The Competitive Enterprise Institute believes the proper role for government is to provide consumers with accurate, unbiased guidance that informs consumer choice. But, whether it is the substances we prefer, how we entertain ourselves, what dietary habits we maintain, or how we pursue personal health, consumers ought to have the right to make decisions for themselves.
Consumer Freedom Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Blog
The market has spoken: Consumers define the relevant video market
Washington loves drama, and recent debates over video industry consolidation have delivered plenty – billions of dollars at stake, congressional theatrics, and political posturing. But…
Study
The Environment, the Law, Markets, and the Path Forward
Introduction The Pharos Foundation at Jesus College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, invited me to speak at an on-campus forum in May.
Blog
Red tape, green bribes: Deregulation as an anti-corruption strategy
Corruption in politics is often thought of in narrower terms, such as bribes, kickbacks, or high-profile scandals with millions of dollars of fraud. However, political…
Search Posts
Blog
FDA’s Salt Phobia a Waste of Money
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last week plans to phase in “voluntary” reduction in the level of sodium in foods produced by manufacturers and…
The Hill
Green Group’s Unscientific Attack on Soap
NRDC claims that triclosan, the active ingredient in antibacterial soaps, disrupts human thyroid functioning, but that assertion is based on a shoddy study in which…
Blog
One Year Later: TSA Still Flouting the Law on Body Scanners
CEI Research Associate Matthew La Corte contributed to this article. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses more than 700 full-body imaging scanners in 160 airports nationwide.
Blog
Distracted by Paranoia, Obama Administration to Regulate Map Apps?
A story in The New York Times is making the rounds about an Obama administration proposal to clarify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) authority to…
Blog
Good News and Bad News about Honeybees
News stories related to honeybee health the past few weeks are all over the map. Some headlines claim that new research proves that honeybees are…
Blog
Friday June 6th: Have a Doughnut for Freedom
Do you know what today is? If you said D-Day, you’d be right. But this year, June 6 also marks another, less well known occasion.
Blog
House Intel Committee Chair Ignores Report Calling NSA Surveillance Illegal
At a recent event titled “A Statesman Forum on Cybersecurity Policy and Diplomacy” at George Washington University, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)…
Blog
Are My Ten Thousand Command “Mints” to Be Regulated?
The Food and Drug Administration FDA wants to regulate serving size of breath mints. That's right. This rule was issued March 2014:…
Washington Times
Inflamed Debate Over A Soda Additive
A recent announcement by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo that these companies are pulling the ingredient brominated vegetable oil (BVO) out of their soft drinks is no big…
Blog
Reihan Salam’s Argument for Alcohol “Prohibition Lite” Doesn’t Hold Water
In Slate recently, Reihan Salam argued that as America eases up on the criminalization of marijuana use it ought to consider ramping up the war…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 29, 2014: Rachel Was Wrong
Seeing as Carson's book set malaria prevention back decades, CEI Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini thinks there are other figures more deserving of such tributes.
Blog
No, Gov. Perry, a Ban on Internet Gambling Won’t Protect the Internet or Individual Freedom
In an attempt to save face, Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to justify his support for a federal online gambling ban by claiming that it’s the…
Blog
Punishment First, Trial Later, or Never: The Education Department’s Investigation of Tufts University
Imagine if you could be expelled from your dorm, or a class, just because someone accused you of something -- even if the accusation was…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: The Federal Government “Eats” 31 Percent Of The U.S. Economy
This is Part 6 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
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Red Tapeworm 2014: Regulations Cost More than Federal Income Taxes
This is Part 5 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
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Red Tapeworm 2014: Regulations Catching Up to Government Spending?
This is Part 4 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 14, 2014: Federal Ban on Online Gambling?
CEI Fellow Michelle Minton discusses why a federal ban on online gambling would be counterproductive.
Blog
European “Right to Be Forgotten” Eats Free-Speech Rights of Google and Its Users’ Rights Too
In America, you can't invoke a "right to be forgotten" to suppress other people's speech on newsworthy (or even not-so-newsworthy) topics, as court rulings like…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Tardy Bureaucrats Gone Wild
This is Part 2 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Guess Which Is the Largest Government on Earth?
