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
California’s $20 fast food worker minimum wage a regressive tax
California’s new $20 an hour minimum wage for fast food restaurants has turned into a regressive tax on the state’s low-income residents. People who wanted…
Blog
FDA makes lab test power play
The Food and Drug Administration has just released its long anticipated final rule that explicitly asserts its claim of authority to regulate laboratory-developed-tests (LDTs)—tests that are designed, manufactured,…
Blog
Department of Energy is coming after our light bulbs – again
We have already said goodbye to the incandescent light bulb, thanks to federal regulations. Will its replacement be next? Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency regulations…
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Spectator
Go Meat!
Blog
New CEI Podcast — October 21, 2010: Relic of Prohibition
CEI Director of Insurance Studies Michelle Minton analyzes proposals to privatize Virginia's liquor stores.
Blog
The Free Checking Restoration Act of 2011
“Free checking as we know it is ending,” says the lead paragraph of a widely-read and tweeted story this week from the Associated Press.
Blog
More Support for Privatization of Virginia Liquor Sales
Yesterday, the Virginia Retail Federation (the advocacy arm of the Retail Alliance and the Retail Merchants Association) came out in support of privatizing liquor…
Blog
Medical Trial and Error
The Atlantic has an interesting profile of medical researcher John Ioannidis, who famously concluded in a groundbreaking 2005 study that the scientific conclusions of most…
Blog
Poker and Private Property in South Carolina
In South Carolina, the fate of five men has hung in the balance for the last four years. They crime they have been accused of…
Blog
Of Mice and Men and Christine O’Donnell
A recent exchange between Christine O’Donnell and Bill O’Reilly, with a lack of scientific information on both sides. O’REILLY: Everybody knows that scientists have…
Spectator
Your tax dollars at work: EPA now funding propaganda videos telling kids juiceboxes are destroying the planet
Blog
A Republican Sweep Might Not Stop Online Gambling
Many analysts and pollsters are predicting a Republican sweep of the coming midterm elections in the House. While Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) seems untouchable,…
Blog
EPA Ozone Standard Would Destroy 7.3 Million Jobs, Study Estimates
A recent study by the Manufacturer’s Alliance/MAPI finds that EPA’s proposed revision of the “primary” (health-based) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for ozone (O3) would have…
Organic Wine Journal
Why Is Congress So Afraid of Mail Order Wine?
Organic Wine Journal
Why Is Congress So Afraid of Mail Order Wine?
Blog
Restricting What People Eat, Based on the Ignorance of Food Snobs
There are increasing calls for the government to restrict salty food and fast-food restaurants, and tax fast food, to curb obesity. This is especially true…
Organic Wine Journal
Ben Lieberman on consumer costs of regulations
CEI Senior Fellow in Environmental Policy Ben Lieberman explains how new environmental regulations for household appliances will end up costing consumers more money. These increased…
Blog
Food vs. Fuel? Part Deux
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture lowered its estimate on yields from 2010 corn crops to 12.7 billion bushels for 2010…
Blog
Top Scientist Calls “Scam” Geron Human ESC Experiment
To much celebration and media play, the first human trial of embryonic stem cells has begun. With a grand total so far of one…
Blog
McDonald’s 6-Month-Old Burger is a Triumph, Not a Terror
To prove a friend wrong, New York artist Sally Davies left a happy meal out on her counter for six months. Yesterday, several media…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 152: Locking Your Car Door
The government of Bucks County, Pennsylvania plans to issue $25 fines to people who forget to lock their cars.
Organic Wine Journal
Browse More Videos Ben Lieberman on Government Regulations
Senior Fellow in Environmental Policy Ben Lieberman discusses the extent of federal regulations in our daily lives.
Overlawyered
Bucks County, PA plans to ticket people who forget to lock their cars
Blog
If You Like Your Health Plan, You May Lose It Anyway
Another major employer, 3M, has decided to “eventually stop offering its health insurance plan to retirees, citing the federal health overhaul as a factor.”…
Blog
Supreme Court Is Neither Pro-Business Nor Conservative
The Supreme Court is not a particularly conservative court. It rules against businesses more than the lower federal courts do, and its rulings have overturned…
Blog
Virginia ABC Store Privatization: Improving Plan, Dimming Political Support
When Virginia’s governor Bob McDonnell’s unveiled his plans for privatizing the state-run liquor sales system nobody was terribly thrilled. The plan’s basic outline (as I…
Blog
Obamacare May Force McDonald’s to Drop Health Coverage for Employees
Michelle Malkin points out that “McDonald’s has notified the feds that it may be forced to drop health insurance for some 30,000 workers due…
Cigar Magazine
No Smoking in the Castle
Full Document Available in PDF Firsthand. Secondhand. Thirdhand. Are these rounds in a poker game? Different degrees of gossip reliability? Various…
Cigar Magazine
Dare We Mandate a Gender Balance Quota?
