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
CFPB breaks its stranglehold over adjudications
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) just announced that it will revise its adjudication rules to ensure greater fairness. Specifically, the CFPB is rescinding…
Blog
Katie Porter’s exchange with CFPB’s Kraninger revisited amid new revelations
A recently surfaced clip of former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) has sparked a firestorm online. In a newly revealed 2021 video revealed published by…
Blog
The week in regulations: Poultry improvement and painful scars
The federal government shut down on Wednesday. Thursday’s Federal Register had 60 final regulations; normal is about 10. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew in hundreds…
Search Posts
Blog
Health “Advocates”: Tax And Regulate Responsible Drinkers
“Don’t just lean in, barge in,” said Rebecca Ramirez of Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health at the opening of the Alcohol…
Blog
Protectionist Law Proposed In New York Would Hit Wine Consumers Hardest
While most states are desperately trying to figure out ways to encourage business development and reduce the cost of consumer goods, New York is considering…
Forbes
Barack Obama’s BRAIN Initiative Vs. Bioengineered Gills And One-Wheeled SegWays
In a widely reported announcement, President Barack Obama outlined a major research initiative to map the human brain, building on…
Blog
CEI Podcast For March 28, 2013: The TSA’s Illegal Body Scanners
Despite a court order, the TSA is still dragging its feet on complying with the law. Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner has…
Blog
When The Nanny State Kills
The government told people to switch from saturated animal fats to unsaturated vegetable fats. But that advice may have killed a lot of people.
Blog
The Cancer Clusters That Weren’t
A recent post in ACSH Dispatch examines an interesting question: How likely is it that some U.S. communities have elevated cancer rates, a.k.a, "cancer clusters,"…
Blog
Vitter Amendment To Ban Drug Patent Settlements Would Raise Pharmaceutical Prices
With time running out for the Senate to act on a continuing budget resolution, members are trying to find some magic pot of money that…
Blog
Minnesota’s 300% Alcohol Tax Hike Will Hurt Consumers And Businesses
Politicians love to sell alcohol tax hikes as pennies on the drink that won’t really hurt anyone’s pocketbook, while helping to pay for the…
Blog
Rand Paul: No National ID System, Including E-Verify
E-Verify is the Internet-based national identification, which the Senate wants to impose on all workers and their employers. The system, as proposed by the White…
News Release
CEI Analyst on Court Overturning Soda Ban in NYC: “Sweet!”
WASHINGTON, Mar. 11, 2013 — A state judge in New York has struck down the ban enacted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on…
Blog
No, Hugo Chavez Did Not Improve Health Or Human Development In Venezuela
Reuters’ recent obituary for Venezuela’s anti-American strongman, Hugo Chavez, obscured the fact that he made life worse for his countrymen — worse, that is, than…
Blog
Human Achievement Of The Day: Using HIV To Cure Leukemia
The title of the Vimeo video below is “Fighting Fire with Fire,” which conveys fairly well what doctors from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and…
Blog
Capitalists Do It With The Lights On: Human Achievement Hour 2013
It’s that time of year again when we at the Competitive Enterprise Institute celebrate the innovative power of humanity and demonstrate our commitment to protecting…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: March 1, 2013
National: The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit to block Anheuser-Busch Inbev from taking full control over Negro Modelo. A few weeks later…
Blog
The Dangers Of Crying Wolf On BPA
Anyone with an interest in the science of bisphenol A (BPA)–a chemical used to make hard, clear plastics and resins that line food containers — should read…
Daily Caller
Beer market needs liberty, not lawsuits
The U.S. Department of Justice wants to protect your ability to buy cheap beer. At least, that’s what it’s claiming to do in its January…
Blog
National ID, By Itself, Violates Liberty
As I have pointed out over the past month and The Wall Street Journal’s Danny Yadron noted last week, many members of…
Human Events
Chicago Adults Could Be Forced to Give Up Energy Drinks
Are adults responsible enough to choose whether or not to consume energy drinks? Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke doesn’t seem to think so. He introduced…
Blog
CEI Podcast For February 21, 2013: The Wages Of Sin Taxes
CEI and the Adam Smith Institute have teamed up to publish a U.S. edition of Christopher Snowdon's study "The Wages of Sin Taxes." He argues…
News Release
Sin Taxes Fail to Tackle Sin, Report Finds
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 20, 2013—From alcohol to tobacco to sugary or caffeinated foods and beverages, price increases known as “sin taxes” that target politically incorrect…
National Review
Smearing the Tea Party with Taxpayer Money
You may be aware of a recent study that suggested that the Tea Party was founded by Big Tobacco. My colleague Hans Bader has been…
Huffington Post
National Cancer Institute Funds Tea Party Witch Hunt
What was the National Cancer Institute (NCI) thinking when it decided to spend $678,952 to fund a notorious political activist to conduct a "scientific" research…
Huffington Post
Secrecy surrounds company suing Consumer Product Safety Commission
“The public does not have a right to know everything. Records are sealed for many and various reasons, generally to protect the innocent,” said Fran…
Blog
Breast Cancer Victims Suffer From Foolish Priorities