This is Part 1 of a new series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An…
Blog
California’s Latest Anti-GMO Push
Two years ago, voters in California narrowly defeated Proposition 37 , a ballot initiative that would have required labeling of most --…
Blog
Operation Choke Point Targets Porn and Firearms, Potentially Violating the Constitution
In Operation Choke Point, the Justice Department is targeting lawful industries with investigations designed to inflict economic pain and…
Blog
Regulate-First-Think-Later Approach to Harm Honeybees
European bureaucrats placed a two-year ban on a class of pesticides in the name of “protecting honeybees” when in fact, as one EU official recently…
Blog
Obama Administration Attacks Cross-Examination and Due Process Rights in Campus Guidance
Justice Brandeis once observed that “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.” However…
Blog
Republican Internet Gambling Ban Undermines States’ and Individual Rights
Despite rhetoric that we need to “restore” the Federal Wire Act in order to protect states’ rights, Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that…
Blog
Driverless Cars, Innovation, and Regulation: Let’s Not Mess it Up
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in Google’s self-driving car. (Photo by Marc Scribner) For the past several years, I’ve been…
Blog
Pseudoscience and Clickbaiting Results in Beer Fear
There’s a lot of pseudoscience about food out there. From genetically modified crops to organic foods to corn syrup, to preservatives, passionate opinions abound, but…
Study
Self-Driving Regulation
Leonardo da Vinci first sketched the design for a self-propelled cart in the late 15th century. In 2010, Google announced its fleet of self-driving cars…
Blog
Victory for Maryland Parents and Consumers: Energy Drink Ban Voted Down
A bill that would have banned the sale of energy drinks for minors in Maryland was recently voted down in committee almost unanimously. The…
Heartland Institute
Bill Would Force Florida Brewers to Pay Distributors for Their Own Beer
Michelle Minton, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Fellow who specializes in alcohol regulation, said although all the states but Washington have a “three-tiered” system for alcohol…
Blog
Encouraging News about Honeybee Health
A recently released study in Europe reports some good news about honeybee health, which should prompt public officials to reexamine a recent ban on…
Blog
Unconstitutionally Overbroad New Jersey Anti-Bullying Law Challenged; Reference To “Head Lice” Deemed “Bullying”
New Jersey's anti-bullying law, which applies to the state's schools and universities, is so overly broad that a fourth-grader was punished just for…
Blog
Pompeo-Butterfield Food Labeling Bill: Valuable But Needs Work
Earlier today, Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) introduced a bill in the House that would establish federal standards for the labeling of…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 9, 2014: A Consumer’s Guide to Chemical Risk
Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini talks about her new Consumer's Guide to Chemical Risk.
Blog
Professional Licensing: A Risk to the Free Markets and Freedom of Speech
From physicians to dentists to lawyers, the licensing requirements of many professions are well known—but for bloggers? A recent case in North Carolina demonstrates the…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 3, 2014: Clean Air Act Costs and Benefits
Senior Fellow William Yeatman is skeptical of an EPA report claiming the Clean Air Act will have nearly $2 trillion in annual benefits by 2020.
Blog
Is the Stock Market Really Rigged?
Everyone seems to be jumping into the debate about high-frequency trading, now that Michael Lewis is peddling his new book, Flash Boys. Lewis contends…
Blog
Consumer’s Guide to Chemical Risk
Will these chemicals make me fat? That sounds like a weird question, but some consumers may actually have such worries, thanks to a constant barrage…
Study
A Consumer’s Guide to Chemical Risk
A constant barrage of news headlines suggests that synthetic chemicals—even some naturally occurring ones—are responsible for nearly every public health problem imaginable, sowing fear and…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Bionic Eyes
You won’t see the glory of human achievement if you abide by the World Wide Fund for Nature's recommendation that you spend an hour…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day from HumanProgress.org: Organ Replacement Technology
We are only three days away from Human Achievement Hour (March 29, 8:30pm to 9:30pm)! What better way to celebrate than with a post from…
Blog
How Matt Drudge (and Other Obamacare Victims) Can Escape the “Liberty Tax”
Former Competitive Enterprise Institute Research Associate Michael Mayfield provided invaluable assistance with this post. Matt Drudge's widely discussed…
Blog
Beekeeper Speaks Out against Anti-Pesticide Campaigns
Anyone worried about honey bee survival should read the piece by Canadian beekeeper Lee Townsend in the Guelph Mercury newspaper. In recent years, beekeepers have…
Blog
JAMA’s Dangerous Hype: BPA and Cash Register Receipt Research Letter
This month’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) contains a “research letter” on a “study” conducted by researchers at Harvard…
Blog
The Bizarre, Slanted Coverage of Arizona’s SB 1062
Yesterday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have made clear that the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) applied not…
Baltimore Sun
No One Cards At Starbucks
In Maryland, as in other states, consumers need to show ID when buying alcohol or tobacco products. Energy drinks could be added to that list…
Blog
GW’s Entrepreneurship and Crowdfunding Barriers to Today’s Revolutionary Entrepreneurs
Happy Washington’s birthday, everyone! Although the holiday was on Monday, George Washington’s actual date of birth is tomorrow, February 22, in the year 1732. And…
Blog
West Virginia Chemical Spill and Formaldehyde Hype
In this final post on my series related to the January 9 chemical spill in West Virgina, I address wrongheaded claims that the spill…
Blog
Uncertainty and the West Virginia Chemical Spill
In the aftermath of the January 9 chemical spill in West Virginia, environmental activists claim: "More than two weeks after the spill, the answer…
Blog
TSCA Reform Won’t Reduce Chemical Spill Risks
The January 9 chemical spill in West Virginia, which temporarily contaminated the Charleston drinking water supply, has rekindled a debate related to federal chemical regulation.
