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Want higher air fares? Overregulate credit cards
This morning, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Transportation are holding a joint hearing “investigating” airline and credit card reward programs.
Blog
Biden’s veto of joint employer rule CRA a blow to small businesses
President Biden’s veto Friday of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) bill rolling back the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “joint employer”…
Blog
Subsidy-free capitalism may require a constitutional amendment
Automobiles, electrification, ample consumer goods and mass marketing, a construction boom, and access to credit helped fuel the Roaring Twenties of a century ago.
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Study
Antitrust Policy As Corporate Welfare
Full Document Available in PDF Political party reformers promised to roll back the…
Study
The Central Planning Of Lifestyles: Automobility And The Illusion Of Full Cost Pricing
Full Document Available in PDF…
Products
Disparate Impact Dangers
On March 10 one of the nation's largest property and casualty insurers, Nationwide Insurance Company, agreed to part with $13.2 million to settle allegations…
Study
Antitrust and The Commons: Cooperation or Collusion?
Full Document Available in PDF People have long been aware that unbridled…
News Release
CEI Announces June Antitrust Conference
WASHINGTON, DC May 12, 1997– The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to invite you to attend RETHINKING ANTITRUST REGULATION: Reform, Repeal, or Retreat?…
Study
The Yellowstone Affair: Environmental Protection, International Treaties, and National Sovereignty
Full study available in pdf format Environmental regulation has gone international in recent decades. There has been a proliferation of treaties, conventions, and protocols aimed…
News Release
Institute Cheers Court Decision, Cautiously: Free Speech Protected, but FDA Regulation of Tobacco Unwarranted
WASHINGTON, DC April 25, 1997 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute gave one cheer for today's federal court ruling that overturned FDA's attempt to restrict…
News Release
States Lead Way with Environmental Audits: New Study Finds EPA Opposition Unwarranted
WASHINGTON, DC April 14, 1997— Environmental audit laws demonstrate state leadership in environmental policy innovation, according to a new study. The state laws provide…
Products
NAIC Insures Privileged Access
Thousands of insurance executives and regulators converged on Orlando, Fla., in March to attend the spring meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners…
News Release
CEI Joins Large Congressional Coalition to End United Nations Entitlement
Announcing its support of a growing coalition to rethink United Nations treaties, conferences and global taxation proposals in general and the U.S. “debt” to the…
Products
New Choices in Auto Insurance
The high cost of auto insurance is a serious concern for many people across the country. Annual premiums can run into thousands of dollars.
News Release
CEI Joins Rep. Kasich and Broad Coalition to “End Corporate Welfare as We Know It”
Denouncing the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) as “a silly distortion of global financial markets whose worst human consequences are in the third world,” Competitive…
Products
Legalized Gambling in the United States
Legalized gambling in the United States is increasingly under attack, not only within individual states regarding its proposed expansion into new jurisdictions, but also on…
Op-Eds
Microsoft Is a Competitor, Not a ‘Predator’
Published in The Wall Street Journal<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> October 7, 1996 …
News Release
Greens’ Bark Worse Than Bite: Environmental Issues Played Minor Role in Congressional Races
Despite predictions that environmental issues would sweep many Republican Senators and Congressmen out of office, environmental issues appear to have had a minimal impact on…
Study
Cleaning Hands In Predation Cases: A Modest Proposal To Improve Predatory-Pricing Suits
Full Document Available in PDF Reasonable…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments: A Policymaker’s Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (1996 Edition)
Full Document Available in PDF While we know rather precisely how much the federal…
Products
Message from the Executive Director: Opposing Legal Plunder
Legal plunder is as old as government itself. In fact, most governments in most times and places are little more than glorified gangs of robbers.
Products
Wal-Mart — Predator or Prey?
