Featured Posts
News Release
GDP report for third quarter indicates strengthened economy: CEI analysis
The GDP report for the third quarter of 2024 shows 2.8 percent growth, indicating a rapidly growing and healthy economy. While there is still…
CNBC
Up to $400 to change a lightbulb? Appliance repair costs are no joke
CNBC quoted CEI’s expert on a sustainable future “These state proposals and state laws could lead to a lose-lose situation in which manufacturers are harmed…
Human Progress
Appliances Contribute to Human Progress—but Regulations Threaten Their Affordability
Summary: Home appliances have drastically improved human life, from preventing heat-related deaths with air conditioning to making household tasks more efficient with washing machines and…
Search Posts
News Release
GDP report for third quarter indicates strengthened economy: CEI analysis
The GDP report for the third quarter of 2024 shows 2.8 percent growth, indicating a rapidly growing and healthy economy. While there is still…
CNBC
Up to $400 to change a lightbulb? Appliance repair costs are no joke
CNBC quoted CEI’s expert on a sustainable future “These state proposals and state laws could lead to a lose-lose situation in which manufacturers are harmed…
Human Progress
Appliances Contribute to Human Progress—but Regulations Threaten Their Affordability
Summary: Home appliances have drastically improved human life, from preventing heat-related deaths with air conditioning to making household tasks more efficient with washing machines and…
Substack
The American Dream of a Cheetah
Substack cited CEI’s Julian L. Simon Awardee In the next few days Magatte will receive the Julian Simon Award from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Blog
Junk science behind federal appliance regs about to get junkier
The Biden-Harris administration has embarked on a wave of anti-consumer home appliance regulations over the last several years. Each was justified in part by overblown…
NewsTalksSTL
Ryan Young on latest CPI, inflation & current economic conditions.
Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), talks about the latest CPI (Consumer Price Index) report, inflation, and current economic conditions on…
The Virginian-Pilot
Column: Reducing regulations assists American families and the economy
Most American families spend more on regulatory compliance than they do on food, education or any other expense besides housing, according to a new report.
The Dispatch
U.S. Markets Recover After Dismal Start to the Week
The Dispatch cited CEI’s expert on employment rates “Whatever the reason(s) for Monday’s mini-panic, Ryan Young, a senior economist at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute…
National Review
Where to Begin with Regulatory Reform
National Review cited CEI on 10 Thousand Commandments report utting federal regulations can feel a little bit like being a mosquito in a nudist colony: It’s…
Washington Examiner
Regulations cost families $15,000, Biden-Harris swamp plans more
Washington Examiner cited CEI on 10KC regulatory reform As bad as those costs seem, they are likely much higher because the administration changed transparency…
News Release
Positive signs in 2024’s second quarter GDP report: CEI analysis
The nation’s GDP grew 2.8 percent during the second quarter of 2024. Strong growth indicates rapidly improving living standards and an easier fight against…
Op-Eds
Tariffs Don’t Protect Jobs
Many Americans, including it seems the presidential and vice presidential nominees of the Republican Party, worry that trade costs jobs. This helps to explain why…
The Federalist
It’s Time For Congress To Take Out America’s Regulatory Trash
The Federalist cites CEI on yearly regulations: According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), 2019 was the only year on record in which…
National Review
Think-Tank President Kent Lassman Swam the English Channel
National Review Cited CEO Kent Lassman for swimming the English Channel Our friend Kent Lassman, president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, swam…
Op-Eds
Cutting Corners and Nickel-and-Diming Customers
In macroeconomics, the “circular flow of income” refers to the continuous flow of money between producers and consumers in the economy. Producers provide goods and…
Blog
FTC declares mergers to be union-busting
In a classic case of regulatory creep, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently asserted jurisdiction over labor unions and collective bargaining. The agency is…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Baby formula waivers and phonorecords
The 2023 Federal Register became the second-largest ever, dating back to 1936. A new CEI study makes the case for reforming administrative law…
New York Post
New Yorkers can’t stop complaining about their blocked views
New York City has many fine museums — it isn’t one. Yet. But New York is the home of the nation’s second-dumbest urban political ecosystem…
Blog
Don’t drink the ‘right to repair’ Kool-Aid
“What’s in a name?” William Shakespeare posed the question in Romeo & Juliet to illustrate that a rose, even if called by a different name,…
Blog
Retirement finance worries increase for Americans
The Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research have published their 33rd Annual Retirement Confidence Survey, and it’s got some interesting results. The survey…
Fox News
Biden’s Cold War: Anti-Air Conditioner Regulations Keep Piling Up
Think Biden administration regulators have it in for gas stoves? Just wait until you learn what they have in store for air conditioners.
