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
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…
News Release
GDP report for third quarter indicates strengthened economy: CEI analysis
The GDP report for the third quarter of 2024 shows 2.8 percent growth, indicating a rapidly growing and healthy economy. While there is still…
Search Posts
Blog
We’re All Children Now
I propose the following rule: “Think of the children” rhetoric shall be reserved for those situations in which the author is not, in…
Blog
Krugman: Town Hall mobsters are probably racists and “birthers”
“The Town Hall Mob.” That’s the title of Paul Krugman’s opinion piece in the New York Times today – and it’s a doozy. In…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 28: Urine Trouble Now
Want to work for HHS? You’ll have to comply with approximately 32,463 words worth of regulations in the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing…
Citation
The Odium of Sodium
Blog
Regulation of the Day 27: Beekeeping in South Dakota
Beekeeping in South Dakota is illegal without a license.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 26: Fortune Telling in Maryland
You need a license to tell fortunes in Annapolis, Maryland.
Blog
Chuck Schumer: “We’ve Got to Stand Still”
High-frequency stock trading — the markets where sophisticated algorithms running on bleeding edge hardware trade assets using information only fractions of a second old —…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 25: Cattle with Scabies
If you own cattle and they are at risk of catching scabies, you may want to read up on the pertinent federal regulations. There are…
Blog
Frivolous Lawsuit Against Denny’s Over Salty Food
Denny's has never claimed that it serves only health-food, and nutrition facts about its food are available on its web site. But that hasn't…
Blog
FDA to Smokers: Drop Dead
The FDA is now moving towards banning a smoking alternative that could save many lives. Every year, millions of smokers like my wife try…
Op-Eds
Possible FDA Ban on E-Cigarettes is Wrong Move
The FDA is now moving towards banning a smoking alternative that could save many lives. Every year, millions of smokers like my wife try…
Op-Eds
Possible FDA Ban on E-Cigarettes is Wrong Move
The FDA is now moving towards banning a smoking alternative that could save many lives. Every year, millions of smokers like my wife try…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 24: The Width of Ladders
It is illegal for a portable metal ladder to have steps narrower than 12 inches.
Blog
Bonus pay bill: CBO predicts huge costs to private sector, broad swaths of employees affected
After the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculated the enormous costs of an all-encompassing health care scheme with a bloated public option, members of Congress…
Blog
Penn and Teller on Organics
The irreverent and hilarious comedians Penn and Teller have produced another episode of their television show Bullshit about organic foods. Friends of CEI, Ron Bailey…
Blog
Food Safety Bills Moving Through Congress
With all out attention diverted to the government's attempted takeover of the half of US health care that isn't already nationalized, the attempted destruction of…
Blog
The Challenge of Network Industries
“Network” industries such as electricity, air transport, telecommunication, freight rail, and internet services face a challenge with their competing flow and grid components. Flows are…
Blog
In Defense of Average Cost Pricing
Many industries in the modern economy are ridiculed for the financing strategies they employ. Only marginal cost pricing is defended as a legitimate practice. Yet…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 23: Texting While Driving
Texting while driving is both dumb and dangerous. But making it a crime won’t make people stop doing it. It will merely make more people…
Blog
Food Police Attack Denny’s Over Salt
It seems that the food police at the unconscionably named Center for Science in the Public Interest are at it again. Last week, CSPI filed…
Blog
Best Way to Curb Irrational Exurberance?
Zachary Goldfarb, a Washington Post staff writer, discusses (p. A10, “SEC Moves to Limit Short Sales of Stocks”) this SEC proposal – sympathetically. The article…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 22: Rhinestones
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, after much deliberation, has banned crystal rhinestones from children's products, despite no evidence of harm.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 21: Potato Research and Promotion
The Agricultural Marketing Service has a potato research and marketing plan, pursuant to the Potato Research and Marketing Act.
Blog
Getting the Health Care You Pay For
There was a good front page article in yesterday's Washington Post on the history of advances in medical science and technology. The conclusion: Although the…
Blog
Our Colleague Julie Called it “Subprime Healthcare”
I think that about sums it up.
Blog
Leave it to the Experts
Send your used light bulbs to Washington! They're the experts. They'll know what to do.
