Featured Posts
Forbes
Shutdowns Aren’t The Problem, They’re The Solution
Federal shutdowns—along with the debt limit like that the Republicans sought to extend in the American Relief Act (ARA)—may represent the last remaining…
Blog
Time to downsize presidential power
Over at InsideSources, I have a syndicated column arguing that the presidency has grown too powerful. The best parting gift President Biden could give…
The American Spectator
Regulations’ Enormous Costs and DOGE’s Enormous Upside
The American Spectator cited CEI’s Ten Thousand Commandments Wayne Crews, author of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s “Ten Thousand Commandments” study, produced a price tag that…
Search Posts
Newsletter
The Origins of Environmentalism, a Shady Attorney General and Immigration Lawsuits
The inability of the Democratic majority in Congress to pass a climate change bill causes activists to question the state of the environmental movement. CEI…
Op-Eds
Elena Kagan’s War on Small Business
Solicitor General Kagan urged against letting a small firm challenge a regulatory agency in court. Would a Justice Kagan do the same? Now that Congress…
E&E News
EPA Rejects 10 Endangerment Findings
Lake County News
Groups Call Alcohol Regulation Bill An Affront to Consumer Freedom’
Lake County News
Arizona’s Immigration Surprises
Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, which goes into effect on July 29, has been a rallying point for many conservatives. It reinvigorated the lackluster administration of…
News Release
Judge’s Injunction on Arizona Immigration Law Doesn’t Stop Law’s Harmful Impact
Washington, D.C., July 28, 2010 — Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law goes into effect Thursday, despite a partial injunction handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge…
Newsletter
Big Labor’s Agenda, the Death of Cap and Trade and the Politics of ‘Mad Men’
Big Labor has been pushing hard to make Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren the new consumer protection czar. Besides the possibility of a lame-duck session, the…
Lake County News
Bill Would Mandate Equal Pay for Unequal Work (Letter to the Editor)
Diana Furchtgott-Roth was right to criticize a bill that would require some people who do unequal work to be paid equal amounts. The perverse “Paycheck…
News Release
Groups Call Alcohol Regulation Bill “An Affront to Consumer Freedom”
Washington, D.C., July 27, 2010 — Today a coalition of nonprofit and consumer groups sent a letter to Congress expressing concerns about H.R. 5034, the…
Newsletter
Online Privacy, Food Safety and Unemployment Benefits
The Senate Commerce Committee prepares for a hearing on consumer online privacy. Environmental groups sue to compel the Food and Drug Administration to ban the…
Lake County News
Obama Administration Made Illegal Race-Based Decisions When Closing GM and Chrysler Dealerships
Lake County News
Financial Overhaul Just Another Case of Government Overreach
Newsletter
Congress’ Confidence Level, Attorneys General Gone Wild and Liberating Wine Sales
A recent poll found that only 11% of Americans have confidence in Congress. CEI releases a report on America’s worst state attorneys general. New York…
Lake County News
Deal for Credit Firm Draws Fire for GM
Newsletter
Cap and Trade, Financial Regulation and Toyotas and the Truth
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) mentions plans to pass a cap-and-trade bill in a post-election “lame duck” session if necessary. President Obama signs the Dodd-Frank financial…
Forbes
Get the Government Out of the Energy Business
Forbes
GM Agrees to Buy Lender AmeriCredit for $3.5 Billion
Newsletter
Elena Kagan’s Nomination, Obama Signs Financial Regulation Bill and Defending the Right to Work
The Senate Judiciary Committee approves the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today President Obama will sign recently-passed financial regulation bill into…
Forbes
Obama’s Latest Monstrosity
The 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill that President Obama will sign today should not be called “financial reform.” Instead the bill, which…
Forbes
Too safe for our own good?
