Featured Posts
Blog
Closing the window on public media funding
A door has closed, but windows remain open. Recently, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced that it would discontinue operations in light of…
Blog
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…
Search Posts
Newsletter
Steven Chu for Energy Secretary, Financial Scandal in New Mexico and Shaun Donovan for HUD
Dr. Steven Chu, nominated to be the next Secretary of Energy, prepares for confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate. The financial scandal that started with…
Blog
So What if We Wasted $350 Billion?!
Washington is so awful it’s funny. There really is nothing you can do but laugh. Consider the status of the second $350 billion tranche of “TARP”…
Op-Eds
Bailout Big Three By Cutting Red Tape
Why are we spending $17 billion of taxpayers’ money propping up two Detroit automakers (notably not Ford Motor Co.)? What the auto companies really…
National Association of Manufacturers
Obama and the Keynesian Revival
The National Association of Manufacturers discusses Iain Murray's National Review article on Obama's Keyenesian revival. Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute makes…
Newsletter
Union Scandal in California, Alternative Energy Promises and Short-Selling on Wall Street
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) finalizes a controversial merger of its California locals into one state-wide “superlocal”. President-Elect Obama promises to double the nation’s…
CNS News
Economists Say Bush ‘Chucked’ Free Market Principles Long Before Financial Crisis
CNS News discusses President George W. Bush's move away from free market principles. However, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute told CNSNews.com that…
Cafe Hayek
Tranquilizing the Stimulators
Blog
Stimulus Roadblock
They’ve waited for this day. Billions of dollars potentially at their disposal. But environmental groups may not be able to use it because of something…
Blog
Short-seller praised by Mass. Democrat at Madoff hearing
In the House Financial Services Committee hearing Monday on Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion alleged Ponzi scheme, some good points were raised by Congress members…
Blog
Next on the Bail-Out List: The Porn Industry?
It seems everyone in America is suffering. So obviously everyone is entitled to a bail-out. At least, that is the theory being advanced by America's…
Blog
Stimulating Rent Seeking
President-elect Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package (on which Doug Bandow commented recently) isn’t even in Congress yet, and the the rent-seeking has already started.
Blog
Stimulus Exit Strategy
Along with a deflating perfect storm bubble, the US economy is facing a crisis in confidence. These trillion numbers–1,1,3, and 10.6; Obama’s stimulus…
Newsletter
Coleman v. Franken, Drug War TV and $8 Trillion Worth of Stimulus
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) announces a legal challenge to an election ruling favoring his rival Al Franken. ABC premieres the primetime drama “Homeland Security USA,”…
Blog
Expanding Government, Corrupting Business
Tossing money at most anyone who shows up in Washington touting a sob story in the company of a lobbyist is doing more than impoverishing taxpayers. The…
Newsletter
Steel Stimulus, Barry Goldwater and 600,000 New Government Jobs
The U.S. steel industry faces tough times as demand collapses. Supporters of limited government celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Barry Goldwater. President-Elect…
Blog
No Money in Washington, D.C.? No Matter!
Washington, D.C. is another world. Today the company newsletter, otherwise known as the Washington Post, had an article entitled “U.S. Debt Expected to Soar…
Blog
Carney on the “Year of the Bailout”
Following Iain Murray’s farewell to 2008’s bailout-o-rama, Former CEI Brookes Fellow Tim Carney, in his Washington Examiner column, bids farewell to “The Year…
Blog
Thank You, 2008, and Good Riddance!
For supporters of freedom and markets, the Year of Our Lord 2008 has been close to a disaster. As D:Ream used to sing, things can…
Newsletter
E-waste, Auto Bailout and Climate Science
Activists oppose exportation of used electronic and computer components, or “e-waste”. Detroit auto companies start spending their $17.4 billion in bailout funds. Journalist Lawrence Solomon…
Newsletter
Bernard Madoff’s Personal Fortune, Clean Coal Technology and Wasteful Federal Spending
Alleged investment fraudster Bernard Madoff is ordered to disclose all of his financial assets to government investigators. Environmental groups launch a series of TV ads…
Blog
Peter Schiff: A Financial Prophet
Watch this great video and see the scorning and scoffing of a man predicting a financial meltdown due to the housing situation. And read…
Blog
An End to the Good Times?
Egads. Even the New York Times isn’t sure that the good times of endless government spending can go on forever. Peter Goodman writes in…
Blog
Bailouts Aggravate Financial Crisis
In the New York Times, economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University argues that the $700 billion financial-system bailout is impeding an economic recovery. Because…
Blog
Are the Golf Carts Made with Union Labor?
