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
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…
Blog
The Senate housing bill’s road to socialism
In the last week of February, I expressed hope that members of Congress would “embrace free-market proposals to advance opportunities in the housing sector”…
Blog
No free lunch: Price controls won’t make groceries more affordable
When Americans go to the grocery store, they expect to find food and drinks. Lately, many are encountering something else: sticker shock. According to…
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Citation
Poker as a game of skill
Blog
A Gamer Win For Parenting
If you’ve followed my posts here at OpenMarket.org or at my personal site, you’re well aware of the fact that I…
Blog
Nationalizing the cars and bikes of rock collectors — Pending Omnibus land bill’s forfeiture provision has broad reach
At the same time there has been so much talk of government nationalization of troubled big banks, a bill quickly snaking through Congress would allow…
Blog
The Auto Bailout We Need
The automakers have come back for more taxpayer money, which is exactly what we warned would happen when the first bailout was granted…
Blog
UBS agrees to deal with the devil
I revoke my previous apology to the Swiss, and reiterate my previous disapproval. As evidenced by the…
Study
The Truth About Online Gambling
Michelle Minton explores why government shouldn't treat gambling as if we lived in the Old West.
Study
Poker as a Game of Skill
Full document available in pdf It’s two minutes before the cards are…
Newsletter
Bottled Water Wars, Stimulus Disaster and Offshore Oil
Activists urge local governments to enact policies opposing the sale of bottled water. The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops dramatically as President Obama signs a…
Blog
Null Government
Well, the Spendulus/Stimulus will be signed into law within minutes. We’ll soon learn that even this Leviathan-In-A-Box is only the beginning of the Age…
Study
Bottled Water and the Overflowing Nanny State
In her study Angela Logomasini's analyzes how misinformation about bottled water erodes consumer freedom…
Blog
What would it mean to have no “environmental footprint”?
Maybe to have no life. As this article over at the Ayn Rand Institute points out, the more “eco-friendly” you try to live, the…
Blog
“Spendulus” conference report has passed the House
But thought you might be interested in one congressman’s last-minute appeal to sanity. You, dear reader, are a person things are done to.
Blog
Wyeth v. Levine: Policy Arguments Regarding Preemption
The Wyeth v. Levine case presents a narrow set of facts in which the Food and Drug Administration had, for many years, known about the…
Blog
Preemption in Wyeth v. Levine: Broader Implications
The legal arguments of the parties, and the incremental approach typical of the Supreme Court, strongly suggest that the Court will issue a narrow legal…
Blog
Uber-Attorney Bert Rein to Guest Blog on Federal Preemption Case
Back in November, I wrote about the pending Supreme Court case Wyeth v. Levine, the decision in which will have a huge impact on the…
Blog
The Birthday of an Entrepreneur
February is an important month in the history of American commerce. In a few days will be the birthday of one of the country’s earliest…
Blog
What unlimited government means to you.
Ran across this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal piece that I thought I’d pass along. And this was before the Anti-Stimulus added…
Newsletter
Stimulus Upon Us, Lethal Wildfires Down Under and Satellite Radio Takes a Hit
Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress reach a deal to spend $789 billion in taxpayer money on “economic stimulus.” The death toll from wildfires in…
Blog
USDA Pushing EPA for More Ethanol in Gasoline
On Tuesday (Feb. 10), USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack urged EPA to increase the quantity of ethanol blended into gasoline from the current amount–10% ethanol per…
Blog
Environmental Policies Kill – Again!
One of the main themes of my book, The Really Inconvenient Truths, is that misguided environmental policies often lead to humanitarian and environmental disaster.
Blog
Geithner’s “bad bank” is a big bad idea: fix bad mark-to-market accounting instead
The Obama’s administration $1 trillion plus bank bailout plan — on top of the $800 billion stimulus that just passed the Senate — will explode…
Blog
Book-Banning, 21st Century Style
Remember the fuss when it was revealed that Sarah Palin had enquired about removing books from her town library? It would have been so much…
Blog
Dickie Scruggs Back in Court
But, alas, not as a litigator – the role that made him rich and famous – but as a defendant. According to Legal Newsline,…
Blog
Amid Recession, Congress Forces Thrift Stores to Close
According to statements from the National Association of Retail & Thrift Shops and the National Association of Manufacturers, a law designed to protect kids…
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Tilting at Food Safety Windmills
Unfortunately, as long as the world's food production system continues to be highly decentralized and fragmented, there will continue to be foodborne illness outbreaks like…
Blog
Why “doing nothing” is something really big: Stopping the Anti-Stimulus
Robert Higgs, he of the famous “ratchet effect” theory of government growth (up but never down in answer to a crisis), has…
News Release
Tobacco Settlement Challenge to Be Argued in Court
A lawsuit challenging the 46-state tobacco “Master Settlement Agreement” (MSA) will be argued today in federal district court in Shreveport, Louisiana, amid fresh reports of states misspending settlement…
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SEC penalty policy change could harm innocent investors
In one of her first actions as SEC chairman, Mary Schapiro announced today that she was getting rid of a policy that required SEC officials…
Blog
Smoke On in California?