Blog
New CEI Paper Outlines Problems with “Right to Repair” Legislation
At least 20 states have filed or refiled “right to repair” legislation since the start of the new year. Two states passed right to…
Comment
CEI Comments on the Proposed Regulation on Digital Discrimination of Access
Introduction. On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), we respectfully submit the following comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) notice of…
Fox News
DeSantis’s Florida beats Newsom’s California, again. Here’s the comparison
The COVID-19 pandemic elicited unprecedented government interventions into American life. Yet, the stringency and duration of government measures varied considerably across the U.S. …
Washington Examiner
Republicans can use the debt ceiling fight to better prepare Americans for the next economic crisis
On the outside chance that House Republicans are able to wrangle President Joe Biden into cutting federal spending to set a new debt…
Comment
CEI Comments on FDA Proposed Menthol Standard
Center for Tobacco U.S. Food and Drug Administration 10903 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring, MD 20993 Re: Tobacco Product Standard for Menthol in Cigarettes Docket…
Blog
FDA’s Juul Ban Part of Deadly War on Nicotine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that it denied the application of Juul Labs, maker of the Juul e-cigarette, to market its…
C-SPAN
VIDEO: National Cannabis Policy Summit
CEI Senior Fellow Michelle Minton participated in the National Cannabis Policy Summit Watch the full video at C-SPAN here.
Blog
Banning Menthol Cigarettes Will Do Nothing to Promote Racial Justice
Public support for the War on Drugs has never been lower, due in no small part to increased awareness about the devastation drug criminalization…
News Release
DC Flavored Tobacco Ban Will Make Life Harder for Marginalized Groups
The Council of the District of Columbia today voted to ban the sale of flavored tobacco, including menthol, a policy opposed by CEI and coalition…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Urging D.C. City Council to Reject Prohibition of “Flavored” Tobacco Products
June 28, 2021The Council of the District of ColumbiaJohn A. Wilson Building1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.Washington, DC 20004Dear Chairman Mendelson and Councilmembers:The undersigned civil rights, civil…
Fortune
It’s Time to Raise the Cost of Spreading Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories were a major driver behind the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. They have also been a growing part of the…
Ricochet
AUDIO: Iain Murray Discusses Socialism on Action Line Podcast
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow Iain Murray joins “Action Line” to discuss the reasons why socialism is not an effective method for reducing…
Blog
New Junk Food Ordinance: Another “Feel Good” California Law that Does No Good
California is a tough place to live. Ranked as the state with the nation’s worst quality of life, Californians have the biggest debt-to-income ratio, suffer…
Blog
Anti-Nicotine Zealots Only Care about Science When it Says What They Want
Opponents of nicotine vapor products like to claim the scientific high ground. For years, they have asserted there isn’t enough evidence on the long-term risks…
Blog
How the U.S. Spreads Fake Vaping Fears, Part II
In a previous post, CEI's Michelle Minton described how, through the use of statistical hocus pocus, anti-vaping interest have exported vape panic around the world.
Blog
Trump’s Drug Price Control Orders Are Bound to Backfire
At a White House gathering last Friday, President Trump announced four new executive orders intended to restrict the ways pharmaceutical companies set the price of…
Blog
How the U.S. Spreads Fake Vaping Fears
The international health profession is rightly focused on the SARS-CoV-2 virus threat at the moment. Meanwhile, another multinational threat has insidiously spread: Alarmism about nicotine…
Study
Perverse Psychology
Cigarette smoking is a lethal habit that kills approximately half of those who sustain it over their lifetime. But, contrary to popular belief, the nicotine…
The Washington Examiner
Kill the Never-Needed Regulations Slowing the Economic Recovery
Our attention is focused on a single, terrible story like we’ve rarely seen before, a story that commands such a level of attention because it…
Comment
CEI Comments on EPA Transparency Rule
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) strongly supports EPA’s effort to increase transparency in scientific research underlying agency rules and research. CEI detailed in a 2018…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in Opposition to Any Proposal to Impose “Buy American” Mandates on Medicines
Dear Secretary Mnuchin, Director Kudlow, Leader McConnell & Leader McCarthy: We write in opposition to any proposal to impose “Buy American” mandates on medicines.