Throughout the Detroit automakers’ bailout saga, the United Auto Workers’ leadership has claimed that the union has made enough major concessions to date, and…
Blog
Madoff: Hiding in Plain Sight, Thanks to SEC
Contrary to popular belief, Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme was subject to to a variety of financial regulations, something he actually used as a selling…
Blog
So Who is Getting All of the Taxpayers’ Cash?
Amazing. Not only are trillions of dollars being passed around to bail out any business with at least a couple congressmen on its side. But…
Blog
Seeking Accountability–After Handing out $350 Billion!
Oops. Congress finally has bestirred itself after the administration used $350 billion in ways different from what it originally promised, and then required nothing of…
Cafe Hayek
Help Detroit by suspending antitrust
Blog
No holiday cheer here
If you’re looking for holiday cheer, you might not want to read Holman Jenkins’ article in the Wall Street Journal today, even though…
Blog
Trillion is the new billion
When you get calls from your friends specifically to talk about their zany ideas on how to reduce the national debt you know that the…
Blog
Stimulus Plans: Economic Failures, But Sometimes Political Successes
So-called “stimulus packages” don’t revive the economy, but that hasn’t stopped President-elect Obama from pushing a budget-busting $850 billion stimulus package. Japan…
Blog
More Criticism for Unconstitutional Auto Bailout
Andrew Sullivan, George Will, Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the Heritage Foundation, and many others have joined CEI in calling the auto bailout Unconstitutional.
Blog
Bush Auto Bailout Illegal, Bailout Supporter Admits
Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who supports bailing out the Detroit automakers (whose unionized workers are paid $70 an hour), nevertheless points out…
Blog
The Real Auto Bailout: A Six Point Plan for Regulatory Relief
Here’s what the auto companies really need – a reduction in the regulatory burden placed on them by Congress. These burdens have placed Detroit at…
Blog
GM-Chrysler Merger Likely Blocked by Antitrust
General Motors & Chrysler could be strengthened by a merger, an option that wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. But, the idea has been pushed aside,…
Blog
“Calling all economists . . .”
Supposedly President-elect Obama’s transition team has been calling up economists and asking for their views on a possible $1 trillion stimulus spending plan. …
Blog
A loophole wide enough to drive a GMC truck though
The Bush administration’s outline of its automaker bailout package lists some seemingly sensible changes in labor practices that GM and Chrysler need to…
Blog
An Insult to the American People
Thumbing its nose at the American people, who have opposed a bailout for automakers by a two-to-one margin in public opinion polls, the Bush…
Blog
Bush Bailout Beggars Belief
If there’s one provision in the GM/Chrysler bailout that I just don’t get, it’s the suggestion that the automakers must be financially viable by…
Blog
Mortgage Madness
Here is a letter I fired to the Wall Street Journal: December 17, 2008 Editor, The Wall Street Journal 200 Liberty Street New…
Cafe Hayek
Anyone Want to Sue Over the Illegal UAW Bailout?
News Release
White House Auto Bailout a Recipe for Failure
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:"";…
Blog
How Do Regulations Stack Up as a Small Firm Grows?
Tomorrow, electric utilities and green groups team up at the National Press Club to ask for billions of new spending on what they term energy…
Blog
Solis: Could have been worse…but not much
According to the Associated Press, President-elect Barack Obama is about to name Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor. If Rep. Solis’s voting…
Blog
Fed Chairman Uses Incompetent Ratings Firms for Bailout
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is basing hundreds of billions in emergency lending on credit ratings from companies that gave AAA grades to toxic…
Blog
The Value of a Dollar
Yesterday the dollar reach a 13-year low against the Euro as the Federal Reserve continues to pump new money into the system. All of this…
Newsletter
Fed Chairman in Trouble, Kids’ TV Goes Green and Google Goes Edge-Caching
Critics of the financial bailout allege that the federal government has exceeded its Constitutional powers. The Nickelodeon TV network for kids begins an environmental awareness…
Op-Eds
Geithner is spelled P-a-u-l-s-o-n
President-Elect Barack Obama has received surprising praise from some conservatives for his economic team. After running a successful populist campaign against Wall Street…
Blog
Bailouts Unconstitutional Failures
Jacob Sullum’s recent column argues that Bush’s auto bailout plan is an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers. We earlier argued that it was…
Blog
Paulson’s Bailout Was a Scam
National Review editor Rich Lowry, who mistakenly supported the financial system bailout because he trusted the Bush Administration, now realizes that he was deceived by…