A liberty loving person could almost applaud the proposed roll-back of anti-smoking legislation in, of all places, California. The city of Long Beach,…
Blog
Obama’s New Appliance Efficiency Mandates, Consumers Better Run For Cover
President Obama today announced that he is pressuring the Department of Energy (DoE) to speed up some long-delayed efficiency standards for appliances. His move…
Blog
Springsteen clashes with Obama advisor on Wal-Mart
In between playing at the Lincoln Memorial for Barack Obama’s inaugural concert and performing the half-time show last night at the Super Bowl, Bruce Springsteen…
Blog
English Arch-Druid wants to limit you to two children
Two children should be limit, says this British green “guru.” What makes him a guru? Saying outrageous things that others should do, but not…
Newsletter
A Plea for Bottled Water, Stimulus to Nowhere and Al Gore’s Venus Envy
Emergency officials in Kentucky put out the call for volunteers and donations of bottled water. Republicans leaders doubt that the federal stimulus spending bill will…
Newsletter
Green Stimulus, Bottled Water and Big Labor Infighting
Congress sets aside billions in the economic stimulus package for environmentally oriented energy and infrastructure projects. The New York Times’ “Freakonomics” column debunks the argument…
News Release
What’s Stupid About Bottled Water?
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Blog
Smoke for Me, But Not for Thee
Bars and restaurants here in Washington, D.C. have operated under a smoking ban for a little over two years now. As many bar owners…
Blog
Green Pork
In addition to tens of billions of dollars in the House stimulus bill for infrastructure and other projects to create jobs, there are also funding…
Blog
Stimulus to Hunger
Great. Now USDA head Tom Vilsack is saying the US ethanol industry needs to be protected in the borrow-and-spend bill, and beyond:…
Blog
Land of Liberty? No Longer in Belmont, California
I’ll confess that I’ve quietly applauded the spread of no smoking establishments. I don’t believe the government should ban smoking in restaurants, bars, and airplanes, but I’ve enjoyed…
Blog
Krugman is Wrong – Again!
Boy, that wacky Paul Krugman. The newly-crowned Nobel laureate (they should be allowed to wear a laurel wreath everywhere they go, so we’d know of…
News Release
CEI Unveils Agenda for Congress
Washington, D.C., January 26, 2009—With the incoming Obama administration and the opening of the new Congress, the House and Senate are…
Blog
Consumer Product Safety Law Backfires, Killing Thousands of Jobs
A consumer-product safety law recently passed by Congress will drive up the price of children’s clothes and toys and put thousands of small toymakers…
Blog
Waste Not, Want Not … Or Else!
The British government is looking after its people, in a motherly sort of way. It plans to send government officials door-to-door to tell people not to…
Blog
Milton Friedman counters Kennedy inaugural–and Obama’s
Before President Barack Obama gave his inaugural address, it had been reported that he was heavily studying John F. Kennedy’s speech at…
Blog
The Daddy Knows Best Inaugural Address
Fatal conceit alert! Here’s the text of the Inaugural Address, with some comments from your humble servant. For everywhere we look, there is work…
Citation
Americans Tell Obama to Legalize Online Poker
The Player
Americans Tell Obama to Legalize Online Poker
Blog
Regulate First, Think Never?
Twitter can be very useful. Walter Olson of Overlawyered.com sent out a tweet this morning about an Amazon list of toys that…
Blog
RIP Patrick McGoohan, No. 6
Patrick McGoohan, star of the most brilliantly obscure TV series of all time, The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80. Growing up…
Blog
Nannychusetts Fights Obesity
The paternalists continue on the march. But don’t worry, it’s for our own good! Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby writes: THE WORTHIES who govern…
