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Sovereign wealth funds: Should governments invest in private businesses?
President Trump recently signed an executive order to study creating a sovereign wealth fund for the US government. If the proposal comes to pass,…
Blog
Department of Education bails out of student loan bailout
For the second time in the past month, the Biden administration withdrew a proposed rule that CEI had opposed. The Department of Education has…
Blog
Proposed student loan bailout rule makes no sense
As the Federal Register approached its previous record of 95,894 pages in a year (set in 2016), the Biden administration devoted a few more…
Search Posts
Newsletter
Genachowski for FCC, Obama Meets with Gordon Brown and the Threat of a Carbon Tax
President Obama nominates technology advisor Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visits the White House to discuss international…
Blog
Your Loss Is My Gain, Sucker!
I am being enriched by a vast expansion of government that will impoverish you and your family, and shrink the size of the economy in…
Citation
AIG Price Tag: $1,400 Per Taxpayer Family
Blog
CEI at CPAC – Fred L. Smith, Jr.
CEI President Fred L. Smith, Jr. dropped by CPAC today to speak on a panel about government bailouts. He also made appearances on Radio Row…
Blog
An open auction for price clarity?
In today’s Financial Times, Gillian Tett addresses the opaqueness of determining the “price” of collateralized debt obligations backed by mortgage…
Blog
Foreclosure and the ‘forgotten man’ in Obama’s SOTU speech
Perhaps with the popular reaction to Rick Santelli’s ‘tea party’, in which the CNBC commentator elicited cheers for saying that the thrifty should not…
Blog
Zero-Based Governing and Improving the State of the Union
Removing burdensome regulations on small business hasn’t figured much into the economic recovery program thus far. Too bad. Alternatives to “spendulus” and the “Bailout to…
Blog
Coming Soon: A Predatory, Anti-Business Federal Trade Commission?
Even an economy in shambles shall not sway the elevation to Federal Trade Commission chairmanship of Jon Leibowitz, an interventionist-minded commissioner who, like all…
Newsletter
Daily update for 02/24/09
President Obama will address the nation tonight in a non-State of the Union address, days after he announced a $75 billion mortgage “rescue” plan and his…
Blog
Top Ten Federal Rules to Jettison — According to Small Businesses
The Small Business Administration’s Regulatory Review and Reform initiative (r3) has a new compilation of rules that need reform, according to small businesses across…
Blog
Nationalizing the cars and bikes of rock collectors — Pending Omnibus land bill’s forfeiture provision has broad reach
At the same time there has been so much talk of government nationalization of troubled big banks, a bill quickly snaking through Congress would allow…
Blog
TARP in Pictures
We've talked a lot about the TARP or Troubled Assets Relief Program over the past several months here on OpenMarket.org. But perhaps the entire…
Newsletter
Obama’s Housing Plan, Privacy on Facebook and Fairness Doctrine 2.0
President Obama announces a $75 billion mortgage “rescue” plan. Changes to the terms of service on Facebook raise a ruckus among privacy activists. The White…
Op-Eds
The Auto Bailout We Need
GM and Chrysler have come back for more taxpayer money, which is exactly what everybody warned would happen when the first bailout was granted…
Blog
Michigan Steps Aside for Stimulus
Oregonian brewers looking for a new home may want to consider moving to Michigan where a state authority may just understand the principle…
Blog
Chapter 13 could be your lucky number
Today President Obama announced his homeowner bailout plan. While that plan will spend huge sums of money helping “renters” stay in homes…
Blog
Obama’s Futile Attempts at Foreclosure Avoidance
If the government wants to spend $75 billion to help troubled homeowners, it would be better off giving a tax holiday to families subject to…
Blog
Can prediction markets help value toxic assets?
Can prediction markets – virtual markets – play a role in valuing toxic assets? A critical obstacle in evaluating the health of financial institutions…
Newsletter
Bottled Water Wars, Stimulus Disaster and Offshore Oil
Activists urge local governments to enact policies opposing the sale of bottled water. The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops dramatically as President Obama signs a…
News Release
Statement on Obama Foreclosure Avoidance Plan
Statement on Obama Foreclosure Avoidance Plan by John Berlau, Director of CEI’s Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs The new $75 billion foreclosure avoidance…
Blog
Flawed Plan Relies on Consumer Spending
After President Obama signs the controversial stimulus plan, which will add on average $8 per week to most paychecks, his administration will have to cross…
Blog
Null Government
Well, the Spendulus/Stimulus will be signed into law within minutes. We’ll soon learn that even this Leviathan-In-A-Box is only the beginning of the Age…
Newsletter
Stimulus Signing, Washington the Entrepreneur and California Emissions
President Obama prepares to sign the $787 billion federal stimulus package into law. Americans across the country celebrate the birthday of George Washington. The Environmental…
Blog
Has anybody read the text?