In 1991, three retail pharmacies in Faulkner County, Arkansas, sued Wal-Mart for selling pharmaceutical items at predatorily low prices. The plaintiffs claimed that Wal-Mart's below-cost…
Products
Message From the President: Do Good, Be Profitable
The failure of socialism has forced its former adherents to seek new means to achieve old goals. One of the now popular variants is…
Study
Environmental Education in Wisconsin: What the Textbooks Teach
Full Document Available in PDF Introduction Our schools…
Study
How the Market Self-Polices Against Predatory Pricing
Full Document Available in PDF Courts today are more skeptical than…
Study
How Much Is God Worth?
Full Document Available in PDF Economics has traditionally put a value only on goods…
Study
The Free Market Automobility Bibliography
Products
The Mismeasure of Man
The environmentalist assault on chlorine has taken a recent turn. Organochlorines, we are now told, not only cause cancer, they are capable of altering human…
Study
Promise and Peril: Implementing a Regulatory Budget
Full Document Available in PDF The size of the federal budget…
Study
The Business and Regulation of Insurance: A Primer
Full Document Available in PDF…
Study
Oysters and Willapa Bay
Contents: Oysters Oysters and Willapa Bay Eliminating the Tragedy of the Commons Experimentation and Innovation Fighting for Water…
Op-Eds
The Role, Limitations and Legitimacy of Regulatory Mechanisms in Market Economies
The charge at this Ditchley conference was a broad one: we were to review the proper scope of regulation and examine how that function…
Study
Two Years After NAFTA: A Free Market Critique and Assessment
Full Document Available in PDF The debate over the…
Study
Appropriations Riders and Environmental Reform: How Appropriate?
Full Version Available In PDF The reform and restriction of federaql regulatory programs is a key element of the conservative Congressional agenda. Many…
Op-Eds
Assessing the Political Approach to Risk Management
Full Document Available in PDF…
Study
A Primer on Derivatives
Full Version Available in PDF Although criticized often and considered unfathomably complex, "derivatives" are relatively straightforward financial contracts that are not inherently…
Op-Eds
Tanks on the Roll
Full article available in pdf format. Article originally appeared in the July 8, 1995 edition of the National Journal and was written by…
Study
Regulatory Reform: Is it Still a Pipe Dream? A Look at the 104th Congress
Full Document Available in PDF…
News Release
Institute Rolls Out Study on Cars and Freedom
The Car is under increasing attack as a polluter, gas guzzler, and destroyer of civilized life. But in a new study to be presented…
Op-Eds
VAT Chance for Tax Fairness
Study
The Economic Fallacies Of Demand-Side Management
Executive Summary Recent years have seen the emergence of Demand-Side Management (DSM), a new approach to the electricity utility planning process. Through DSM…
Study
Who Needs An ExImBank?
Full Document Available in PDF Despite being the world’s leading exporter, the U.S.
Study
How to Dismantle the Interior Department
Full Document Available in PDF The Department of the Interior was…
Study
The Economic Fallacies of Demand-Side Management
Full Document Available in PDF Recent years have seen the emergence of…
Study
The World Bank’s Trail of Sorrows
View Document as PDF As congress looks for ways to reduce the federal budget, it should start by cutting htose programs with…
Study
The World Bank’s Trail of Sorrows
The Freeman
Risks in the Modern World: What Prospects for Rationality?
Risk refers to the likelihood that something will go wrong.[1] People naturally fear such mishaps, and risk aversion is a basic survival trait.