Full Document Available in PDF Support for diversity on corporate boards has…
Blog
Sugar Program Opponents Stake Out Their Position
Sugar producers got a sweet deal in the 2008 Farm Bill. Now, with the next bill scheduled for 2012, some opponents of the U.S. sugar…
Products
Uncle Sam Wants to Cuddle
We have heard much recently about the “Europeanization” of America, particularly in the context of socialized health care or expanded environmental regulation. Yet few have…
Blog
Wholesale Special Interest Manipulation
Sometimes politicians say things so dumb that no one could have made them up. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told the Salt Lake City…
Blog
Science Credibility Flu Away – At Least in Europe
Throughout the phony flu pandemic I warned that health officials would lose credibility because basically everything they were telling us was false and, unlike…
Blog
22,000 Lose Their Health Insurance Due to Obamacare
Approximately 22,000 senior citizens just lost their health plan with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which dropped its Medicare Advantage Program due to “cuts in…
Cigar Magazine
Why Is Congress So Afraid of Mail Order Wine?
The quest by wine and beer wholesalers to maintain their “middleman” role within the liquor industry is simply bad news. A bill making its way…
Blog
Not Wright for Internet Gambling
Some Net gamblers are lamenting the indictment of California State Senator Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) who was indicted by a grand jury for alleged voter…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 151: Water Heaters
The EPA recommends setting your water heater to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. But OSHA recommends setting it to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Why the difference?…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Congress Should Liberate to Stimulate
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features John Berlau's debate with Heather Boushey from the Center for…
Blog
CEI Podcast – September 23, 2010: The Frankenfish Myth
CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko, author of The Frankenfood Myth, talks about the promise and imagined peril of genetically modified salmon.
Blog
GOP “Pledge to America” Includes Constructive Reg Reform
The House Republican “Pledge to America” unveiled today has been criticized by RedState’s Erick Erickson and other center-right pundits for a lack of specifics.
Blog
America: Land of the Free?
Prior to arriving in America I imagined this country as being the land of the free. But somehow, it turned out this was a wrongly…
Blog
Insurers Drop Children’s Health Insurance Due to Obamacare
Insurers have stopped writing children-only health insurance policies due to mandates in Obamacare that ignored basic principles of economics. So if…
Blog
Distracted Driving Kills, But What About Dysfunctional Policy?
The Obama administration, having succeeded in bringing about economic recovery and having nation-built a democratic Afghanistan, has set its sights on another pressing…
Blog
General Motors Now Admits It Didn’t Repay Bailout Money
Contrary to its claims in TV ads earlier this year, General Motors has now admitted that it did not repay…
Study
BONG HiTS 4 JESUS: The First Amendment Takes a Hit
Full Document Available in PDF…
Blog
Insurance Regulators Approve Increases Based on Obamacare
In Connecticut, insurance rate regulators have approved hikes in insurance premiums of up to 20 percent, agreeing with insurers that…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 150: Toy Guns
Samuel Burgos is 8 years old. One day he brought a toy gun to school in his backpack. That got him expelled from his Miami…
Blog
San Francisco’s Mayor Opposed to Alcohol Tax
It isn’t often that we get to praise politicians, but cheers to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who vowed to veto plans for an…
Blog
One Cheer for Obama Tax Plan, with Plenty of Caveats
President Obama’s new economic recovery plan, coming more than a year-and-a-half after an infusion of $1 trillion in big-government spending failed to “stimulate” the moribund economy, deserves…
Blog
VA Liquor Privatization Bought with Higher Taxes?
Free marketeers in the Commonwealth of Virginia waited with high hopes after Governor Bob McDonnell made the announcement that he planned to privatize state-run…
Blog
Regulation of the Day Update: Ladies’ Night Bar Specials
Attorney Roy Den Hollander think ladies' nights are unconstitutional. So he sued several bars.