Blog
The Man Who Fed the World, And the Film that Condemned Him for It
The first indication that PBS’s new documentary on agronomist Norman Borlaug will not be overly laudatory is its title. Anti-hunger activist Leon Hesser called his…
Blog
Robots Are Here to Make Your Job Safer and Cleaner
Positive stories about win-win results from the march of automation are everywhere in our economy, but they don’t get told and repeated enough. The workers…
Blog
Deregulation Is an Effective Pandemic Defense
In a new op-ed in RealClearMarkets, Iain Murray and Ryan Young outline the major points of CEI’s just-released #NeverNeeded paper, which identifies regulations harmful to…
Blog
EPA Inspector General Report Could Exacerbate Medical Supply Shortages
As hospitals struggle to access sterile medical supplies, the EPA Inspector General released a report that could make things worse. It alleges that EPA officials…
Blog
FDA Four-Month Delay Not Enough to Save E-Cigarette Industry
To fight the coronavirus, many states have pressed pause on certain rules and regulations. Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed an order lifting the state ban…
Blog
Greenpeace’s Swing and Miss Reveals Its Hypocrisy about Health Risks from Reusable Bags
According to Greenpeace, my recent article on the sanitary benefits of single-use plastic bags is part of an effort to “exploit” COVID-19 fears and promote…
Blog
House Democrats’ Third Coronavirus Supplemental Appropriation Bill Is an Outrage
The Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act is the most irresponsible piece of fiscal legislation to come out of the profligate Congress for a…
Blog
Regulation, Not Offshoring, Is Hindering Industry from Ramping up Production
In his latest Bloomberg column, Noah Smith argues that offshoring production led to the current shortage of medical masks and equipment in the face of…
Blog
Toilet Paper Economics: Emergency Capitalism Still Better Than Normal Socialism
There are quite a few hot takes circulating at the moment about how grocery stores temporarily running out of toilet paper amid the current coronavirus…
Blog
Liberty in the Time of Coronavirus Part 1
A recent headline at The Atlantic declared, “There are No Libertarians in an Epidemic.” But, just as there are atheists in foxholes, there are libertarians…
National Review
Pandemics, Stimulus, and the Limitations of Flash Policy
Over the past two weeks, America has faced the onset of a pandemic, an oil-price war, and a stock-market crash. In the face of these…
Fox News
AOC Criticized For ‘Inapt’ Comparison Between Fed’s Coronavirus Response And Student Loan Debt Relief
Fox News cites Senior Fellow Richard Morrison on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comments on the coronavirus: But according to Competitive Enterprise Institute fellow Richard Morrison, Ocasio-Cortez was…
Blog
HHS Price Disclosure Rule Will Not Make Medicines More Affordable
In his State of the Union Address, President Trump renewed his commitment to “lower[ing] the cost of health care and prescription drugs” and “requir[ing] drug…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter to the White House on Vaping
Dear Mr. President We urge you to preserve access to life-saving alternatives to cigarettes for the millions of adults who rely on electronic cigarettes and…
Comment
Michelle Minton Testimony on Flavored Tobacco Products
Thank you for giving the public an opportunity to provide input as you consider this proposal. I sincerely hope you listen to the testimony you’ll…
Blog
CDC Confirms Black Markets, not “Vaping,” Caused Outbreak
A new CDC report puts the final nail in the coffin of the idea that the spat of lung injuries that occurred beginning last summer…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter on Surprise Billing
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy, Leader Schumer, and Whip Scalise, The undersigned groups representing millions of taxpayers and consumers around the country urge…
Reason
House-Passed Budget Deal Raises Age to Buy Cigarettes to 21
Reason cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on e-cigarettes. As Michelle Minton, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, pointed out in a…
Blog
Blame Anti-Tobacco Advocates for Youth Vaping “Epidemic”
Like most teenage crazes, youth interest in e-cigarettes once seemed a passing fad. In the early years youth vaping skyrocketed, but by 2016 began to…
Citation
VIDEO: The Impact of Prescription Drug Price Controls: An International Policy and Patient Perspective
