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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…
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Regulatory Problem, Regulatory Solution?
A dying patient in the UK's NHS made the news after nurses refused to bring him a glass of water, despite his repeated begging. Had…
Blog
Barack Obama and Liberal “Good” vs. Freedom
There's a great op-ed by Shelby Steele in today's Wall Street Journal, called "Barack the Good". In it, Steele argues that "today's liberalism is focused…
Blog
Gene Patents Ruled Invalid
In a pretty remarkable move, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York yesterday held that genes can not be patented…
Blog
Millions of Seniors to be Dumped from Health Plans Due to New Health Care Law
Two million seniors are expected to be dumped onto Medicare from company prescription medication plans, thanks to a poorly-vetted provision of…
Blog
Attorney Generals Challenge ObamaCare; New Health Care Law Increases State Budget Deficits, Imposes Marriage Penalties
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and a dozen other attorneys general have filed lawsuits challenging the new health care law signed…
Blog
Health Care- Fix middle-class “medicine cabinet tax” in reconciliation
“They won’t be so opposed to it once they see what’s in it.” That’s the rationalization House leaders have given skittish Democrats to get them…
Blog
Health Care Crisis About to Get a Whole Lot Worse
In just a few hours, the House of Representatives will vote on the $940 billion Senate health care bill, followed by a reconciliation package of…
Blog
New Taxes on Investors in Obamacare, and Massive Marriage Penalties, Too
The new tax on investors in the health care bill has been increased from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent, but only a few media…
Blog
Health Care Bill Would Vastly Expand IRS Power; CBO Ordered to Base Cost Estimate on False Assumptions
“House health care bill dangerously expands IRS power,” say a tax law professor and GOP leaders. The Washington Examiner says that “16,500 more…
Blog
Governors Criticize Health Care Bill for Increasing Unemployment and State Budget Deficits; Tax Increases and Medicare Cuts in Bill Rise
Governors are now criticizing the health care bill backed by the Obama administration, saying it will cause health care costs and state deficits to…
Blog
Remember the “cancer cluster” that made Erin Brockovich famous? (And rich?)
Erin Brockovich became “America’s Sweetheart” because “she brought a corporation to its knees.” As the story goes, the energy company PG&E was storing chromium 6,…
Blog
Even Associated Press Says “Beware” of Obama’s Health Care Overhaul; Retired Judge Calls Health Care Tactic Unconstitutional
Even the Associated Press admits that President Obama is not telling the truth about his health care plan and how it would affect health…
Blog
ObamaCare’s Enormous Cost Is Hidden by Dishonest Gimmicks, Says New York Times Columnist Who Supported Obama in 2008
New York Times columnist David Brooks, like other columnists at that staunchly liberal newspaper, supported Obama in the 2008 election. But even he can…
Blog
$3,000,000,000,000 in Tax Increases in President Obama’s Budget
The president’s proposed budget raises taxes by three trillion dollars over the next ten years, notes Washington fiscal analyst…
Blog
Obama Runs Up Largest Budget Deficit in American History; Monthly Deficit Alone Exceeds Entire Annual Deficit for 2007 Under Bush
“The Obama Administration has run up the largest budget deficit in American history in February of 2010, a whopping total of $220.9 Billion in just…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 125: Salt
Assemblyman Ortiz has introduced legislation that would “make it illegal for restaurants to use salt in the preparation of food. Period.” A $1,000 fine would…
Blog
The Hidden Costs of Health Care Reform: “Obamacare Is A Budgetary Disaster”
The health care bills backed by President Obama will cost $2.3 trillion, not the $900 billion Obama claims, and will be a “…
Blog
Obama’s Policies Will Increase National Debt by $9.7 trillion, Says Congressional Budget Office
“President Obama’s policies would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. . .The 10-year…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 123: Donating Blood
If you’re gay, you can’t donate blood. It’s illegal. Rather than screening donors for sexual preference, they should be screened for blood-borne diseases. Straight people…
Blog
The Internet as medical diagnostic tool scores again!
I was having extreme itching in my toes that I’ve never experienced before. I reconstructed the circumstances under which it arose, plugged them in, and…
Blog
Conning the can makers regarding bisphenol A
A Washington Post A1 article, “Alternatives to BPA containers not easy for U.S. foodmakers to find,” makes the case very nicely. The plastic hardening…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 117: Hot Dogs
The AAP says hot dogs are a choking hazard for children. According to the data, Little Timmy is literally more likely to be struck by…
Blog
Bisphenol baloney takes another hit
In a provocatively entitled paper in the current issue of the prestigious journal Toxicological Sciences, Richard M. Sharpe asks “Is It Time to End…
Blog
Swine flu and heterosexual AIDS
About 57 million Americans, or something less than a fifth of the population, have contracted swine flu since April, the CDC says, of whom…
Blog
Flu Report Feb. 12 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing
As the CDC’s FluView Web site puts it, “During the week of January 31 – February 6, 2010, most key flu indicators remained about…
Blog
A disease cluster scare implodes; a new one is born
Yesterday I wrote that a scare over a scleroderma cluster in South Boston had been resolved when the state department of health found no…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 112: Importing Pork Rinds
The federal government is loosening its restrictions on importing pork rinds from Brazil.