In government, political priorities often supersede science and good health policy. In fact, a recent government report may shift funding away from useful research…
Huffington Post
Safety shouldn’t be NASA’s top priority
It has been a century since the Panama Canal was completed. It was the greatest transportation project of its time, made possible only by new…
Blog
Herbicide Poses No Cancer Risk In Drinking Water
Over the years, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have repeatedly issued bogus reports claiming that Americans…
Study
The Wages of Sin Taxes
In The Wages of Sin Taxes, Chris Snowdon reveals that sin taxes not only do little to limit the use of “bad” products, they do…
Blog
The New National Identification System Is Coming
“Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this joke, Ronald Reagan swatted down a national identification card -- or an enhanced Social Security…
Blog
Cancer Risks Unlikely From Foam Cups
Whatever happened to plastic foam coffee cups? Visit any to-go coffee shop and you will most likely only find paper cups that burn your…
Blog
Germs In Reusable Grocery Bags Can Prove Deadly
Cloth supermarket bags may be fashionable, but they can also prove deadly, according to a recent research paper published by the University of Pennsylvania…
Huffington Post
Lockheed Martin joins forces with Louisville-based Sierra Nevada in building Dream Chaser
Rand Simberg, a space analyst and adjunct scholar at the Washington, D.C.-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Sierra Nevada’s partnership with Lockheed gives it…
Blog
$180 Billion Wasted On Head Start; Progressives Seek To Ban Private Schools And Homeschooling
The Head Start program has now wasted $180 billion, but it has no lasting effect on student achievement. In the long run, children who…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: January 25, 2013
National: According to the Brewers Association, the trade group that represents smaller craft breweries, the Small BREW Act will be reintroduced in Congress in…
Blog
SEC’s White May Be All Right, But Cordray’s CFPB Still A Constitutional Catastrophe
Today, President Obama will send to the Senate two nominations for two key financial regulatory posts. Noting that both of the nominees subject to Senate…
Blog
Greens Complain About BPA-Free Products They Helped Spur
Anti-chemical environmental activists rarely consider the consequences of their policies. They demonize chemicals that have been used safely for decades and advance chemical bans…
Blog
TSA’s Body Scanner Shuffle Continues, Agency Still Flouts The Law On Body Scanners
A great deal of news coverage today has been given to the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) decision to remove backscatter X-ray strip-search machines from U.S.
Blog
Problematic Green Advice On Reusable Bottles
Environmental activists launched a campaign several years ago to demonize and promote bans on bottled water, suggesting that people find more “energy efficient” and…
Huffington Post
Beer Distributors Say Yes To Middlemen
The NBWA study comes less than a month after the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C. policy shop, launched a broadside against the…
Blog
Dumb And Dumber BPA “Science”
Rationalizations to support claims that the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) poses a real and serious health threat have gone from dumb to dumber! Even reputable…
Blog
Washington’s Liquor Privatization Did Increase Prices, But Also Selection And Availability
Since selling off the state-owned liquor monopoly, many Washington State residents have noticed an unfortunate development; despite what proponents of privatization promised, the cost of…
Blog
Mother Tackles Hype About Chemicals On “Stossel”
The Independent Women’s Forum’s Senior Fellow Julie Gunlock takes on hype related to bisphenol A and chemicals in general on Fox Business Network’s…
Blog
Qualified Mortgage Rule Is One Of Many Dodd-Frank Boots To Drop
The first thing that should be said about today's "qualified mortgage" rule is that it is just one of many new regulations the Consumer Financial…
Cato
The Ripple Effects of Flawed Agbiotech Regulation
The modern techniques of genetic engineering—also known as biotechnology, recombinant DNA technology, or genetic modification (GM)—offer plant breeders the tools to make old crop plants…
Blog
Alcohol Regulation Roundup: New Year Edition 2013
With a new year comes a new opportunity to take stock in our past endeavors and renew our goals for the future. While many a…
Blog
Feds Say Hybrid Electric Vehicles Too Quiet, Noisemakers Should Be Mandated
Green paternalists often gush about the great potential for hybrid electric automobiles to reduce negative externalities, or social costs, such as local air pollution and…
Blog
Basel III Cliff May Be Averted, But Dangers Still Loom For Main Street Banks
After numerous criticisms from U.S. community banks and lawmakers of both parties, the international committee in charge of the Basel III bank capital agreement…
Blog
Mice Study Questions BPA-Obesity Link
Science is a long-term process that only brings meaning when numerous, scientifically robust studies produce consistent results. But when it comes to politically loaded issues…
Cato
Alleged Conflict of Interest on FDA Tobacco Panel
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon has allowed a lawsuit seeking an injunction by R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard Tobacco to proceed against the Tobacco Products…
Blog
Wheels In Motion To Crush Chemical Innovation
Chemical industry groups say they want to "modernize" the nation's chemical law by applying reasonable reforms that would prevent states from passing a patchwork…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Montreal mulls requiring dogs to be bilingual, USDA regulates polydactyl cats, plus more.
