or…
News Release
A Solution to the Grokster Copyright Debate?
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns…
Study
The Price is Right—Or Better Be!
Full Document Available in PDF On the popular television game show “The…
News Release
Verizon & MCI : A Good Deal for Consumers
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
Op-Eds
New Agenda Fails to Address Problems
George Bernard Shaw once observed that: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the…
Op-Eds
Different Technology, Similar Service
In the absence of competition, regulations serve to protect consumers against monopoly market power. This is, in theory, the reason why the telecommunications…
Products
Unbundling the Confusion over Declining Marginal Cost Pricing
Full Document Available in PDF Declining cost businesses must have ways…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: November 2004
Full Document Available in PDF In this issue: “Freeing the Biotech Revolution” by Henry…
News Release
EU Rules Against Innovation in Microsoft Case
Contacts: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 Clyde <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =…
Op-Eds
FCC Is Ignoring Impact of Wireless, Other Rivals for Telephone Service
In the absence of competition, regulations serve to protect consumers against monopoly market power. This is, in theory, the reason why the telecommunications local exchange…
Study
Threats to Competitiveness in a Political Environment
Full Document Available in PDF This essay may seem depressing, but…
Study
The Role of Business in the Modern World: Progress, Pressures and Prospects for the Market Economy
Foreward, acknowledgments, and…
Study
1984-2004: CEI’s 20 Year Report
Full Document Available in PDF A Message from the President CEI is…
Op-Eds
Antitrust: Sherman’s March Across the Globe
President Bush’s bipartisan Antitrust Modernization Commission held its first meeting in July. But after 114 years, America’s antitrust regulatory regime is overdue for burial, not…
Products
March Edition of CEI’s Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF “To Panic or Not to Pan? Farmed…
Op-Eds
A Cast of Thousands
In <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Hollywood's glory days, studios peppered movie posters with the words “cast of thousands” in bold…
Op-Eds
Even Trade Politics Can Be Local
Mark Vaile, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Australia's trade minister, is in town this week asking an uncomfortable question: “Will the…
Products
August Edition of CEI’s Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition: …
News Release
Merrill Lynch Rulings Show Serious Flaws in Wall Street Research Settlement
Contact for Interviews:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C.,…
News Release
Broadcast of “Corporate Aftershock” Book Forum
Watch a webcast of the forum on the new book, Corporate Aftershock: The Public Policy Lessons from the Collapse of Enron and Other Major…
News Release
CEI Files Comments on Proposed Travel Regulations
Full comments available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Contact for Interviews: …
News Release
FCC Should Repeal Media Ownership Rules
Contact for Interviews:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252 Washington, D.C., May…
Op-Eds
Avoid More Mandates
As more and more Americans become investors, paternalistic regulators are demanding greater disclosure by mutual funds to protect consumers from excessive brokerage commissions…
CEI Planet
February Edition of CEI Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition:…
News Release
Project On Technology And Innovation Expanding
Washington, D.C., February 12, 2003—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is expanding its Project on Technology and Innovation with the addition of…
News Release
Public Interest Group Opposes Technology Mandates, Joins Alliance For Digital Progress
Washington, D.C., January 23, 2003—Now that we’ve solidly entered the Digital Age, how should intellectual property best be protected, through the marketplace…
Op-Eds
Orbitz: Good For Airlines, Good For Travelers
Orbitz started selling airline tickets over the Internet on June 1, 2001. It is owned by five major carriers and supported to a…
Op-Eds
An Emerging Area Of Reform
As the Enron debacle regrettably spurred Congress to pass campaign finance reform, here’s hoping that Rupert Murdoch’s outrageous campaign against the merger of…
Op-Eds
Orbitz Foes Trying To Stifle Competition
The Department of Transportation has launched still another investigation into Chicago-based Orbitz, the online source of travel information and reservations started up last June by…
Op-Eds
Settlement Implications For Microsoft
The settlement that Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice presented to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last Friday is good for the parties and represents…
Op-Eds
Government Goes Too Far On Microsoft Case
The 5 days since the release of the proposed settlement between Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice have seen a barrage…
Staff & Scholars
Richard Morrison
Senior Fellow
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Capitalism and Free Enterprise
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Trade and International
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Ryan Young
Senior Economist
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform
Jessica Melugin
Director of the Center for Technology & Innovation
- Antitrust
- Innovation
- Media, Speech and Internet Freedoms
Alex Reinauer
Research Fellow
- Antitrust
- Innovation
- Tech and Telecom