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
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…
Blog
The Hidden Costs of Health Care Reform: “Obamacare Is A Budgetary Disaster”
The health care bills backed by President Obama will cost $2.3 trillion, not the $900 billion Obama claims, and will be a “…
Blog
It’s not just “Big” “Fat” “Rich” “Foreign-owned Toyota” that’s suffering
Toyota owners, every time there’s a new sensationalist headline or a congressman spouts more demagoguery regarding your make of car, the value drops. Last…
Blog
Psychology behind denying driver error with sudden acceleration
I just came across this from a November article in the Los Angeles Times. Richard Schmidt, a former UCLA psychology professor and now an…
Blog
Obama’s Policies Will Increase National Debt by $9.7 trillion, Says Congressional Budget Office
“President Obama’s policies would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. . .The 10-year…
Blog
Can a “runaway Toyota” be stopped with the brakes?
There have been many driver claims that they tried using the brakes but it couldn’t override the engine at the full throttle into which alleged…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 123: Donating Blood
If you’re gay, you can’t donate blood. It’s illegal. Rather than screening donors for sexual preference, they should be screened for blood-borne diseases. Straight people…
Newsletter
The Fed, Homeschooling, and Sport Gambling
After many congressional attempts to limit the power of the Federal Reserve, some senators are now moving to give more power to the Fed. A…
Blog
The “Toyota Defense” to manslaughter
This was inevitable. CNN reports that one Koua Fong Lee, serving an eight-year prison term for killing three people when his 1996 Toyota smashed…
Blog
Toyota’s sudden acceleration problem suddenly accelerates again
Yes, I know I wrote a blog with a similar title but this is new. I previously noted that in December the National Highway…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: January – February 2010
To view this issue of the CEI Planet, please click here to download the PDF file. Below are selected articles from the January-February 2010 issue: …
Blog
Regulation of the Day 120: Fish Tanks in Barbershops
In Tenneessee, it is illegal for barbershops to have fish tanks. That could change as soon as today, though.
Citation
Contrasting Concurrences of Clarence Thomas: Deploying Originalism and Paternalism in Commercial and Student Speech Cases
Blog
Ralph Nader’s shocking solution to the Toyota “problem”
The answer to the problem of Toyotas running amok, says Ralph Nader in a Los Angeles Times op-ed today? Choose one response: 1. More…
Blog
Disturbing parallels between the Toyota hysteria and the Audi 5000 debacle
Toyota stands accused of 34 sudden acceleration incidents over the last 10 years that are “linked to” or “associated” with fatalities, a figure that in…
Blog
The Internet as medical diagnostic tool scores again!
I was having extreme itching in my toes that I’ve never experienced before. I reconstructed the circumstances under which it arose, plugged them in, and…
Blog
In-Flight Wi-Fi: Security Threat?
An article in this month's Infotech & Telecom News on a TSA proposal to ban in-flight wi-fi quotes me at length. Here's what I had…
Blog
Conning the can makers regarding bisphenol A
A Washington Post A1 article, “Alternatives to BPA containers not easy for U.S. foodmakers to find,” makes the case very nicely. The plastic hardening…
Heartland
TSA Rules Threaten In-Flight Technology Use
Blog
Regulation of the Day 117: Hot Dogs
The AAP says hot dogs are a choking hazard for children. According to the data, Little Timmy is literally more likely to be struck by…
Blog
Dangerous Green Hysteria May Impact Food Safety
According to a story in today’s Washington Post, food and packaging companies are having a difficult time trying to find and employ alternatives to…
Opposing Views
Are Hot Dogs Really at “High Risk” of Killing Kids?
Hot dogs are delicious. Especially if you don’t think too hard about what they’re made of. Kids love them. So do adults. With baseball’s spring…
Blog
Credit CARD Act penalizes thrift and entrepreneurship; interchange fee controls would compound harm to consumers
Today, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 goes into effect. While the law, passed last May, is being hailed as…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 116: Doodling on Desks
Alexa Gonzalez, 12, was arrested and put in handcuffs for writing "I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 :)" on her…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 115: Pancake Races
The secret to winning is to cross the finish line before your opponents do. That usually means running. The problem is that sometimes, running violates…
Blog
One cheer for Obama on nuclear energy
Obama has done something right concerning nuclear energy; credit where credit’s due. But he also did something very wrong, which we’ll get to. The president…
Blog
Reason Prevails in Oregon
Oregon Senators this week have voted down regulations that could have led consumers to less safe, glass baby bottles. Three Democrats in the…
Blog
The Case for Sugar
Happy Valentine’s Day, from Salon.com! According to Salon’s well-timed interview with food expert Brian Wansink, sugar isn’t the absolute evil you’ve been told it…
Blog
Toyota “sudden acceleration deaths” suddenly accelerate
Predictably, in the wake of the media blitz about the alleged dangers of Toyotas suddenly accelerating, reports of fatalities linked (note: not “caused by”) such…
Blog
Bisphenol baloney takes another hit
In a provocatively entitled paper in the current issue of the prestigious journal Toxicological Sciences, Richard M. Sharpe asks “Is It Time to End…
Blog
Space, the final private frontier
Here’s a case for private space exploration in the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, if we can ever get rid of NASA and the FAA,…
Blog
Swine flu and heterosexual AIDS
About 57 million Americans, or something less than a fifth of the population, have contracted swine flu since April, the CDC says, of whom…
Blog
Pundits wiping “sneer” off Toyota’s face
Noteworthy is a tsk, tsk on page A1 of today’s Washington Post, “‘Toyota Way’ was lost on road to phenomenal worldwide growth.” More noteworthy…
Blog
Flu Report Feb. 12 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing
As the CDC’s FluView Web site puts it, “During the week of January 31 – February 6, 2010, most key flu indicators remained about…
Blog
Privatization in VA: Not as easy as ABC
As I wrote back in November at the Objective Standard’s blog (my colleague Ivan Osorio also wrote about the topic here), Virginia’s new…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 114: Unlicensed Fruit Candy
Department of Health inspectors seized, slashed open and poured bleach over thousands of dollars of local peaches, pears, raspberry and plum purees owned by pastry…
Blog
Government should spend nanodollars on nanotechnology.
At least that’s how my former colleague Tom Miller, now at the American Enterprise Institute, used to put it. Still another government/business funded report,…
Blog
Toyota Recalls Put into Context by Edmunds.com
Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, has obtained and reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaint database. A key finding:…
