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DC Journal
EPA Should Consider the Harm of Regulating Greenhouse Gases
Even for the least essential choices we make in our daily lives, such as what we should have for dinner, we consider the pros and…
News Release
Consumer sentiment down nearly 30 percent, tariffs and inflation to blame: CEI analysis
Consumer sentiment is down nearly 30 percent according to an April survey conducted by the University of Michigan. CEI senior economist Ryan Young…
News Release
Producer Price Index fell by 0.5 percent in April, price increases and lower demand likely cause: CEI analysis
The Producer Price Index for April shows the seasonally adjusted final demand fell by 0.5 percent. CEI senior economist Ryan Young says the…
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Blog
Small banks targeted as FDIC cracks down on technology partnerships
Earlier this week, Politico’s “Morning Money” column reported an astonishing finding that almost certainly points to politicization in enforcement by federal bank regulators. The…
Blog
US move to ban TikTok a troubling signal for our great experiment in self-determination
As a part of a foreign aid funding package, the Senate passed a bill mandating TikTok’s divestiture from Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance. Biden…
Blog
FTC approves ban on noncompete agreements, sets up potential court battle
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to ban the vast majority of noncompete agreements in employment contracts during a special open commission meeting this…
Blog
New UK report recommends ‘rules about rules’ for regulation
In a new report, the Center for Policy Studies in the UK surveys that nation’s regulatory landscape – and doesn’t like what it sees.
Blog
FTC tightens grip over its in-house judges
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) possesses one of the most conflicted administrative law court (ALC) systems. The agency recently began hiring new administrative…
Blog
Seattle’s new minimum wage rule undermining delivery drivers
A new Seattle minimum wage law meant to boost the incomes of app-based delivery drivers has instead backfired, resulting in less work for drivers. Some…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Heroes of Progress with Alexander Hammond
In this week’s episode we discuss venture capitalists fighting red tape, challenges to electric vehicle adoption, Americans sleeping on the job,…
Blog
The eventual federal regulatory budget has bipartisan roots
With apologies to Margaret Thatcher, I’ll often joke that when the federal government runs out of other people’s money, it keeps spending anyway. The Congressional…
Blog
‘Fast Track’ series looks at states’ permit progress: First up, Pennsylvania
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce the release of a new policy paper series called “Fast Track.” The series, overseen by CEI senior…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Extremely online with Brad Polumbo
In this week’s episode we cover how honeybees came back from colony collapse disorder, why you shouldn’t believe the government’s nutrition advice,…
Blog
More credit card competition? Not really
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is worried about a lack of competition in payment card networks, so he’s planning to force the issue. His Credit…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Gig work with Liya Palagashvili
In this week’s episode we cover how to rebuild after the Baltimore bridge collapse, legal challenges to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new…
Forbes
Libertarian Victory: You Mean We Can Shut Down Government Without Even Passing A Law?
It is happening again. Congress will enact another bloated, pork-laden and largely unread omnibus spending bill to complete formal appropriations for the 2024 fiscal year…
News Release
Fifth Circuit hits pause on the SEC climate disclosure rule: CEI analysis
A controversial climate disclosure rule put forward by the Securities and Exchange Commission has been stopped by a federal appeals court. On Friday, March 15,…
Blog
Right to repair will not save households over $300 a year
You may have heard that so-called “right to repair” laws will provide big savings to consumers. Last week, Forbes published an article claiming that…
Forbes
How The Biden Administration’s ‘Junk Fee’ Policies Will Hurt Consumers
In his State of the Union address last week, President Joe Biden touted his policies against “junk fees,” vowing to save Americans billions…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Defending election integrity with Walter Olson
In this week’s episode we cover the Securities and Exchange Commission’s controversial new rule on climate change, federal science policy and indigenous…
Blog
One great moment in the budget battles: GOP’s ‘Policy Statement on Deregulation’
Today marks the release of the White House’s $7.3 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2025, even as policymakers continue their wrangling over the…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Free markets and the common good with Iain Murray
In this week’s episode we cover fake environmentalism and the need to build, a look at policymaking inside the National People’s Congress…
Blog
SOTU 2024: Unparalleled spending, regulation, and dependency
In bumper-sticker fashion, we have fondly summed up Joe Biden’s recent State of the Union Addresses (SOTU) as appeals for more spending, regulation and…
Blog
The Stop Woke Investing Act and ‘ESG fatigue’
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made it far too easy for activist shareholders to overturn the traditional proxy review process. The SEC’s…
Blog
I’ve got your ‘common good’ right here
As a classical liberal, I believe in the value of free markets and individual liberty, but as a Freedom Conservative, I also feel that…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Federal tech with Deb Collier
In this week’s episode we cover the future of environmental policy, rare earth minerals in Wyoming, and what we can learn from…
Blog
Today’s federal spending makes the Louisiana Purchase look like pocket change
The week of Presidents’ Day 2024 comes at a lull before contentious budget battles resume in early March. It is thus an opportune moment…
Letters
Coalition Letter to Support the Stop Woke Investing Act (S. 3179)
We, the undersigned organizations, are writing in support of the Stop Woke Investing Act (S. 3179). The bill was introduced by Sens. Eric Schmitt…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Federalism wins with Patrick Gleason
In this week’s episode we cover President Biden’s attack on shrinkflation, barriers to workplace flexibility, and a motherlode of domestic lithium.