Study
Property Rights Fact and Fiction
Full Document Available in PDF The rise of property rights activism was…
Study
Property Wrongs: The Growth of Federal Land-Use Control
Full Document Available in PDF In the spring of…
Study
Public vs. Private Land Management: Which is Better for the Environment
Full Document Available in PDF The…
Study
Putting People Last: Endangered Species vs. People
Full Document Available in PDF Law-abiding, workaday Americans all across…
Op-Eds
Learning The Washington Game: Political Strategy And Tactics
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format Executive Summary Those entering the federal government who seek to redirect the system to put greater emphasis on…
The Freeman
Books for Christmas
As a policy wonk, my recommended reading list, not surprisingly, is wonkish. Still, among all those dusty, boring books that make up this body of…
Study
Soft Targets for Elimination at Energy, Interior, & EPA
Full Document Available in PDF The November 8 elections were a resounding call for smaller, less-intrusive government. The Contract with America – advertised…
Op-Eds
Good Books For Christmas
Full Article Available in PDF Format Executive Summary Contains brief reviews of Searching For Safety, Essays On Economics And…
Op-Eds
The Quotable Fred
Full Booklet Available in PDF Format Executive Summary A compendium of quotes from the writings and speeches of CEI president and…
Study
Instrastate Trucking: Stronghold of the Regulators
The deregulatory wave of the 1970s and early 1980s freed the railroads, the airlines, air cargo carriers, and interstate trucking and buses from the…
Study
Pick a Number
Full Study Available in PDF How much would you be willing to pay for an…
Op-Eds
Better Living through Government Mandate?
Full article available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Technology—or rather government-favored technology—has gained…
Op-Eds
Better Living Through Government Mandate
Technology—or rather government-favored technology—has gained favor among Washington politicos and activists. Technology, these activists seem to believe, makes it possible to mandate almost anything—recycling,…
The Freeman
Acute Government Activism
While President Clinton has taken pains to mimic the rhetorical successes of Ronald Reagan and John E Kennedy, he has actually modeled his presidency in the…
Study
Rethinking Corporate Strategy
The past four years have not been easy for American business. President Bush was trusted to protect economic concerns in areas ranging from the environment…
Op-Eds
The Liberating Benefits of a Safer, Cleaner, and More Mobile Society
Full document available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns…
The Freeman
Consumerism’s Other Voice
Op-Eds
Let the Market Save Us
Earth Day 1990 promises to be a replay of Earth Day 1970. The message hasn’t changed: Man and markets threaten Mother Earth. There are too…
The Spectator
The Giant Rat of Kenya
Hoover
“Let’s Pretend” Markets
Hoover
‘The Ring’ Free Market Classic
During this last week, thousands of Washingtonians have flocked to one of the world’s greatest artistic events, ‘The Ring” by Richard Wagner. Much has…
Op-Eds
Cap The Financial Black Holes
A consensus is emerging that the rate of U.S. thrift and bank failures stems in large part from the perverse incentives of Federal Deposit…
Op-Eds
The Suicidal Corporation: Two Cheers!
Smith book review for The World and I…
Study
Washington Antitrust Report
Full Document Available in PDF Political momentum is building up in Congress behind legislation to reverse recent judicial interpretations and administrative enforcement policy…
Study
Antitrust and the 99th Congress
Full Document Available in PDF…
Study
Washington Antitrust Report
View Full Document as PDF Antitrust reform is in serious trouble. The Administration’s efforts to legislate…
Op-Eds
What’s Wrong With Business Lobbyists
Fred Smith Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, January 16, 1986…
Op-Eds
An Antitrust Route to Re-regulation
From telecommunications to airlines and railroads, from banking to natural gas, from trucking to broadcasting, partial deregulation has changed the U.S. economic landscape for…
The Politics of IMF Lending
The Politics of IMF Lending
Full Document Available in PDF I. Introduction The 1983 debate over increasing the funding of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reflects the…
Op-Eds
Corporate Bankruptcy Needs A Fresh Market Review
Full Article Available in PDF Format THE RECENT SPATE OF bankrupt cies involving large corporations has triggered a new…
The Politics of IMF Lending
How the IMF Could Become a Real S&P for International Debt
Should the U.S, donate an added $8.4 billion- to the International Monetary Fund? IMF opponents, of course, answer “No,” They claim that increased- IMF funding…
Op-Eds
Why Not Abolish Antitrust?
Full Article Available in PDF Format Deregulators appear to be of two minds about antitrust. They denounce the actual practice…
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