Blog
You Were a Sucker If You Were Responsible, Thrifty, and Saved Money for a Down Payment
The Obama administration will launch today a new $14 billion program to bail out some people who are underwater on their mortgages. During the…
Cigar Magazine
Private Sales Don’t Increase Drinking
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Regarding “Police Concerned Over Privatizing Liquor Stores”: The fear of law enforcement agents that privatizing liquor sales will result in increased underage drinking,…
Cigar Magazine
Land based casinos should love online gambling
A heated battle is brewing between thousands of online poker players and California’s largest land-based casino. It began in July when Commerce Casino Vice President…
Blog
Record Federal Spending Increase Due to Wasteful Spending Like the Failed Stimulus Package
Federal domestic spending increased by a record 16 percent this year, thanks to wasteful spending by the Obama administration, such as its “huge economic…
Blog
Antibiotics and Meat DO Mix
Whether you’re talking about human or animal use, banning beneficial uses today can have negative impacts on human and animal health just as surely as…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Post-Spill Moratorium Worse than the Spill
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in…
Blog
Obama’s EPA: School Marms R Us
The Obama Administration’s EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSHA) are proposing new rules “labeling each passenger car with a government letter grade from A…
Blog
Federal Regulators Making Laundry More Costly And More Dingy
In a classic case of a government solution in search of a problem, Washington has for years set energy efficiency standards for home appliances. By…
Cigar Magazine
Greg Conko on Salmonella and Eggs
Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Gregory Conko discusses the concern over salmonella and eggs. He explains why people do not need to panic.
Blog
Fret Over Smoking on “Mad Men”?
“Desperate Housewives” star Kathryn Joosten made a bit of news this week complaining about cigarette smoking portrayed on AMC’s hit TV series “Mad…
Blog
Sugar in the News Again
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s September 2010 issue of its magazine, “Amber Waves,” has an excellent article on the U.S. domestic sugar program –…
Cigar Magazine
Seeking Food Safety, Getting Human Harm
Congress is set to consider a food-safety bill when it returns from the August recess. But the bill has so far stalled because of…
Rational Review
Why Republicans Should Favor Legalized Internet Gambling
Blog
GM IPO Buyers Beware: Filing Asserts Exemption from Anti-fraud Laws
General Motors filed paperwork last week to launch its much-anticipated initial public offering. It could be the biggest IPO in U.S. history, raising up to $20 billion,…
Blog
When TSA Agents Attack
For most people, the TSA is merely an annoyance. For Kathy Parker, it was something far more serious.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 148: Cutting Grass in Cemeteries
In the world of regulation, no good deed goes unpunished.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 147: Breathing Fire
Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern in Herndon, Virginia has fire-breathing bartenders. Two of them are facing 45 years in prison for fire code violations.
Blog
Fannie-Freddie White House Sham Summit Produces Short-Sighted Solutions
After ramming through a “financial reform” bill that increases government controls on such “ants” (hat tip to House Minority Leader John Boehner’s comments–distorted by the press–in full context) as orthodontists…
Rational Review
Civil Rights Division Pursues Wacky Radical Agenda (Letter to the Editor)
It was extremely depressing to read that the Obama Justice Department blocked Amazon from selling a talking Kindle reader because its “talk” button doesn’t have…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 146: Airplane Child Seats
The NTSB wants to throw away 50 lives to save an estimated 1 or 2 lives.
Blog
Yandle: Everyman’s Deficit
Clemson University economist Bruce Yandle has published a new paper that compares the federal government’s spending habits with that of the average family. Yandle…
Blog
Government Spends Billions Bailing Out Foreign Firms and Countries, and Replacing American Jobs With Foreign Green Jobs
Our government spent as much money bailing out foreign firms as some countries spent on stabilizing their entire financial system. Much of the money…
Blog
Government-Sanctioned Lying and Reparations Increase National Debt: The Pigford Class Action
There are only 36,697 black farmers in the entire country, but in a class-action lawsuit, more than 86,000 African-Americans claimed to have suffered…
Rational Review
Why Republicans Should Favor Legalized Internet Gambling
The House Financial Services Committee recently approved the Internet Gambling, Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act introduced by Chairman Barney Frank. If passed and signed…
Blog
Financial “Reform” Harms Farmers, While Leaving Corrupt Government-Sponsored Mortgage Giants Unreformed
Farmer Betsy Jensen explains how the so-called financial “reform” bill signed by President Obama will harm agricultural markets, and thus farmers, in today’s New…
Blog
Why Mortgage Giant Freddie Mac Is Getting a Bailout: Costly Obama Policies and Giveaways
Earlier, I wrote about mortgage giant Freddie Mac’s demand for $1.8 billion more in bailouts. Why does it still need more bailout money, when…
Blog
Government-Sponsored Mortgage Giant Seeks $1.8 Billion More in Bailouts
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac is seeking $1.8 billion more in bailouts from the federal government. This mortgage giant, and its sister company, Fannie Mae,…
Blog
Obama Justice Department Uses Americans with Disabilities Act to Harm the Disabled, Risk Lives, and Undermine Safety
“Amazon.com . . . tried to sell a talking Kindle reader, but” the Justice Department “said it couldn’t because the button to make the…
Game Pro
Is Net Neutrality Good for Gaming?