Blog
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: A slush fund for the EPA and favored nonprofits
President Joe Biden signed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law on August 16, 2022. The bill, enacted on a purely partisan basis,…
Daily Caller
Biden Has Cracked Down On Big Business Mergers And Monopolies. Are Americans Better Off Because Of It?
CEI’s Jessica Melugin is cited in Daily Caller on mergers and monopolies: “The Biden administration’s government-wide attack on American businesses has stifled efficiency and…
Comment
Comment on FTC Unfair or Deceptive Fees
Dear Commissioners, On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I respectfully submit the following comments in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed rulemaking concerning…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Independent contractors and emergency haddock action
Happy MLK-government snow shutdown days, everyone. There was more shutdown drama last week. The US launched strikes against the Houthis, one of three factions trying…
Blog
Transparent New Year: SEC shows its work after CEI prodding
As we enter the New Year, it is important to reflect on what went well and not so well in 2023. We should do our…
Blog
Liz Warren’s revolving door with Wall Street
There was an interesting development in the world of big government and big business recently. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) declared that “The abuse of…
Blog
No, we don’t want as many new laws as possible
The New York Times recently published an article reviewing what happened in the House of Representatives over the past 12 months, and it gives…
Blog
Even the University of California system has dropped carbon offsets
MIT Technology Review just published an article on one of my perennial favorite topics, carbon offsets. According to senior editor James Temple, the University…
Blog
Should government-favored non-profits have their own shadow courts?
Imagine being sued by a private nonprofit that is sanctioned by a federal agency to enforce securities laws. The nonprofit appoints its own judges and…
Blog
Defense bill amendment could help undo China’s unfair advantage in environmental treaties
Congress is currently considering the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA), including a long list of amendments added to the bill.
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Making Congress work with Kevin Kosar
In this week’s episode we cover people who fetishize old homes, the big AI risk no one’s talking about, how environmentalist activists…
Blog
Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next year?
As expected, the Federal Reserve kept the federal funds rate the same this week, which influences other interest rates, including car and mortgage payments. The…
Blog
Biden’s yearly Federal Register second-highest page count ever, could still score number one
The Federal Register is the daily depository of rules and regulations. Today, the count stood at 86,256 pages, with three weeks to go for Joe…
Blog
Federal government waves goodbye to ‘economically significant’ regulations
Last week, the Fall 2023 edition of the White House’s Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions appeared. It features the…
Daily Caller
Here’s Where Americans Are Feeling The Greatest Pain Under Biden’s Economy
CEI’s Ryan Young cited in the Daily Caller on economic conditions: “When some goods are hurt worse than others, the causes are not inflation,”…
Blog
Equity shmequity: How US government’s ‘discounting’ policy hurts the global poor
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently finalized its Circular A-4 guidance on regulatory analysis, constituting the first update to the guidance in…
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2023 is out now
The 2023 edition of CEI’s flagship annual study, Wayne Crews’s Ten Thousand Commandments, is out now. For those not familiar, 10KC gives a big-picture…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Making college pay with Preston Cooper
In this week’s episode we cover Javier Milei’s election as president of Argentina, how much money it takes to be happy,…
Blog
Vehicle kill switches and other horrible things Washington is doing to us from a distance
The remote kill switch for automobiles authorized by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021 is a prime…
Blog
Experts weigh in: Sen. Cassidy’s carbon tariff bill would mean more taxes
A carbon tax is both bad policy and dumb politics. Yet Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has just introduced legislation, the Foreign Pollution Fee…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The trouble with big-government conservatives with André Béliveau
In this week’s episode we talk about which state has the least-bad business taxes, how many Americans really love America, the continuing…
Forbes
Biden’s New AI Executive Order Is Regulation Run Amok
Signed yesterday, President Biden’s new executive order on artificial intelligence safety is already making waves across the technology industry. While the intention of…
Blog
Biden administration cites fanciful numbers to support ‘right to repair’
The Biden White House hosted an event on right to repair last Tuesday to provide information “about federal and state efforts to strengthen the…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Joint employers and almond taxes
GDP grew 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023. Mike Johnson became Speaker of the House. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from Kraft…
News Release
Biden executive order on artificial intelligence will be a problem: CEI analysis
President Biden is reportedly poised to sign an executive order aimed at monitoring artificial intelligence technology and moving toward new regulations for AI. CEI experts expressed…
Blog
Biden admin wants to sweep independent agency regulation costs under the rug. Congress should say no.