Myths about the risks of various products and activities can themselves be harmful to your health. They include the belief that greater regulation is synonymous…
Cafe Hayek
Ryan Young explains some differences between economists and economics
News Release
Lift Government Barriers to Encourage Competition and Innovation
Washington, D.C., July 21, 2010—Tomorrow the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up the “America COMPETES Act,” possibly adding an amendment that would create a 15-member…
News Release
Extending Unemployment Benefits Will Increase Unemployment, Hurt Economy
Washington, D.C., July 21, 2010—The Senate today approved an extension of federal unemployment benefits to a maximum of 99 weeks. This move is likely to…
American Spectator
Economists vs. Economics
Has the financial crisis ruined economics? Not only did economists fail to predict it, nobody seems to have a clue how to right the…
Study
Union Pensions in Crisis
Full Document Available in PDF Union pensions are in trouble, and financial watchdogs such as Moody’s…
Newsletter
National Security, Federal Red Tape and Private Government in Florida
The Washington Post reports that 854,000 people have top-secret security clearances. The Federal Register for 2010 now exceeds 40,000 pages. Just outside of Florida’s Walt…
American Spectator
Union Hiring Unemployed to Walk Picket Lines
Vincent Vernuccio on Fox Business, Varney and Company http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4285533/unions-hire-unemployed-to-walk-picket-lines/?playlist_id=87060 …
American Spectator
Vincent Vernuccio on Non-Union Union Pickets
Competitive enterprise institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains potential union pension bailouts. …
American Spectator
Have We Really Been Stimulated?
They use the phony statistic ‘saved’ or ‘created.’ To say saved or created, who knows if this job would have been eliminated if you…
American Spectator
Have We Really Been Stimulated
The Lansing State Journal reported last week that the federal stimulus has been working. The White House projects the spending act created or saved between…
Comment
CEI Comments to the FCC in the matter of Framework For Broadband Internet Service
Full Document Available in PDF Reclassifying the transmission component of…
Newsletter
Financial Regulation, the Gulf Oil Spill, and Privacy on Facebook
Congress passes the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill. The New York Times chronicles the economic fallout from the BP oil spill. Pundits argue that Facebook is…
American Spectator
Michigan a Right to Work State?
Oakland County Sherriff Mike Bouchard, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, called for making Michigan a right to work State in a…
American Spectator
Financial Reform Bill: Bureaucratic Absolutism
American Spectator
More Muscle for Big Merchants
It’s usually not that easy for big retail chains to win battles on Capitol Hill — particularly if they are trying to secure a benefit…
American Spectator
Obama’s New Financial Regulation Bill Strangles America’s Economy with Red Tape
The 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill that passed the Senate 60-39 on Thursday and will be signed by President Obama next week should not…
American Spectator
Who Won Big in the Financial Bill – More Muscle for Big Merchants
It’s usually not that easy for big retail chains to win battles on Capitol Hill — particularly if they are trying to secure a benefit…
American Spectator
Dodd-Frank is not “Financial Reform,” it’s More Big Government Lunacy
The 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill should not be called “financial reform.” Instead, it should be called what for what it is: pages and pages of…
News Release
Statement by John Berlau on Passage of Dodd-Frank Financial Regulation Bill
The 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill should not be called “financial reform.” Instead, it should be called what for what it is: pages…
Letters
Senate Should Reject Dodd-Frank
Full Document Available in PDF The so-called financial “reform” legislation, agreed to by House and Senate Democrats in Conference, and…
Letters
Double Taxation Working Group
Full Document Available in PDF We are writing to express our appreciation for your efforts to protect Americans from tax increases that…
Newsletter
Financial Regulation, Immigration and Climate Legislation
The Senate prepares to vote on a financial regulation bill. A Heritage Foundation report finds that deportation of undocumented immigrants has fallen during the Obama…
News Release
Privatize American Cities? Learning Lessons from Disney’s Experiment with “Private” Government
Washington, D.C., July 14, 2010 – Would governments do a better job of governing if some were privatized? A new case study by the Competitive…
American Spectator
Let Congress Sweat It Out
Many of the so-called solutions the green movement proposes consist of turning back the clock and relying on technology we left behind decades, even…
American Spectator
With Debt, Deficit Come More Red Tape
Daily Caller
Cell Phones Don’t Cause Cancer
Could your cell phone be killing you? A lot of people seem to think so. Some activists say that talking on your phone for…
Washington Examiner
With Debt, Deficits Comes More Red Tape
The Washington Examiner highlights Wayne Crews's study on the size of the federal regulatory state. But debt and deficits aren't the only monstrously…
Newsletter
A Beer Stimulus, Comcast Merger Questions and Urban Beekeeping
A proposed “Beer Stimulus Bill” would reduce the federal excise tax that small brewers must pay. Yesterday lawmakers conducted a field hearing questioning “Who Benefits?”…
Washington Examiner
The Lady Gaga Economy
The Lady Gaga phenomenon conquered the Today Show this morning, with what must have been the largest crowd they’ve had in their summer…
Denver Daily News
Markets Should Drive Xcel, Not Social Values
Xcel Energy is getting a lot of grief over its new “tiered” rate increase Ń a.k.a., the air-conditioner tax Ń but the criticism is…
Denver Daily News
State Needs New Leadership on Insurance Policies
It’s sometimes hard to picture your insurance company as a caped hero sweeping in to rescue you in times of crisis. Yet, that is what…
New York Times
Facing Tough Economic Realities (Letter to the Editor)
Paul Krugman is at a loss to explain why some people oppose extending unemployment benefits. One reason people hold such an opinion is that…
Newsletter
EPA’s Gangster Style, LibertyWeek Turns 100 and Comparing BP to Enron
The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gain the auto industry’s support for new fuel economy standards. The LibertyWeek podcast records…
New York Times
Bad Immigration Laws Are for Repealing, Not Enforcing
Immigration reform is at a crossroads. When Arizona passed its anti-immigration law in the spring, it said it was doing so because the federal government…
New York Times
Will 2010 be the Year States say Enough is Enough?