Blog
Obama Health-Care Plan Destroys Cheap Health-Care Options, Raises Taxes, Breaks Promises
In 2008, Obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. But he is now breaking that promise by…
Blog
Democrats Inconsistent on Senior Death Discount
White House health care policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel has explicitly endorsed adopting not only comparative-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis in the health care realm, but also…
Op-Eds
Congressional Hype About Bottled Water
The news is depressing these days as people fear losing their homes or jobs and worry about family members deployed in military operations overseas.
Blog
If you like FEMA, you’ll love federal health care, says Jindal
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal providing a succinct critique of the Democrats’ health care plan and offering…
Blog
“Libertarian paternalism”?
In Sunstein's latest book Nudge. . . he makes the case that people often make bad decisions, and a slight "nudge" can set things right…
Blog
“Farming” for dollars in the EU
Most of us knew that the European Union’s system of farm subsidies, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) gives out huge amounts to farmers in the…
Blog
E. coli Happens
This story in the San Francisco Chronicle just shows the insanity of the conventional wisdom these days advanced by greens and anti-corporate farmers. They…
Blog
Rep. McClintock and “California’s Meltdown”
CEI and the Pacific Research Institute recently co-hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on “California’s Meltdown” – the unprecedented combination of flawed economic, energy…
Blog
Conko letter in FT: “Nationalising healthcare flaws”
In today’s Financial Times, CEI Senior Fellow Gregory Conko responds to Clive Crook’s…
News Release
CEI Injects Suppressed EPA Global Warming Report into White House Science Proceeding
CEI Injects Suppressed EPA Global Warming Report into White House Science Proceeding Requests OSTP to Do More Honest Job…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: The Color of Stitches
The federal government regulates which colors may be used in surgical stitches.
Blog
Conko to Surgeon General pick: “Focus on Private Initiative, Not Government Controls”
CEI Senior Fellow, Gregory Conko, talks about the nomination of Surgeon General to be, Regina M. Benjamin.
Op-Eds
Obama Administration = Waste, Corruption, Corporate Welfare
Rapidly-rising Medicare spending already threatens “to crush the federal budget,” and much Medicare spending is wasteful, yet the Obama Administration claims it can somehow…
Blog
Fishy Politics May Harm US Consumers
The various US attempts to hobble the Vietnamese farmed-catfish industry is no less underhanded. And, in order to prevent a trade war with Vietnam, it…
Blog
Growing Young Statists
Gene Healy’s column in Examiner today chronicles the alarming statism and collectivism of today’s youth and tomorrow’s voters. The generation born from the…
Op-Eds
Overregulation on Tap
Dana Milbank’s July 9 Washington Sketch ["A Congressman With a Thirst for Truth"] on hearings on bottled water highlighted the absurdity of Washington policymaking.
Blog
Government health care monopoly–not in consumers’ interests
Regina Herzlinger, chair of Harvard Business School, in National Review takes on health care and the Obama Administration’s arguments that a government-run plan…
Blog
Leading trade lawyer: real problems with carbon tariffs
Leading trade lawyer Gary Horlick testified yesterday on carbon tariffs before the Senate Finance Committee. As the Senate prepares an energy suppression/global warming bill,…
Newsletter
Microsoft in Europe, GM Foods and the Political Crisis in Honduras
Microsoft and European Union officials hold talks over computer industry competition. Former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Val Giddings releases a blueprint for reforming the…
Blog
Igniting Agricultural Innovation
"Biotechnology applied to agriculture has enormous potential to enhance our ability to develop seeds for improved crops and for enhanced livestock to enable us to…
Blog
Blight Hits East Coast, Capitalism Saves the Day
There are many reasons for free-market advocates to be unhappy about current affairs. With numerous pieces of legislation being proposed to put shackles on our…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: The Size of Your Carry-On Bags
The Securing Cabin Baggage Act wouldn't add to security, wouldn't make flying more convenient, and may well be the result of rent-seeking.
Blog
DC Independence Day Tea Party: My Perspective
This weekend I was able to glean a different perspective when they asked me to deliver one of the speeches at the DC Independence Day…
Blog
More Risky, Low-Income Loans: Obama Asks Congress to Create a Harmful Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Banks will now be pressured to make even more risky, low-income loans. Obama has sent to Congress his proposal to create a politically-correct Consumer…