When Congress gets around to streamlining federal regulations and forcing disclosure of their costs, exposés of the paperwork inflicted on the economy by independent…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Financial regulation and ESG with Hester Peirce
In this week’s episode we talk about commuting via bicycle, regulatory reform legislation from Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the new book…
Blog
The way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded is unconstitutional
Today the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case CFPB v. Community Financial Services Association. The appellee correctly complains that…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Improper CHIPS funding to pool motors
The FTC filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. Sen. Dianne Feinstein passed away. The federal government almost partially shut down. Agencies issued new regulations…
Blog
Net neutrality is political predation
It’s fitting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chose to dig up the net neutrality corpse just before Halloween. Now, our elected representatives need to…
Blog
Federal agency closes! British embassy celebrates!
Nobody knows how many federal agencies there are, but the number just went down by one. The Board of Tea Experts is shutting down…
Blog
What’s wrong with Bidenomics?
Yesterday, I pointed out that in the looming threat of a government shutdown, President Joe Biden is aiming to cement as his legacy something that…
Blog
Shareholder support for ESG proposals is falling
With the 2023 proxy voting season officially behind us, we can note a few trends in corporate governance that stood out. For one, it…
Blog
What I told Congress about the unlawful plan to ‘align’ NEPA with Biden Climate Targets
I testified today at the House Natural Resources Oversight Subcommittee hearing on “Examining Systemic Government Overreach at CEQ.” My testimony developed three main points…
Blog
The Powell Memo was good, actually
This week the Competitive Enterprise Institute published my study (co-written with my colleague Iain Murray) on the 50-plus year history of the…
Blog
Politicians take too much credit for good news
Over Labor Day weekend, Inside Sources syndicated an op-ed of mine arguing that politicians do not deserve credit for the economy’s post-COVID recovery. They…
Blog
Climate policy deserves thoughtful discourse, not petty attacks: a response to Paul Krugman
Just because someone doesn’t support an extreme climate policy agenda, like the Inflation Reduction Act, doesn’t mean that they deny climate change is occurring. Science…
Blog
Biden administration working overtime to regulate working overtime
The Biden administration issued a new rule this week that vastly expands of the number of workers covered by federal overtime rules. While some…
Blog
Why Congress needs to care about Biden’s ‘Circular A-4’ subterfuge
Proposed changes in the American government’s executive regulatory functions showcase a conflict of visions over separation of powers; over executive overreach; over the size and…
Blog
Trump proposes 10 percent universal tariff
Everyone makes mistakes. It’s part of life. It’s not even necessarily a bad thing. If you’re the entrepreneurial type, mistakes are an opportunity to learn…
Blog
‘Economically significant’ regulations: an obituary
I never thought I’d miss “economically significant” rules and regulations. But Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14094 (“Modernizing Regulatory Review”) has redefined “Significant regulatory action.”…
Testimony
The Disproportionate Burden of Federal Regulation on Small Businesses
Submission to the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship Hearing on “One Size Does Not Fit All: Understanding the Importance of Rightsizing Regulations…
Blog
America receives first debt downgrade in 12 years as history repeats itself
Fitch Ratings, a credit reporting agency, recently issued a foreboding outlook on America’s credit health. For the first time in 12 years, the United States…
Blog
Work, dignity, and the common good
Many on the right (especially self-described “national conservatives”) say that there is no “dignified work” for Americans today. What they mean by this is,…
Blog
GOOD Act only first step in forcing federal agencies to come clean on guidance documents
Alongside the familiar profusion of notice-and-comment regulations, federal agency guidance can include memoranda, notices, bulletins, directives, news releases, letters; even blog posts and…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: dishwashers and shore leave
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates again, and GDP grew at a healthy 2.4 percent annualized rate. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
Are we ready for a ‘Carbon’ Futures Trading Commission?