For decades, government employees at every level have received steadily increasing compensation—including salary, pensions, and health care benefits—thanks to the political clout of public employee…
News Release
Let Comcast-NBC/Universal Merge
Tomorrow the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet will conduct a field hearing questioning “Who Benefits?” from the proposed…
Newsletter
Federal Spending, Free Trade and the Regulation Round-up
The House of Representatives passes a non-binding resolution to limit government spending. The Obama White House belatedly discovers the virtues of free trade. For those…
New York Times
Regulatory Flights of Fancy
In Washington, D.C., everything old is new again. Keynes is back as the defunct economist our politicians are in thrall to, wind and solar…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: May – June 2010
To view this issue of the CEI Planet, please click here to download the PDF file. Below are selected articles from the May-June 2010 issue: Collective…
Newsletter
Regulating Strippers, Blowout Prevention and Kagan’s Hearings
Missouri enacts “anti-stripper” legislation placing new restrictions on adult entertainment establishments. The House of Representatives holds a hearing on the Blowout Prevention Act. Elena Kagan’s…
Blog
Celebrating Bastiat
Economist Don Boudreaux reminds us that 209 years ago today, the great economic journalist Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was born. F.A. Hayek in his introduction…
Newsletter
Online Gambling, Leadership in Business vs. Politics and Corporate Accounting
The State of California is working to (partially) “legalize” online gambling. Former congressman Mickey Edwards writes on the qualities of…
New York Times
Blowout Prevention Act–or Oil-Production Prevention Act?
Today, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment will hold a hearing on the Blowout Prevention Act of 2010. A draft…
New York Times
Court Ruling ‘Another Reason to Vote no on Dodd-Frank’
New York Times
Spreading Lies on the Ledbetter Case
Citation
Dear Colleague Letter: The Negative Implications of Regulatory Agencies
New York Times
Oversight law survives Supreme Court Battle
New York Times
Supreme Court’s SOX Decision May be Non-Event for IT
New York Times
Is Scott Brown a Game-Changer on the Financial Bill?
A Yogi-ism for Congress: “It ain’t over until both houses of Congress vote for an identical bill and send it to the president’s desk —…
The Spectator
The Windsurfer’s Windfall
Wall Street Journal
How I (Almost) Killed Sarbox
Wall Street Journal
Is Scott Brown a Game-Changer on the Financial Bill?
A Yogi-ism for Congress: “It ain’t over until both houses of Congress vote for an identical bill and send it to the president’s desk…
Wall Street Journal
Supreme Court Sarbanes-Oxley Decision
Wall Street Journal
Supreme Court SOX Ruling Has IT Implications
News Release
Supreme Court Strikes Down Key Sarbanes-Oxley Provisions
Nearly five years ago, CEI and accountant Brad Beckstead began to discuss mounting a constitutional challenge to Sarbanes-Oxley’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The…
CEI On Demand
Sam Kazman on Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB
General Counsel Sam Kazman discusses the far reaching implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Newsletter
Official Bedtimes, Stimulus Creep and Free Trade Agreements
Japan’s Environment Ministry is encouraging its citizens to go to bed an hour earlier at night, and get up an hour earlier in the morning.