Blog
Another “man-made” disease cluster solved
What man-made pollutants were causing the mysterious cluster of scleroderma in South Boston? Scleroderma is a rare, incurable, sometimes fatal illness that hardens muscles and…
Blog
“Health Care Freedom” Bills Pass Virginia Senate
The Virginia State Senate passed “health care freedom” bills giving citizens the right not to be forced to buy health insurance. This sets…
Blog
Yes, WHO faked a pandemic and is now lying about it, my Forbes article
The World Health Organization has suddenly gone from crying “The sky is falling!” like a cackling Chicken Little to squealing like a stuck pig. The…
Blog
Flu Report Feb. 5 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing
Here’s an amazing fact. Traditionally flu season peaks in mid-February. Essentially now. Yet in mid-October CDC labs reported 11,908 positive flu samples. This past week…
Blog
“Killer Cans And Toxic Baby Bottles,” my piece in Investor’s Business Daily
Should we worry about a common chemical almost all of us carry in our bodies that activists claim causes a list of diseases longer…
Blog
John Stossel salutes my swine flu work
[Herewith his blog for Fox Business, titled “Swine Flu Hysteria.” I agree with him about the pharmaceutical companies. As I’ve written elsewhere, in…
Blog
Why scientific arguments don’t go very far anymore
Do vaccines cause autism? Here’s your answer. Jenny McCarthy, by virtue of being a former Playboy Playmate who claims her son had autism but that…
Blog
Flu Update Jan. 29: What Swine Flu ISN’t Doing
Deaths down, hospitalizations down, infections reported to CDC-surveillance labs down. Again the usual disclaimer that this probably represents a time lag in reporting and…
Blog
Brit M.D. who tied MMR vaccine to autism acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly”
The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism – and subsequently made rates of measles and other diseases skyrocket – acted…
Blog
WHO swine flu chief caught twice lying about pre-fab pandemic
Even before the World Health Organization declared its phony pandemic last summer, its designated fibber-in-chief has been Keiji Fukuda. Yet I’ve never been able to…
Blog
Flu expert slams WHO pandemic panic-mongering in German magazine interview
I missed this interview when it came out in the German magazine Der Spiegel in July, but it’s still relevant. Unfortunately, even though the…
Blog
“The Hole in the EPA’s Ozone Claims,” my piece in Forbes Online
To the EPA, “safe” is a constantly moving target—and that’s the way it likes it. Always something new to regulate, always a new hobgoblin from…
Blog
WHO squealing like a pig over charges it fabricated the flu “pandemic”
The WHO has suddenly gone from a cackling Chicken Little crying “The Sky is Falling!” to squealing like a stuck pig, in response to charges…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 104: Haggis
Haggis is the national dish of Scotland. It has also been banned in the United States since 1989. Fortunately, the ban may soon be reversed.
Blog
Flu Watch Jan. 24, 2010 – Swine flu appears to be sweeping aside seasonal flu
Reported infections, deaths, hospitalizations all down. Again, though, when adjusted for the time lag they were probably the same as last week. The only…
Blog
Populism, jobs and the economy — where do we go from here?
Scott Brown’s decisive victory in the Massachusetts Senate race has upturned the Democrats’ Progressive agenda. Brown, “the people’s seat” senator, had a resonant message…
Blog
Why does everybody think BPA is safe but us?
Regarding the ubiquitous plastic ingredient bisphenol A (BPA), my colleague Angela Logomasini blogged that “The greens are rejoicing today because the Food and Drug…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 101: Brushing Teeth After Meals
[A]ny child who has a meal in day care or is in care for more than four hours will be required to brush their teeth,…
Blog
More swine flu hysteria apologism – “a stunning public health success”
In response to my Philadelphia Inquirer piece “Swine Flu Epidemic Ends with a Whimper,” predictably public health community members have squealed that the only…
Blog
“Swine Flu Epidemic ends with a Whimper,” my Philly Inquirer piece
Hidden within the latest edition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s FluView was this sentence: “The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and…
Blog
Flu Watch Jan. 14 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing this week
Infections are down, hospitalizations are down and deaths are the same. But given the reporting time lag it should prove that these were…
Blog
Health Insurance and Campaign Contributions
$40 million and change plus some antitrust troubles is a really small price to pay for a legal guarantee of vastly increased business, forever.