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is testing the waters for its commodity-based carbon credit market. As an agency traditionally tasked with regulating commodities, the…
Discourse Magazine
Red and Blue States Take Sides in Federal ESG Fight
The environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement has become one of the most divisive issues among state legislators in 2023. ESG refers to a set…
Blog
Raise the Wage Act reintroduced, still wouldn’t help workers
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) has reintroduced the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour. Previous…
Blog
CEI leads coalition opposing crazy regulatory crackdown on dishwashers
The American public remains angry over federal meddling in gas stoves – for good reason, given that not one but two Biden administration regulatory agencies…
Blog
Regulatory reform in the 118th Congress: The Regulatory Transparency Act
The current regulatory approval process lacks transparency and objectivity. While past executive orders and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directives require that economically…
Blog
Biden admin plans to rig cost-benefit analysis, boosting federal regulations
When the Biden administration took office, one of its first actions was to order a series of updates to the federal rulemaking process, all under…
Blog
House hearing warns of Biden’s admin’s ‘death by a thousand regulations’
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing last week titled “Death by a Thousand Regulations: The Biden Administration’s Campaign to Bury America…
Blog
Businesses flocking to states with lower taxes, better regulations
Experts on U.S. economic policy spend a lot of time looking at competition between states and how good tax and regulatory policy can help…
Blog
America takes Entrepreneurship Index top spot, former Soviet bloc countries close behind
Retail software maker Shopify recently released its “Entrepreneurship Index,” a global ecosystem of entrepreneurial activity. Shopify ranks the top ten countries with economies that…
Blog
Market failure? Let’s talk about government failure
Government interventions in the market are often said to be justified by market failures, which prevent the free market from maximizing social welfare. What is…
Blog
Adam Smith’s ‘tolerable administration’ vs. America’s increasingly intolerable one
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to influence…
Blog
Senate Commerce hearing shows why some junk fees aren’t garbage
In his State of the Union address this February, President Biden reiterated his intent to crack down on so-called junk fees. Biden discussed…
News Release
Inflation Slows, Fed Actions Pay Off: CE Analysis
Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in May (up 4 percent this past year), according new inflation data released today by the Labor Department. Inflation…
Blog
Biden Labor pick Julie Su claims she cannot recall her Prop 22 vote
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su claimed multiple times Wednesday that she could not recall how she voted on California’s Proposition 22, the ballot initiate…
Blog
Biden administration keeps making it harder to track government ‘guidance’ documents
Federal government “guidance documents” consist of agency memoranda, bulletins, circulars, administrative interpretations, letters, manuals, and so much more. These are not supposed to be regulatory…
National Review
Global Britain Is Closed for Business
One of the supposed benefits of Brexit was that Britain would once again become “Global Britain,” able to adjust its regulatory approaches to one more…
Comment
Comments to the Office of Management and Budget on the proposed draft update to Circular A-4: Regulatory Analysis
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a non-profit public interest organization committed to advancing the principles of free markets and limited government. CEI has a…
Daily Caller
Biden Wants To Give Power Over Defense Contracts To Climate Activist ‘Cabal’ Bent On Curtailing Economic Growth
The Daily Caller quotes CEI’s Myron Ebell on giving certain climate activist groups veto power over major Pentagon contracts: Myron…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: electric motors and small business loans
Congress and President Biden reached a debt ceiling deal. Texas attorney general and antitrust hawk Ken Paxton was impeached. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
‘Passive-aggressive’ regulators are a growing headache for American business
“The Future of Independent Agencies: Fallout from Problems at the Federal Trade Commission,” was an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to alert…
Blog
Congress should stop the White House from rewriting ‘Circular A-4’
Barring an extension, next week (June 6) is the deadline for comments on the White House Office of Management and Budget’s …
Blog
Debt deal’s PAYGO law won’t pay out. Here’s how to fix it.
In an effort to curb excessive government spending, a provision known as statutory administrative PAYGO (Pay-As-You-Go) has been introduced in the debt ceiling deal struck…
Blog
Let’s get this huge ‘hidden tax’ of regulation out into the open
Smack dab in the middle of contentious debt limit negotiations, the House Budget Committee held another in its series of hearings on American economic growth,…
Blog
A remembrance: C. Boyden Gray, 1943-2023
We mourn the passing of C. Boyden Gray. He was a man of his family, the law, and his country. Boyden served in the highest…
Blog
Bill targets ag department slush fund worth billions
The House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee favorably reported its spending bill along party lines Thursday. The bill’s next stop is the full House Appropriations…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Letting people prosper with Vance Ginn
In this week’s episode we talk about Warren Buffet’s electric vehicle pessimism, sky-high school funding in New York City, a report…
Blog
Robert Lucas, economist of possibilities, 1937-2023
Robert Lucas, 85, passed away this week. He was a prominent macroeconomist who won the 1995 economics Nobel. Others have remembered Lucas’s contributions to rationality…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: toy guns and trophy fisheries
The 2023 Federal Register topped 30,000 pages on May 8. New inflation numbers looked better on the surface, but actually got worse. A new…