There ain’t no way any of the lawmakers voting for the $790 billion stimulus package today could have read, comprehended, and analyzed the…
Blog
Just How Much is $13 Trillion?
The magnitude of the growing stimulus package and continuing bank bailouts is truly amazing. Add those amounts to the already huge national debt and you…
Blog
Stimulus Guts Welfare Reform, Is Deceptive
The stimulus package will gut welfare reform even more than previously feared. That’s the conclusion of Mickey Kaus, a moderate Democrat who now…
Blog
“Porkulus” has no relation to economic recovery; But other reforms do.
Today CEI and other free-enterprise analysts and advocates are making one last pitch to stop the anti-stimulus package that President Obama is likely to…
Newsletter
Stimulus Upon Us, Lethal Wildfires Down Under and Satellite Radio Takes a Hit
Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress reach a deal to spend $789 billion in taxpayer money on “economic stimulus.” The death toll from wildfires in…
News Release
Statement on Judd Gregg Withdrawal as Obama Commerce Secretary Nominee
Statement on Judd Gregg Withdrawal as Obama Commerce Secretary Nominee Statement by Wayne Crews, Vice President of Policy for the…
Blog
“Regulatory forbearance” in today’s context
Harking back to the much-maligned concept of “regulatory forbearance” that was a hallmark of the S&L debacle, Holman W. Jenkins Jr writes in…
Newsletter
Senate Stimulus, Geithner’s Banking Plan and a Florida Insurance Bailout
The Senate passes an $838 billion economic stimulus package. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announces a new plan to revitalize troubled U.S. banks. Florida officials look…
News Release
Public Interest Groups Unite to Oppose Stimulus
Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Iain Murray will join representatives from the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), the National Taxpayers Union and several other…
Blog
Stimulus Package Shrinks Economy, Expands Welfare Rolls
The Stimulus Package passed by the Senate will encourage people to stop working and go on welfare, undermining the 1996 welfare reform…
Blog
Championing Economic Liberty in a Time of Crisis
From CEI’s Agenda for Congress: Fred Smith, President and Founder of CEI on the economic crisis, the threat of bad policies, and the real change…
Blog
Geithner’s “bad bank” is a big bad idea: fix bad mark-to-market accounting instead
The Obama’s administration $1 trillion plus bank bailout plan — on top of the $800 billion stimulus that just passed the Senate — will explode…
Blog
No Florida Insurance Bailout
It seems that the state of Florida has overpromised insurance coverage to its citizens in the case of a catastrophic storm, and now is…
Newsletter
Stocks Drop, Thrift Stores Threatened and Spending Tobacco Money
Stock values drop as investors await the passage of an economic stimulus bill and the new rules and restrictions that it will come with. New…
Citation
Florida’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund
News Release
Florida Doesn’t Deserve a Federal Bailout, Think Tank Says
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News Release
Senate Approves Stimulus, Steps off Economic Cliff
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Blog
TARP Challenged in Federal Court
Three businesses and five individuals recently brought suit against the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in the Eastern District of New York. The case,…
Blog
The COPs are back
Today has seen much activity and media coverage of the TARP’s Congressional Oversight Panel. Today the Panel released a number of reports on their…
Blog
Why “doing nothing” is something really big: Stopping the Anti-Stimulus
Robert Higgs, he of the famous “ratchet effect” theory of government growth (up but never down in answer to a crisis), has…
Newsletter
Stimulus Showdown, New SEC Rules and Obama’s Labor Pains
Aides on Capitol Hill prepare for negotiations between House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill. New Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Schapiro…
Blog
Should the Anti-Stimulus Package be tan or beige?
President Obama more than once last week called it “inexcusable” for Congress to get “bogged down in distraction, delay or politics as usual” over the…
Blog
SEC penalty policy change could harm innocent investors
In one of her first actions as SEC chairman, Mary Schapiro announced today that she was getting rid of a policy that required SEC officials…
Blog
Stimulus Plan Harms Economy, Congressional Budget Office Admits
The bloated $800 billion “stimulus” package would not only create a mountain of debt, it would harm the economy in the long run.
Blog
Stimulus Bill Is Full of Pork
The $800 billion stimulus bill contains billions of dollars in pork and wasteful spending on items that have nothing to do with stimulating the…
Letters
Oppose the Federal Stimulus Bill
We the undersigned public interest organizations, representing millions of members and supporters nationwide, hereby call upon you to reject the $819 billion spending bill that…
Blog
Obama’s defense of weatherizing homes as “stimulus” with Anderson Cooper on CNN is priceless
The President actually said: –it puts people to work –it saves families on their energy bill –it reduces dependence on foreign oil.