CEI On Demand
Arizona Declares War on Capitalism
The most persistent misunderstanding about Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, SB 1070, is that it is about security. The law’s supporters argue that there is…
CEI On Demand
Market Meddling Led to BP Oil Spill (Letter to the Editor)
Naomi Klein is correct that the mere $20m spent on accident prevention and spill response goes "a long way" toward explaining this disaster (…
Newsletter
Climate Skeptics, The Case Against Cap and Trade and Oil Spill Red Tape
The National Academy of Sciences recently published a report attacking the credentials of climate change skeptics. The Gulf oil spill has…
CEI On Demand
USA Today Cheers Proposed Financial Protection Agency
News Release
Supreme Court Decision Spares America From Becoming International Magnet for Lawsuits
Washington, D.C., June 24, 2010 – The U.S. Supreme Court today saved this country from becoming a target-rich environment for international litigation, ruling against…
PC World
Senate Panel Approves Controversial Cybersecurity Bill
PC World reports on the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act and discuss issues with the bill with Wayne Crews. One critic said Thursday…
Newsletter
Elena Kagan, Five Years of Kelo and Offshore Oil Drilling
More details about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan come to light. Today is the 5-year anniversary of the landmark property rights decision in the case…
PC World
Constitutionality Aside, Look at the Economic Damage
Last week, the Obama administration confirmed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will file a lawsuit to challenge Arizona’s immigration law, SB 1070 before…
PC World
The Walgreen Amendment
In passing the financial regulation bill, U.S. Senators made a point of how they were going after the “fat cats” on Wall Street.
Newsletter
Biocrap Victory, Cell Phone Scares and Obama’s Gulf Power Grab
The U.S. Supreme Court gave a major win to biotech crop breeders in a decision announced on Monday, reversing a lower court ruling in Monsanto…
PC World
Stimulus Spending Has Done Little to Promote Growth (Letter to the Editor)
The stimulus package destroyed private-sector jobs, since it was financed by borrowing money from private citizens that would otherwise have been spent on private…
PC World
The Great Immigration Deception
Arizona’s controversial immigration law and Democratic responses to it have ignited a fierce political fight that will only intensify as the law goes into…
Newsletter
Oil Spill Assistance, Immigration Crackdown and Money for Nothing
The White House refused to allow foreign ships to assist with cleanup of the BP oil spill. Arizona’s immigration crack-down inspires a public referendum on…
News Release
Memo: Upcoming Supreme Court decision in Sarbanes-Oxley case
MEMO TO: Friends of CEI FROM: John Berlau, Director of CEI’s Center for Entrepreneurs and Investors DATE: June 21, 2010 SUBJECT: …
PC World
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such as…
Newsletter
Online Gambling, Orcs on Wall Street and the Chimera of Green Jobs
Congress continues to discuss a plan that would legalize online gambling in all fifty states. The government is on the prowl…
PC World
Obama’s Actions Prevent Timely Clean-Up By U.S. Allies
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that … possess some of the world’s most…
PC World
Obama Blocks Louisiana, Foreign Allies from Oil Spill Clean-Up
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico…
Newsletter
Financial Reform, Hurricane Season and Bank Fees
Congress continues negotiations on a major financial reform bill. Florida Governor Charlie Christ vetoes a bill that would have allowed Florida insurance companies to build…
PC World
The New King of Detroit
Yesterday, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) named Bob King as its new president. Does this mean a change in direction for one of…
PC World
Bad Idea: Congress Blocks Checking Overdraft Fees
Banks can afford to offer free checking accounts with no minimum balance, to responsible people, only because they can charge overdraft fees to irresponsible…
Cable Fax
FCC Releases Title II Broadband NOI for Comment
News Release
Center-Right Groups Protest Durbin ‘Interchange Fee’ Amendment Pushing Through Price Controls and Benefitting Big Retailers
Washington, D.C., June 17, 2010 – A coalition of 15 free-market and conservative groups are calling on Congress to reject credit and debit card…
Staff & Scholars
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Richard Morrison
Senior Fellow
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Capitalism and Free Enterprise
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government
Ryan Young
Senior Economist
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform