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When emergency declarations become the emergency
Crises and economic shocks have a history of abuse. Few are aware that there are 31 declared and ongoing national emergencies, with some active…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Capitalism and the historians with Phil Magness
In this week’s episode we cover the prospect of Inflation Reduction Act 2.0, rising consumer confidence, the perils of stress bragging,…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Giving for a cause with Peter Lipsett
In this week’s episode we cover attitudes toward social media companies, the guerilla war over ESG investing, YIMBY housing reforms in…
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Op-Eds
Don’t Tax the Net: Fred Smith in Economic Affairs
Published in Economic Affairs, the journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Edited…
Op-Eds
CEI’s Fred Smith is Marketing the Market
Full article available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Navigator: CEI was founded in…
Study
Jump, Jive an’ Reform Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF Cost-benefit analysis has long been a centerpiece of regulatory…
News Release
New Study Provides “How-To” Guide for Regulatory Reform
Washington, DC, February 29, 2000 –A new report released today by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) called for congressional approval of all major regulations…
Study
I Want My Antitrust! MTV Experiences Government’s Peculiar View of the Real World
I Want My Antitrust! MTV Experiences Government’s Peculiar View of the Real World In December, the antitrust…
Study
League of Conservation Voters “Scorecard”: Most Americans Are “Dirty”
Every year, the League of Conservation Voters issues a “Congressional Scorecard.” Supposedly, this Scorecard tells the American public which members of Congress support…
Op-Eds
The Dangers of Precaution
Full Document Available in PDF Has Europe, long the home of so…
News Release
Clinton Budget Is Not The Full Story
Washington, DC, February 7, 2000 – President Clinton’s new fiscal year 2000 budget proposes to spend $1.84 trillion. While that enormous amount would absorb…
News Release
High Tech Expert Joins CEI
Washington, DC, February 2, 2000 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute announced today that Jessica Melugin has joined the staff as a Policy Analyst. Prior…
Products
AOL Time Warner? Not Big Enough for Tomorrow’s Internet
The America Online-Time Warner alliance is important not just for its size nor for the synergy it may create. It demonstrates in the real…
Products
Kemp: The Triumph of Democratic Capitalism
Every victory brings new risks. The biggest risk today is a statist counterrevolution being engineered by the architects of a "Third Way…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Policymaker’s Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2000 Edition)
Full Study Available in PDF Format The federal government spent $1.7 trillion in 1999 to…
Products
Odds & Ends: Dangerous Wetlands; Up in Smoke; Haider Ho; Who’s This Hayek Guy, Anyway?
They Ban Aerosol Cans, Why Not Wetlands? A big dilemma is shaping up for the environmental left. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in…
Products
The Gore Report: Keeping Tabs on Our Favorite Environmentalist
Elect Him, Or We’re Doomed! Each presidential election is always billed by some navel-gazing pundit or analyst as the most important in a generation. Then…
Study
Windows and the “Applications Barrier to Entry”: Fact or Fantasy?
View Full Document as PDF Very soon, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson is expected to issue his conclusions of law…
Products
An Interview with James Glassman
Jim Glassman is among the most prescient observers of political and economic trends in America today, with an understanding of first economic principles that…
Products
Beware the Internet Tax Hackers
Tax-hungry Grinches aren’t happy that you pay no taxes when Christmas shopping on the Internet. The nation’s governors and state and local officials,…
Products
The Gore Report: Keeping Tabs on Our Favorite Environmentalist
Debatable Behavior The Washington Post reports that Al Gore’s campaign has been sending a man dressed up as an ear of…
Products
Odds & Ends: Animal Rights Conundrum; Washington Psychopaths; Evil Vegetables; Who Needs the Constitution?
Animal Rights Conundrum, Part I What do you do when a cougar waltzes up to your house and eats your dog? Donald and Nelda…
Study
The Future of Financial Privacy
Chapters Now Available In PDF Format In The Future of Financial Privacy, a new book from the Competitive Enterprise Institute,…
Op-Eds
A Cowboy Economy?
On recent trips to Europe, I’ve become increasingly aware of a reality disconnect between the way America is and the way we’re viewed…
Op-Eds
Winning Intellectual Battles, Losing Cultural Wars
While free market advocates wage the intellectual fight, the statists have conquered much of our culture. Twice recently, I was asked to contribute…
News Release
CEI to Commission: Don’t Shackle E-Commerce with Taxes
Washington, DC, December 14, 1999 – Internet taxes would cause irreparable harm to the New Economy, millions of Internet consumers, and the cause of…
Study
Engines of Liberty: Cars and the Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe
Full Document Available in PDF…
Study
Privacy and Human Rights: Comparing the United States to Europe
One premise shaping the debate about privacy law in the United States is that the European Data Protection Directive is a more advanced…
Products
Method to Telecom Merger Madness
The telecommunications world was rocked in October with news of the merger between MCI-WorldCom and Sprint–in dollar terms the largest merger in US history.
Products
Rush to Tax Could Produce Net Loss
In the great Kurosawa Akira movie, The Seven Samurai, a bandit gang rides to a hillside and looks down on a small village. One…
Products
Odds & Ends: Toking at the DoE, Pepe LePew Raises a Stink, Fabio, Square Dancing
Study
Federal Reinsurance for Homeowner’s Insurance: Another Capitol Hill Disaster.
Storm clouds over Capitol Hill. House Banking Committee members are teetering on the brink of triggering a mega-disaster this week that is pointed…
Insider Online
Selling Ideas in a Rationally Ignorant World
Conservative intellectuals are increasingly frustrated at the policy impasse of the last five years. Weren’t we told that if we built a better mousetrap, the…
News Release
Shadow Insurance Committee to Meet October 25 to Review Catastrophe Insurance Financing & Redlining Issues
Washington, D.C., October 22, 1999 – The Shadow Insurance Regulation Committee will hold its second meeting of the year at 12 noon on October…
Products
Environmental Sweetheart Suits
Environmental sweetheart suits.
Products
Taking Humor Seriously
With summer coming to an end, we at CEI have been spending some time mulling over some of the great questions facing our country.
Products
Lance Armstrong — Going Postal
Products
The Gore Report
Products
Odds & Ends: Koala Kondoms, Courtroom Insanity, Superdisasters, The Folly and the Ivy
Study
Comments Submitted in the FTC/NTIA Workshop on Online Profiling
These comments will address the following questions: I. What are the costs and benefits, to both industry and consumers, of online profiling? II. Are…
Study
A National Survey Of Emergency Room Physicians Regarding The Food And Drug Administration
Full Study Available in PDF Format…
Insider Online
The IMF Beyond Its Time
Recent scandals involving the International Monetary R Fund have prompted Congress to seek ways to reform the IMF’s lending practices. Rather than applying another bandage…
Insider Online
A Fund of Contention
Whom would you prefer to make strategic decisions for your high-tech business (or one whose stock you own): bureaucrats, or experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and the…
News Release
New Federal Tobacco Suit: “Give Me The Money!”
WASHINGTON, DC, September 22, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute charged that today’s federal government lawsuit against the tobacco industry demonstrated that tobacco revenues…
Study
Microsoft Trial: The Heat is On
View Full Document as PDF This summer, the heat is on Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson even more than the rest of…
Op-Eds
Corporate Welfare: Bad Business All Around
The stock market is at record highs. The economy has been booming. So why are many of America’s largest corporations still receiving handouts from Uncle Sam? The Budget…
Study
Speedbumps, Potholes, and Detours on the Road to Social Security Reform
As Yogi Berra once said, “You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going ’cause you might not get there.” This year’s…
News Release
Institute Opposes “Patients’ Bill of ‘Wrongs'”
Washington, D.C., July 13, 1999 – This week the United States Senate is considering the “Patients’ Bill of Rights,” an amalgam of various mandates…
Insider Online
Superstores Helpful (Letter to the Editor)
The article ” ‘Good simplicity’ falls by the wayside” by reporter Craig Wilson asserts that “shopping at the mall or Wal-Mart or a fast food…
Study
The SAFE Bill: Keying in on Encryption Reform
View Full Document as PDF Despite Clinton Administration steps towards liberalizing American encryption policy, some members of the House of Representatives…
Products
Odds and Ends: Tort King’s Comeuppance; Brown vs. Barons of Education; Slandering Produce; Al Gore’s Math
Don’t Slander that Carrot! Among the poisonous fallout from the Alar apple scare a decade ago is a spate of food…
News Release
June 22: Cost of Government Day
“Every year on April 15, million of taxpayers across the country file their 1040 forms, and are outraged at how much they have to send…
Insider Online
Books Celebrating Capitalism Should Have Made the Cut
In the contest between freedom and the state, freedom won. Capitalism triumphed both here and abroad, while statism failed in Cuba, Russia, England, Sweden, North Korea…
Op-Eds
NATO Raison D’Etre
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> In a Washington Post op-ed supporting the bombing of Serbia, Bill Kristol…
Op-Eds
Guilt By Association With Bill Bennett
Ralph Raico’s Reflection “Won’t You Go Home, Bill Bennett?” (April) on the Center for Individual Right’s challenge to race-based student admission policies suggests…
Products
New Protection Against Natural Disaster Losses
It’s time to rewrite the script for that long-running disaster movie – "When Dangerous Public Policies Attack Insurance Policyholders and Taxpayers!!!"…
Products
15 Years and Counting — Milestones In CEI History
March 9, 1984 — CEI is founded. First offices were in Fred Smith’s kitchen. After the first few months, he’d spent a few thousand dollars,…
Study
The Deadly Effects of Fuel Economy Standards: CAFE’s Lethal Impact on Auto Safety
Full Document Available in PDF…
Op-Eds
Suburban Development Made Scapegoat for Urban Woes (Letter to the Editor)
The national debate about suburban development spawns many misunderstandings about the real issues. The recent USA TODAY editorial and response by Vice President Al Gore…
CS Monitor
Change at Helm of Global Economy
News Release
VP Gore’s “Town Meeting” Is Mostly Government, Not Much Town: EPA Spends Taxpayer Money to Honor Grant Recipients, Its
Washington, DC, May 3, 1999 – “Organizers of the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America, meeting this week in Detroit, MI, describe it…
Op-Eds
Enemies Of The Stasis
Full Article Available in PDF Format Executive Summary Virginia Postrel's excellent book “The Future and Its Enemies” details the…
News Release
Jack Kemp Named Distinguished Fellow At Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington, DC, April 29, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce that the Honorable Jack Kemp has been named CEI’s first…
News Release
The Case Against The Case Against Microsoft: New Study Criticizes DOJ Case
Washington, DC, April 27, 1999 – Are Microsoft’s current business practices hurting consumers? A new study by Barry Fagin, Senior Fellow in Technology Policy…
News Release
“A celebration of human ingenuity”: Resourceful Earth Day
CEI joins many different groups in celebrating Resourceful Earth Day on April 22. In memory of Julian Simon, Resourceful Earth Day celebrates and debates…
Newsletter
The Sovereignty Implications of the Kyoto Protocol
I understand you have already heard a number of talks about the Kyoto Protocol, and a lot about the economics, and the science of…
News Release
Dan Quayle To Address Institute Dinner: Former Vice President Will Offer Assessment of Environmental Issues
Washington, D.C., April 15, 1999 – Former Vice President Dan Quayle will give the keynote address at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) Warren T. Brookes…
CS Monitor
Who Should Pay for College Tuition (Letter to the Editor)
As a student I appreciate your call for colleges and universities to ante up more of their own funds to pay for needy students’ tuition…
Study
Conservation and the Public Trust Doctrine
Full Document Available in PDF The public trust doctrine has been evolving since…
Study
Ending The Forest Fire Gridlock: Making Fire Fighting In The West A State And Local Responsibility
Full Document Available…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Policymaker’s Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (1999 Edition)
Full Document Available in PDF The federal government spent $1.65 trillion in 1998 to…
Study
The Problems With Planning: A Free-Market Guide To Suburban Development & “Urban Sprawl”
A brief overview of…
Op-Eds
The New Trustbusters
Joel Klein is a famous man. The head of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice usually toils in anonymity, known only…
Study
A Defective Product: Consumer Groups’ Study of Microsoft In Need of Recall
View Full Document as PDF Consumer groups are supposed to be on the side of consumers. But three such groups – the…
Telegraph
Never forget the moral of Danegeld
Op-Eds