Blog
New York Salt-Slashing Op-Ed in NY Post
Here is my op-ed published in the New York Post on January 13th. As-salt on science On Monday, city officials rolled out an initiative…
Blog
Experts Question Enormous Cost and Constitutionality of Healthcare Legislation
The health care legislation backed by the president and congressional leaders will increase Americans’ health care costs by more than $200 billion,…
Blog
Gag me. Public health establishment takes credit for mildness of swine flu season
Inevitably when pandemic doom fails to pan out, whether it be heterosexual AIDS, SARS, avian flu, or anything else the public health establishment that panicked…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 99: Salty New Yorkers
New York City is seeking to regulate how much salt is in peoples' food. Enforcement will prove difficult; most food that New Yorkers eat comes…
Blog
“Homer doughnut. Bacon doughnut. Paradise.”
Thus says Morgan Spurlock in The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special. When I first heard that Spurlock, whose most renowned contribution to film is a leftish…
Blog
Flu Watch Jan. 8 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing this week
These things just keep getting briefer and briefer. Infections down, deaths down to only 14, states with widespread activity: just one. Updating you on…
Blog
Nobel Prize Winning Economist Says Obama Policies Delaying Economic Recovery
In the Wall Street Journal, Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker and others explain how President Obama’s policies are delaying and retarding the inevitable economic…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 98: Gastrointestinal Drugs
Did you know that the federal government has a Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee?…
Blog
Positively bad thinking
“Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now,” says George Clooney’s “termination engineer” to just-fired employees in the…
Blog
“Was Swine Flu a False Pandemic?”
No, that’s not Michael Fumento asking. It’s a pharmaceutical industry blog declaring, “That’s the contention by more than a dozen members of the Parliamentary…
Blog
Flu Watch Dec. 30 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing
It’s a holiday so we’ll make this quick. Infections have somehow managed to drop again as have deaths and hospitalizations. Just 15 deaths reported…
Blog
Florida Attorney General Questions Constitutionality of Healthcare Bills in Congress
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is questioning whether it is constitutional to force people to buy health insurance, as the health…
Blog
Swine flu also unexceptional in contagiousness
With a massive amount of data indicating swine flu is vastly milder than seasonal flu, a new study in the New England Journal of…
Blog
No, yet again, cell phones do not cause cancer
If you’re getting a headache from spending to much time on your cell phone, it’s probably from yakking too much. But it’s not from brain…
Blog
Is ObamaCare’s “Individual Mandate” Unconstitutional?
The health care bills backed by the President require that individuals buy health insurance if it is not provided by their employer. Is that unconstitutional?…
Blog
Flu Watch Dec. 24 – The U.S. Epidemic is Over
The Big Scare of 2009 is over, folks. The U.S. swine flu epidemic has ended. “The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I)…
Blog
Washington Post Back to Pushing Avian Flu Panic
Remember avian flu? Until swine flu came along, that’s what was going to wipe out mankind.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 82: Veterinarians
Did you know that the federal government is in the veterinary accreditation business? It’s true.
Blog
File this under “Shocked, shocked!”
“Experts predict flu pandemic could be mildest on record” declares the Washington Post headline. Unless, that is, you use the old definition of pandemic…
Blog
“WHO Should Just Give Up on the Flu Scare,” my National Post piece
The folks who dubbed the swine flu piglet a pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO), just won’t let up. “It is too early to say…
Blog
Flu Watch Dec. 4 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing this Week
The epidemic has plunged so far that it’s on the borderline of no longer being one. An epidemic, that is. It’s right on the…
Blog
What about a “second wave” of swine flu?
Mr. Fumento, I read your articles religiously. You recently attacked swine flu as hysterical overreaction. Is it really? You talk about a bell curve…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 77: Banning Toys in Happy Meals
Roberto Zabrido, a government official in Spain, is “adamant that the Happy Meal and its ilk pose a risk.” The solution? Legislation!…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 76: Generic Medication for Farm Animals
If you put chlortetracycline powder in your farm animals’ drinking water to prevent disease, please be aware that a new federal rule now allows you…
Blog
“Would ObamaCare Reduce Innovation?”: Health Care Bill Would Cause Preventable Deaths
“Would ObamaCare Kill Medical Innovation?” That’s the question posed by health care expert Michael Cannon. His answer is yes: “President Obama’s…
Blog
Moderates Criticize Health Care Bill As It Advances in Senate; Experts Gave Bill A “Failing Grade”
On Saturday, the Senate voted 60-to-39, along party lines, to press towards passage of a massive health care bill, by blocking a…
Blog
Healthcare Bill Advances in Senate, Despite Receiving Failing Grade from Health Experts; Democrats Block Filibuster in Party-Line Vote
The healthcare bill is on the verge of passing the Senate, despite the fact that it has received a failing grade from healthcare experts like…
Blog
Flu Report Nov. 21 and my piece on the epidemic peak in NRO.