To address the cost of prescription medicines, the Trump administration and congressional leaders have proposed instituting international reference pricing policies, like the International Pricing Index…
Blog
Tobacco 21: Feel-Good Policy Could Backfire
Amid an outbreak of “vaping-linked” lung illnesses, a campaign of fear against vaping has reached a frenzied peak. For years, the Food and Drug Administration…
News Release
CEI Report Disputes Claims Tobacco 21 Laws Reduce Teen Smoking
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report questions whether laws that hike the purchase age for tobacco and e-cigarette products to 21 actually reduce smoking rates…
Study
The Push to Raise the Legal Age to Buy Tobacco to 21 Has Little Basis in Fact
The notion that raising the tobacco purchasing age to 21 helps reduce adolescent smoking seems plausible enough. But there is little evidence in support of…
Blog
CEI Report: Universities Misuse Federal Children’s Environmental Health Grants to Pursue Political Agenda
For more than two decades the federal government has funded a number of “children’s environmental health centers.” Since they are housed in universities, you might…
Blog
Killing Us with Kindness: Democrats’ War on Vaping Costs Lives
Liberals are supposed to the ones whose hearts “bleed” with concern for others’ welfare. That’s why modern liberals generally reject an abstinence-only approach to regulation.
News Release
Trump Ban on Flavored E-Cigarettes Will Cost Lives
President Trump today indicated his administration plans to seek a ban on flavored e-cigarettes, citing concerns over teen vaping and the spate of recent, much-reported…
Blog
Gene Editing Can Improve Health Outcomes for the Poor
Gene editing, specifically somatic gene therapy, cures maladies with traceable genetic origins. This revolutionary science is rapidly advancing, but not without major setbacks. Regulations designed…
News Release
CDC Putting Lives at Risk with Warning Against E-Cigarettes
Today, the Centers for Disease Control put out a dire warning against use of e-cigarettes in the aftermath of a spate of recent lung illnesses…
Blog
Lung Disease Outbreak Caused by Black Market, not Vaping
News media around the world have picked up on the story of “vaping-linked” hospitalizations. Most have omitted the fact that black market marijuana e-liquid has…
Blog
Heretics in the Church of Tobacco Control
H.P. Lovecraft opined in 1931 that “if religion were true its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into artificial conformity, but would merely…
Blog
Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Except Those with Eating Disorders)
The goal of the government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans is to provide simple advice that promotes nutritional health, but for millions of Americans it may do…
News Release
EPA Wise to Reject Activists’ Proposed Chlorpyrifos Ban Based on Junk Science
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced it rejected a petition by green activists to ban chlorpyrifos, an important pesticide farmers rely on for assisting…
Blog
Bogus E-cigarette Panic Literally Killing People
Is this a story from The Onion? It’s a question we often ask ourselves these days when we encounter stories online that seem too ridiculous…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter Supporting Blumenauer-McClintock Amendment on Legal Marijuana
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader Hoyer, Representative McCarthy, and Chairman Serrano: On behalf of the many of Americans whose views and values our organizations represent, we…
Marijuana Moment
Federal Government Violated the Law in Marijuana Scheduling Evaluation, Group Says
Marijuana Moment cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton’s request for correction on the Department of Health and Human Services’ medical marijuana evaluation. The Competitive…
Blog
Department of Health and Human Services Needs to Correct Record on Marijuana
Regulators at the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had an opportunity in 2016 to move marijuana into a less restrictive category of controlled substances. This…
The Washington Examiner
Emotions, Not Facts, are Guiding Juries against Roundup
A California jury this week awarded a whopping $2 billion based on a couple's claim that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer known…
News Release
HHS Evaluation of Medical Marijuana Illegally Skipped Peer Review, CEI Argues in Data Quality Petition
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that exposes a major flaw in the…
Comment
CEI Correction Request under Information Quality Act Regarding HHS Scientific Assessment of Medical Marijuana