Blog
Elena Kagan Confirmed, 63-37, for Supreme Court; Divided Senate Approves Nomination in Partisan Vote
The Senate has voted 63-to-37 to confirm Elena Kagan as the next Supreme Court justice. Click here for details. The vote…
Blog
Fumento on Neil Cavuto tonight on Toyota
I’m scheduled to be the lead guest on Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Channel at 6pm tonight. Subject: The news that NHTSA is withholding…
Blog
“Mom Who Starved Son Praised by Judge”
That’s the headline from the Associated Press. A Baltimore mother got nothing more than a suspended sentence for starving her 1-year-old son to…
Blog
Missouri Voters Overwhelmingly Reject ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate in Referendum
“Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political…
Jacob Grier
Markets are for Consumers
Blog
Left-Wing Politician Faces Ethics Charges for Improperly Using Influence to Aid Bank
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is facing ethics charges after she improperly used her influence to get special favors from regulators, and costly taxpayer bailouts,…
Blog
Paycheck Fairness Act Would Mandate Equal Pay for Unequal Work
The Obama administration wants to force employers to pay some people equal amounts for doing unequal work, through a deceptive bill known as the Paycheck…
Blog
Judge Lets Virginia Challenge ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate, Refusing to Dismiss Lawsuit
A federal judge in Virginia has allowed the state’s lawsuit challenging the federal individual health care mandate to proceed: “A judge on Monday…
Las Vegas Review Journal
Coming In This Week’s Business Press
Blog
In defending Kagan, Media Matters embraces Bush Justice Department
Well, who woulda thunk it?! George W. Bush’s Justice Department is now considered a citadel of wisdom by the legal eagles at the liberal Media…
Newsletter
Online Gambling, Offshore Drilling and the Complexity of Obamacare
The House Financial Services Committee passes the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. Today the House of Representatives will vote on an energy…
News Release
House Takes Baby Steps on Internet Gambling Reform
Washington, D.C., July 30, 2010—This week the House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, originally introduced…
Blog
A tort reform advocate’s dream, my article in Forbes.com
It’s a tort reform advocate’s dream–meaning a defendant’s worst nightmare. As I write in my Forbes.com article, “California Trial Lawyers Find A Geezer Goldmine,”…
Las Vegas Review Journal
Should Internet Gambling Be Legalized?
The question isn’t should gambling online be legalized, but rather, does the federal government have the authority to criminalize the activity? The answer is: no.
Blog
Jim Hood: Another of the Nation’s Worst State Attorneys General
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has a truly awful record, as today’s Wall Street Journal notes, citing his links to trial lawyers who tried…
Newsletter
Campaign Finance, Alcohol Regulation and Underage Senior Citizens
Senate Democrats lose a key vote on the DISCLOSE Act, a bill to regulate campaign finance spending. Congress is considering a bill that would allow…
Lake County News
Groups Call Alcohol Regulation Bill An Affront to Consumer Freedom’
Blog
Coalition Letter: Wine and Spirits Bill Affont to Consumer Choice
Today, CEI sent a letter to all members of Congress regarding H.R. 5034. This is the bill that would allow states to impose a…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 144: Underage Senior Citizens
Bob Russ is 66 years old. He was denied entry to the Oregon Brewer’s Festival because he lacked a valid photo ID to prove he…
Letters
Groups Call Alcohol Regulation Bill “An Affront to Consumer Freedom”
Full Document Available in PDF Washington, D.C., July 27, 2010 — Today a coalition of nonprofit and consumer groups sent a letter…
Blog
America’s Worst State Attorney Generals Exposed; Consumers and Businesses Ripped Off
The nation’s worst state attorney generals use lawsuits as a weapon to redistribute billions of dollars from businesses and consumers to their wealthy trial-lawyer friends…
Pokerati
Tea Party Conservatives Support Efforts to Quash UIGEA
News Release
Free Market Groups Urge Reform of Internet Gambling Law
Washington, D.C., July 26, 2010—Today a coalition of free market organizations, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, released a joint letter to Congress regarding upcoming legislation…