Beware of the Kyoto Compromise: Kemp and Smith Op-Ed in NY Times
Published in the New York Times Published in the New York Times January 13, 1999 In November…
Study
Electricity Reform in Colorado
Full Document Available in PDF Consumers in Colorado pay prices for electricity that are among the lowest in the country. Therefore, indeed they…
Sierra Club
Billboards on the Garden Wall
Op-Eds
Free Trade and Idealism
In October, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 passed through the U.S. Congress with little opposition. The new law enables unilateral export embargoes to be…
Study
Airline Deregulation: The Unfinished Revolution
Full Document Available in PDF In the 20th anniversary year of airline…
News Release
Another Smoking Gun: Institute Opposes New Tobacco Settlement
Washington, D.C. November 17, 1998—The Competitive Enterprise Institute today announced its opposition to the latest tobacco settlement, calling it an affront to both individual…
Heartland
News from the Heartland
Newsletter
Global Warming: Evidence From The Satellite Record
Full Briefing available in PDF format. Preface The scientific case for an international climate treaty rests largely on predictions generated…
Study
Encryption Policy for the 21st Century: A Future without Government-Prescribed Key Recovery
Full Document Available in PDF Encryption technology…
Op-Eds
Government Research Funding And Economic Distortion
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format Executive Summary Science and technology are good things. Still, there are many good…
Calgary Sun
Global Rivalry at End?
Study
Why Robert Bork Is Wrong:
Is there a clear legal precedent for the successful prosecution of Microsoft? Robert H. Bork seems to think so. He has stated emphatically…
Study
Computers and Competition: A Primer for Congress
With a new Microsoft hearing in the Senate on Thursday, legislators should keep in mind some crucial facts that argue against interference in…
Op-Eds
Mogul vs. Mogul
Full article available in pdf format. Rupert Murdoch has come under fire for reneging on a contract to…
Op-Eds
Mogul vs Mogul
Rupert Murdoch has come under fire for reneging on a contract to publish former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten’s manuscript East and West. Reports indicate…
News Release
Opposing Groups Offer Sincerity Test On Tobacco Tax
Washington, DC, May 26, 1998 — Two organizations which in the past disagreed on the issue of tobacco regulation today joined to propose a…
Products
Rethinking Insurance Regulation–1998
NATURAL DISASTERS AND CATASTROPHIC INSURANCE The morning’s panel focused on the issue of natural disasters and catastrophic risks and the financing problems posed…
Products
Rethinking Insurance Regulation–1998
NATURAL DISASTERS AND CATASTROPHIC…
Study
A Disaster Waiting to Happen: Why Washington Shouldn’t Subsidize Disaster Insurance
This Thursday, April 23, the House Banking and Financial Services Committee will examine H.R. 219, the Homeowners Insurance Availability Act sponsored by Rep. Rick…
Op-Eds
Micro-managing Bill Gates
Full article available in pdf Republicans are known for praising markets and condemning overregulation of business. But oddly, they often conspicuously endorse…
Op-Eds
Book Review – The Suicidal Corporation
Full Document Available in PDF…
Study
Bill, Bob, and Browsers: Why DOJ’s Case Against Microsoft is Flawed
While Microsoft has been pilloried by newspaper pundits, a trial court judge, and other alleged computer experts for not submitting to the federal government,…
Study
Network Effects: Does Luck or Talent Rule the High-Technology Market?
Does luck matter more than talent in the marketplace after all? Many of today’s calls for antitrust interference in the marketplace are rooted in a…
News Release
Supreme Court Turns Down Suit On New York Rent Control
Washington, DC, February 23, 1998 — The United States Supreme Court today declined to hear a constitutional attack on New York State’s restriction of…
Products
Flirting With Disaster
Congress is again exploring new ways to undermine the private market for homeowners insurance in disaster-prone parts of the country. On February…
Op-Eds
Coveted Internet Cash Cow?
Published in the Washington Times <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> January 30, 1998 Excerpted in…
News Release
Bi-Partisan Forum To Evaluate IMF
Washington, DC, January 12, 1998 – An unprecedented coalition of left and right-leaning organizations will conduct a forum on Capitol Hill to discuss the…
Products
Bail Out For The Foolish
My Daddy always said never get between a fool and his mistake – it would sacrifice the only good that might come from the…
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