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) submits this request for correction of this agency’s 2015 scientific evaluation of medical marijuana. We submit this under the Information…
Blog
New York Times Runs Stealth Anti-Vaping Ad as Op-ed
Readers of The New York Times deserve better than advertising masquerading as righteous opinion writing. While reporters at Times get credit for exploring and exposing…
News Release
CEI Praises FDA for Approving Lower Risk Cigarette Alternative
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today gave the green light to the marketing of new tobacco products manufactured by Philip Morris. The IQOS “Tobacco…
Medium
Where Anti-Vaxxers and Anti-Vapers Meet
You might have more in common with anti-vaxxers than you want to believe. You might feel the need to reject the possibility because you would…
The Lars Larson Show
AUDIO: Michelle Minton Joins the Lars Larson Show
Senior Fellow Michelle Minton discusses vaping and seizures on The Lars Larson Show (1:30:25 mark)…
Blog
FDA’s Fake E-cigarette News
Journalists aren’t the only purveyors of “fake news.” Federal agencies also generate misleading headlines. Sometimes, they do it with a purpose. That seems to be…
Blog
Help Wanted: Seeking Commissioner for Food and Drug Administration
In a tidal wave of Washington drama, President Trump’s Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb abruptly and unexpectedly announced in March 2019 that he…
News Release
Trump Budget Seeks Ill-Advised E-Cigarette Tax
President Trump’s budget submitted to Congress today contains an ill-advised tax on e-cigarettes. CEI Senior Fellow Michelle Minton says such a tax would do less…
Blog
E-Cigarette Puritans Risk Lives
Tobacco companies faced a savage backlash in the 1990s when the public realized they willfully misled the world about the dangers of smoking. Yet when…
News Release
FDA, Activists Put Smokers’ Lives at Risk with Misleading Claims about E-Cigarettes
The FDA is working on a plan to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes from convenience stores nationwide -- which is precisely the sort of…
Study
Anti-E-Cigarette Puritans Put Lives at Risk
Big tobacco companies were publicly pilloried when they were found to have misled the public about the dangers of their products. To this day, that…
News Release
FDA Ban on Sale of Flavored E-Cigarettes Bad for Public Health
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has reportedly given the White House his plan for stopping the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in convenience stores…
Vaping Post
The Department of Health and Human Services and Vaping: A tale of Bootleggers and Baptists
Vaping Post cited Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on e-cigarettes. To further understand the concepts that I’m presenting, we need to consider some basic…
News Release
CEI Report Calls for Elimination of EPA’s Flawed Integrated Risk Information System
A new report released today by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) shows EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) has significant problems with methodology, relies on…
News Release
Court Ruling Against Soda Warning Labels Praised by CEI Experts
Today, a federal appeals court blocked a San Francisco law mandating health warning labels on ads for soda and other sugary drinks, saying the law…
Blog
Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Soda Labeling Ban for Wrong Reasons
This week the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held unconstitutional the size requirement in San Francisco’s soda warning labeling regulation. However, there are broader…
Inside Sources
Unfounded E-Cigarette Panic Puts Public Health at Risk
E-cigarettes pose a tiny percent of the risk of cigarette smoking, just 1 percent to 5 percent according to authorities like the United Kingdom government.
Inside Sources
Vaping and Harm Reduction: A Brief Analysis of Policy, Academic Conclusions, and Hysteria
Inside Sources cited CEI’s study by Senior Fellow Michelle Minton, “Fear Profiteers.” Additionally, in a recent commentary piece written for the Capital Research…
Blog
Conflict of Interest over Vaping Threatens Public Health
Cigarette smoking kills nearly half a million Americans every year, and for every person who dies due to smoking, at least 30 people live with…
News Release
Unfounded E-Cigarette Fears Help Health Activist Groups But Harm Public Health
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report reveals how health activist groups and government agencies jeopardize public health by promoting the unfounded notion that e-cigarettes are…