“Swine flu has killed 540 kids, sickened 22 million Americans,” screamed USA Today’s page 1 headline, sub-headed “CDC: Cases, Deaths are Unprecedented.” “Swine flu cases…
Blog
Reid Health Care Bill Adds New Tax Increases, Costs Twice As Much As Promised
The health care “reform” bill drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid adds new tax increases, and costs twice as much as its…
Blog
Not sure what DDT does to birds, but I know how it helps people
There’s been much in the news lately about the brown pelican being delisted as an endangered species since its recovery from the effects of…
Blog
Harvard Medical School Dean Gives ObamaCare a “Failing Grade”
"In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will…
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Senate Committee Rubberstamps Left-Wing Ideologue to Head Powerful OSHA Agency Despite His Anti-Gun and Pro-Junk-Science Views
David Michaels, a left-wing ideologue who supports junk science and seeks to restrict gun possession, has been approved by the Senate Health Committee…
Blog
Oyster Ban Update: Partial Victory!
The ban, due to take effect in 2011, has not been repealed outright. But, in response to public outcry, it has been delayed.
Blog
Health-Care “Reform” Bills Increase Costs, Endanger Access for Millions, Federal Experts Say
The healthcare “reform” bill backed by Obama “would reduce senior care,” and “could jeopardize access to care for millions,” report healthcare…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 72: Brass Toys, Killer of Children
Toymakers presumably choose brass because it is cheap, durable, and better than alternative materials. Now they will have to turn to those second-best materials despite…
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Yes, I will be posting about the new CDC swine flu estimates
At a glance, though, the estimates look okay it’s the spin and the lack of perspective that I have trouble with. And while the media…
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Regulation of the Day 71: Waistlines
In Japan, it is illegal for men to have a waist larger than 33.5 inches. The limit for women is 35.4 inches. Those in violation…
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Insurance Industry Stung By Health Care Deal
The CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal whining that a weak individual purchase mandate is…
Blog
Get more doctors — get rid of H-1B visa cap
CEI’s champion of letter-writing, Alex Nowrasteh, has a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal today advocating removing the cap on H-1B…
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Flu Watch Nov. 7 – What Swine Flu Isn’t Doing This Week
Well, what swine flu isn’t doing this week is apparently less than what it wasn’t doing last week. In other words, it appears to have…
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Swine flu “survivor” speaks out on media hysteria
From a letter to the editor of the Washington Post: It is ridiculous that The Post has dedicated so much of the A section…
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Flu Watch Oct. 31 – What swine flu ISN’T doing this week
It’s Halloween, and the monster at the door is swine flu. Or so we’re told. Yet again. And people respond accordingly. “I’ve never seen it…
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NY Guv orders state of panic over swine flu
Emulating the Obama Administration, New York Gov. David Paterson has “declared a state of emergency, saying a recent rise in swine flu cases has created…
Blog
Why did Obama declared a swine flu “emergency” with no emergency?
As I note in my Investor’s Business Daily article, swine flu cases in the last seven months, according to the CDC, equal about four…
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Regulation of the Day 67: Oysters
A new FDA rule requires oysters harvested between April and October to be sterilized before they are eaten. An unintended consequence is that the state…
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“Public Option” Is a Gimmick That Won’t Improve Healthcare
In the Washington Post, Robert J. Samuelson explains in the “Public Plan Mirage” how the so-called “public option” contained in congressional health-care reform bills…
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Obama’s swine flu “emergency” declaration
It’s a bunch of hog droppings. Watch for my upcoming article. In the meantime, read here on why we should not panic.
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Widening a highway is both an environmental AND civil rights issue?
Was a time when “civil rights” meant things like equal opportunities in employment and schooling for racial and ethnic minorities. And “environmental” meant something affecting…
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A Cure Worse than the Disease
As I explain in a new CEI paper, which is out today, most of the alleged cost-cutting measures in the Baucus bill merely shift costs…
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Fumento yells “Sooo-eeeee!” on Liddy
I bent G. Gordon Liddy’s ears back today on his radio show (easy to find them, given his lack of hair) on my current…
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More Hypocrisy Regarding FTC Blog Regulations
Michael Masnick at Techdirt offers up another incidence of government inconsistency in light of the FTC’s blog-watching rules, reminding us that “…