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
The Washington Times
Retail industry projects surge in post-Christmas regifting and returns
The Washington Times quoted CEI’s expert on regifting in the retail industry The problem is that regifting ‘can suggest a certain laziness on the part…
Blog
Consumers benefit from access to Buy Now, Pay Later options
In a rapidly evolving retail landscape, with more and more commerce moving online, there has been a rise of financial technology (or fintech) tools. These…
Blog
Congressional lessons learned: Prioritize private risk capital investment
There is always a temptation for Congress to act during a lame duck session to show it is hard at work doing good for the…
Search Posts
Blog
Coming Soon: The Auto Purchase Mandate
As threatened, the new CAFE standards have arrived, with the EPA muscling in on territory reserved by statute to the Transportation Department. As Marlo Lewis…
Blog
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
“How a pit bull is like a Prius,” my Philly Inquirer article today
What could pit bulls possibly have in common with Toyotas? Pit bulls, after all, tend to be smaller and furrier. And whatever you do, never…
Blog
Republicans Will Lose Many Seats in Congress Due to Right-Wing Paranoia About the Census
Republicans will lose many seats in Congress due to right-wing paranoia about the census and refusal to fill out Census forms, gloats the liberal…
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
“Are some reporters lying in their Toyota coverage?” my Canadian Free Press article
I’ve shown clearly that reporters are acting with reckless disregard for the truth in the Toyota sudden acceleration feeding frenzy since my Los Angeles…
Blog
Gaia’s creator in The Guardian — science scandals, skeptics, and “a more authoritarian world”
In a lengthy interview in The Guardian yesterday, James Lovelock, scientist and inventor, prominent global warming advocate, and originator of the Gaia theory,…
Blog
On the Hill: Anti-Consumer Wine Shipping Regulations
You may have missed this news item, but recently the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy held hearings on alcohol regulation and the…
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
The things I endure to get a story!
If you think I was tough for embedding in Iraq’s meanest city a year after having my guts blown out in another part of…
Blog
“Why Do Toyotas Hate the Elderly? my article in Forbes Online
It was the Camry in a car wash nightmare. With her two grandchildren in the car, Doris Dresner went through the wash in Columbia, Mo.,…
Blog
“How Media Took Us For A Ride In A Prius,” my IBD piece
For three days, James Sikes held America’s highest honor: victim. The nation had been transfixed by his almost half-hour-long 94-mph horror ride in his runaway…
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…
New York Times
Calorie Data to Be Posted at Most Chains
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
Media falsely claiming CHP report backs Toyota Prius hoaxer’s claim
Over a week after I exposed the “Toyota Hybrid Horror Hoax” at Forbes. com, the press (as opposed to some TV networks, talk radio,…
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
Breaking the 3-Tier Bureaucracy
This week, Fermentation blogger Tom Wark rightly laments the three tier system that states use to regulate alcohol commerce. He notes: “the three-tier…
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
Is There No Adult Supervision at the Campaign for Liberty?
My colleagues brought to my attention this grossly misinformed, misleading, and error-laden essay on the Campaign for Liberty’s website. The main thrust of the piece…
Blog
Some U.K. government ads on global warming too scary
“Is global warming the new apocalypse?” asks The Times of London in an article focusing on children’s fears about global warming in the context…
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
My NYPost piece on “sudden acceleration” as an American phenomenon
“No other country in the world has comparable problems with cars accelerating on their own,” observes one of Germany’s top magazines, Der Spiegel — yet…
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
Be Careful What You Wish For…
For many years, the climate alarmist movement pushed the development of corn ethanol as the “fuel of the future” on the grounds that it would…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 127: Landscaping
Angelina and Quan Ha, of Orange, CA, ditched their water-hungry grass lawn in 2008 to save money and water. The city promptly sued them.
Blog
Washington Post spreading more misinformation on Prius hoax
The media are still resisting admitting that James Sikes’s Wild Ride was just another Balloon Boy Hoax, in which they played a vital role. Thus…
Blog
Dodd bill punishes Main Street entrepreneurs, rewards Fannie and other high rollers
With the focus this week on health care’s “home stretch” and concerns about government limiting the ability of ordinary Americans to make choices about medical…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 126: Cheese-Rolling Races
Cheese-rolling races have been held at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucester, UK since the 1800s. Until this year, that is. Health and safety regulators shut down…
Blog
Increase sugar imports and reduce prices
Today the front page of the Wall Street Journal published an article (subscription required) focusing on the current fight to increase the amount of…
Newsletter
ObamaCare, Alcohol Taxes, and Insurance Companies
David Brooks, who supported Obama in 2008, talks about the hidden costs of health care. Maryland legislators want to raise the tax on alcohol. Supporters…
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
Fumento scheduled for Today Show Monday AM on Prius Hoax
No guarantees! Starts at 7AM EST. Regarding my Forbes expose on the Prius Balloon Boy, James Sikes.
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
Video from my Prius hoax appearance with Neil Cavuto
I was on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox Business for five minutes yesterday regarding the Toyota Prius hoax. Personally I refuse to look at…
Blog
“Toyota Hybrid Hoax,” my piece in Forbes Online
Yes, you suspected it all along. Now I’ve proved it. Mr. Sikes’s wild ride was a fabrication. The only reason his accelerator was stuck…
Blog
MD Proposed Alcohol Tax Hikes Upward of 1,000 Percent
Despite their seeming love of big government, Maryland lawmakers have done one thing worthy of praise: they have has kept state alcohol taxes relatively low.
Newsletter
Salt, Chanel, and Cap-and-Trade
Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz introduces legislation to ban all salt-use in New York restaurants. Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld shows his “global warming-themed” fall-winter line for…
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
Human Achievement of the Day: Beam me up, Scotty?
Today’s achievement doesn’t quite put us on the final frontier, but the successful transmission of atoms via teleportation by scientists at the University of Maryland…
Blog
Obama Administration Rewards Corrupt Mortgage Giants, Punishes Productive Private Banks, Fleeces Taxpayers and Responsible Credit Cardholders
The Obama administration wants to increase taxes on productive banks that are self-supporting, while exempting the mortgage giants and other companies that got massive taxpayer…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 124: Kissing Your Girlfriend Good-Bye
How do we know the terrorists are winning? When a man kissing his girlfriend good-bye at Newark Liberty International Airport results in the evacuation of…
Blog
What does the public realize about the Toyota hybrid hysteria that the media are missing?
On YouTube you can view a news report regarding the Prius alleged runaway hysteria incident, complete with an excerpt from the 911 call James…
Blog
“Toyota Hysteria,” my LA Times piece today
As I write in today’s Los Angeles Times, the imagery of Toyotas running amok like something out of a Stephen King novel is simply…
Blog
Toyota stuck accelerator highway horror? Or highway hoax?
“On the very day Toyota was making a high-profile defense of its cars, one of them was speeding out of control,” according to CBS…
Blog
An even sweeter deal for United States Sugar
Big Sugar, in the guise of United States Sugar, is featured in a New York Times investigative article today that exposes the…
