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
NOTUS
EPA Eases Limits on ‘Super Pollutants,’ Claiming It Will Lower Food Prices
The Trump administration is loosening restrictions on “super pollutant” chemicals that are highly potent greenhouse gases, claiming that allowing their increased use will drive down…
Blog
Quartz tariffs are looming and your kitchen could pay the price
Earlier this week, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that increased quartz imports are injuring the domestic quartz industry. The petitioners, the Quartz…
Blog
Illiberalism: The bipartisan tradition
After experiencing the horrors of World War I and fearing a second World War could be imminent, Ludwig von Mises wrote Liberalism: The Classical…
Search Posts
Blog
General Motors Repays Tiny Portion of Taxpayers’ $50 Billion Bailout; Obama Backers Bash Critics of Bailout
President Obama’s tax-cheat treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, is trumpeting the fact that General Motors has paid back…
Blog
“Basic needs” need to be regulated, say Dems
Reason’s Ron Bailey, in an “I told you so” article today, points out that Senate Democrats are poised to support a bill that would…
Blog
Earth Day Agriculture and Sustainable Intensification
What’s the most sustainable way to grow the food we eat? The answer environmentalists give is always "local and organic." But, increasingly, the answer from…
Blog
The End of Anti-Discrimination Discrimination?
Affirmative action proponents face a battle this Monday when the Supreme Court hears Christian Legal Society vs. Martinez. The challenger argues that a…
Blog
Congressional Bill Threatens Direct Shipping of Wine
This week, the National Beer Wholesalers Association members descend on Washington for their annual legislative conference and lobbying visits to Congress. High on…
Blog
Food Fight Over a Living Relic of the Past
There’s an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today on a big new…
Blog
Food Safety Vote Threatens Food Safety
This week, the Senate may vote on an amendment to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act that could undermine the integrity of the U.S. food…
Blog
Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Depictions of Animal Cruelty
In an 8-to-1 ruling, the Supreme Court has struck down a ban on depictions of animal cruelty as a violation…
Blog
Pennsylvania’s perpetual prohibition
Philadelphians love our beer. Especially our little niche-serving craft-beers. The city of brewerly love has produced some of the countries best-loved brands and…
Newsletter
Salt Police, Pensions and Union Contracts
The FDA is launching a new initiative to limit the amount of salt in processed food. The White House task force on the middle class…
News Release
FDA Salt Initiative Leaves Bitter Aftertaste
Washington, D.C., April 20 – Statement of Daniel Compton, Policy Analyst, on the Food and Drug Administration’s plans to impose legal restrictions on the…
Blog
Hate mail from an M.D. regarding my AOL News piece, “Did WHO Knowingly Hype Swine Flu?”
Dear Mr. Fumento: Well, if you wish to destroy the credibility of the WHO, publishing a few more articles like the most recent one…
Blog
Trojan Horse Financial “Reform” Bill Enriches Goldman Sachs, Rips Off Taxpayers
The Obama administration and Congressional leaders are pushing a trojan-horse financial “reform” bill that would enrich the wealthy and powerful investment bank Goldman Sachs, which…
Newsletter
Stevens’ Legal Legacy, Goldman Sachs and Internet Gambling
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is retiring. The SEC is charging Goldman Sachs with securities fraud. Opponents of internet gambling are circulating a memo…
Blog
Justice Stevens Retires; Left-Wing Law Professor Nominated to Federal Appeals Court
Justice John Paul Stevens, the leader of the Supreme Court’s liberal bloc, is retiring. His most famous ruling is probably the 5-to-4 Kelo decision, which…
Blog
Online gambling opponents play the Abramoff card
Gambling as an activity for fun has been around since the dawn of human civilzation. When man first discovered fire, there were probably cavemen…
Blog
USDA may increase sugar quotas
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture may increase the import quotas for sugar to address a tightening supply…
Blog
Green Thumbs and GMOs
A friend just recommended this op-ed published in the Boston Globe on Sunday. The title and subtitle say it all: "Green Thumbs: Genetically engineered crops…
Op-Eds
Short-Sighted Ban Endangers Food Supply
This week, the Senate may vote on an amendment to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act that could undermine the integrity of the U.S.
Blog
Toyota’s “questionable, evasive, and deceptive legal tactics”
“Toyota has routinely engaged in questionable, evasive and deceptive legal tactics when sued, frequently claiming it does not have information it is required to turn…
Newsletter
Pub Restrictions, Tax Freedom Day and Turmoil in Kyrgyzstan
UK regulators are punishing pub owners for promoting happy hour specials and drinking games. April 9th is Tax Freedom Day, statistically the day Americans have…
Blog
Friday Regulation Roundup
It is illegal in Kentucky for anyone under 18 to play pool without photo ID and written parental consent.
Blog
Fannie and Freddie finally called to Crisis Commission
It is good that the commission, after several months, is finally visiting the role of Government-Sponsored Enterprises, but the setup of today’s hearing is still…
Blog
Rent Seekers Keep it Phony
Why does industry sometimes (all too often) support government regulation? You would think they would prize their freedom. But think again. Many businesses are willing…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 132: Fire Sprinklers
Cries for tax simplification grow every year. How does Congress respond? By introducing legislation to "amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to classify automatic…
Blog
U.S. avoids Brazil’s retaliatory tariffs — for now
With Brazil poised to retaliate against the U.S. for its cotton subsidies that were deemed unfair by the World Trade Organization, the two countries…
Blog
States Expand Gambling as Feds Attack It
Last week the Tax Foundation called attention to state initiatives to expand the lottery system. To cover lost revenues from the recession many states…
Blog
The BPA Myth – continued
I have an article today on both NRO and NPR about the environmental establishment’s continued war on science as it relates to the…
Op-Eds
The BPA Myth
On Thursday, April 1, Time published a list of the “ten most common household toxins,” focused on plastics. It claimed, “Chemicals in plastics and…
Blog
Nanny State Prevails on Maryland Wine Laws
Legislators in Maryland have disappointed the state’s wine lovers yet again by failing to pass a bill that would have allowed residents to receive wine…
Blog
D.C. area poll shows, once again, OTHER Americans are crummy drivers
Why are people killed in Toyotas? Because a huge number of Americans are killed by motor vehicles of all types and Toyota has been the…
Blog
CDC dumping swine flu vaccine – after media dumped the truth
What do you get from a phony flu scare? Among other things, lots of worthless vaccine. “Despite months of dire warnings and millions in taxpayer…
Blog
Car buyers rejecting “Toyota Terror” accusations
“Terror on the Roads: Runaway Toyotas,” was the title of an entry on a prominent Brazilian blog March 31. But today Toyota Motor Sales…
Blog
Menthol cigarettes aren’t cool to the FDA
In what could be one of its most paternalistic moves, the Food and Drug Administration is considering banning menthol in cigarettes – not because…
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…
