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…
Search Posts
Blog
To Blame Laissez-Faire, Anti-Market Media Must Do Better
Like many of us at CEI, it looks like my former boss Phil Gramm isn't interested in helping anybody pretend that today's financial crisis was…
Blog
Championing civil liberties — mostly
I’ve been a closet admirer of Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) since he singlehandedly opposed the Patriot Act in the Senate. According to…
Blog
Ugly Vegetables and Fruit Again to be Sold in Europe!
Amazing. The European Union actually responded to criticism. About one-fifth of European produce has to be dumped because it doesn’t mean minimum EU standards, which…
Blog
Lame Duck Flies in the Face of Americans’ Rights
The Bush administration is arguable one of the most wildly unprincipled in the history of the white house. They have acquiesced to or…
News Release
CEI Blasts New Banking, Internet Gambling Regulations
Washington, D.C., November 13, 2008—In its final weeks, the Bush administration is trying to rush through ill-considered regulations aimed at preventing Internet gambling. Two Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Blog
To President-Elect Obamaâ€â€Freeze Gov’t Regulations this Winter
Yesterday I called for a major “Deregulatory Stimulus.” Alongside---with financial, health care, energy efficiency, “green job” and other mandates likely in an Obama Administration---the…
Blog
EU Lifts “Ugly” Fruit and Vegetable Ban
The European Union has rescinded its ban on some “ugly” fruits and vegetables. AP reports: The European Union bid adieu Wednesday to rules that…
Blog
Are liberal groups’ lobbyists banned from transition team?
On Tuesday, John Podesta, the head of President-elect Obama's transition team, said that lobbyists will be banned from working on the transition team…
Blog
Reject political stimulus, embrace “Deregulatory Stimulus.” And do it FAST.
Facing an economic downturn and an election, politicians of both parties sought to stimulate consumer demand—and some business investment—through political action. They promised that if…
Blog
Defending the free market — “Yes, we can!”
Matt Welch’s Reason piece “Back to the Barricades —Free Markets are Under Attack Again” is a good read, if not…
Tech Policy Central
CEI Blasts New Banking, Internet Gambling Regulations
Blog
Bailouts Mushroom, Impoverishing Taxpayers
The federal government is expanding its bailout of AIG to $150 billion, well above its originally-predicted cost, and planning to bail out…
Blog
An Agenda for the Monday a.m. Obama and Bush Meeting
Since the President and President-elect start spending quality Oval Office time together today, and since the incoming admistration's advisors can't settle on either pushing…
Blog
Banana Entrepreneurs Should Follow the Cocoa Initiative
Last Wednesday, The New York Times ran an appealing story on the rise of an Ecuadorian Quichua community from…
Blog
No “Technology Czar,” Please
Like everybody else in town, we're pondering the implications of the transition to the Obama Administration for various policy areas here at CEI. On the…
Blog
Is Autism Really Linked to Rainfall?
Here's a headline today from The Onion — no, no, I mean, from Reuters: “Autism Linked with Rainfall in Study.” Seems…
Blog
America to Lurch Left?
The Weekly Standard‘s Fred Barnes has a scare story in today’s Wall Street Journal. He warns of a lurch to the left if Barack…
Blog
A Whole Lot of Qualification Going on
A new RAND Corporation study that purports to show a link between teen pregnancy and viewing TV shows with strong sexual content seems just…
Blog
Supreme Court Considers Tort Preemption for Medicines
Diana Levine suffered from chronic migraine headaches for many years. So, in April 2000, when she went to a local clinic to get treatment,…
Blog
FreeRoots
Some of the brightest minds in the online conservative movement — John Hawkins, Patrick Ruffini and Mark Tapscott — are discussing what…
Blog
Depressed by Regulation in America? Look at Europe!
You’ve got to love the Europeans. They demonstrate that things always can get worse. For instance, think about the epidemic of stupid farmers who use…
Blog
O’Grady hits Obama’s trade policy
More good reads in the WSJ today. Mary Anastasia O’Grady in her column in the Wall Street Journal provides a sharp contrast between…
Newsletter
Home Sales Rise, Voter Fraud Accusations and Another Ban on Bottled Water
Existing home sales rise 5.5% in September. Groups around the country preemptively prepare for the possibility of voter fraud. Bottled water faces a ban by…
Blog
The Road to Serfdom–Illustrated!
Thanks to CEI colleague Gary Howard for sending along The Road to Serfdom in Cartoons; I’d forgotten all about this capsule version of Hayek’s…
Newsletter
Stimulus Redux, Benefits of Bottled Water and the Pro-Poverty Left
Senators consider a second round of taxpayer-financed economic stimulus. Bottled water producers attempt to work constructively with environmental groups that have called for additional taxes…
Letters
Coalition Letter on the Finalization of Rules Relating to UIGEA
Full Document Avalible in PDF Dear Ms. Dudley: We are deeply concerned about the regulations you have received from Treasury concerning the…
Blog
Let’s hear it for Death, Poverty and Ignorance
Grist seems gleeful that New Scientist thinks “our economy is killing the Earth.” According to New Scientist: Consumption of resources is rising…
Newsletter
Banning Bottled Water, Disaster Insurance and the Mortgage Meltdown
The U.S. Conference of Mayors votes to endorse banning the sale of bottled water across the country. Florida’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund could face a shortfall…
News Release
Campaign Targets Unfair Political Assault on Bottled Water
A new petition drive demands that politicians not continue plans to ban the product for safety workers and consumers. The campaign comes in the wake of…
Blog
Chicken soup for the soul — and high blood pressure
A food and health tip for these trying times: we all know that chicken soup is good for the soul . . . and for…
Blog
New Regulation in MD a Halloween “trick”?
Unfortunately, this is not a Halloween joke— the Maryland Parole and Probation Division is completely serious. Sex offenders in Maryland are being told that…
Blog
Unstoppable SuperState Stimulus, Part 2
Today’s Wall Street Journal highlighted a new $300 political stimulus campaign. Keynesian demand-management has re-conquered economics as surely as Fall 2008 has cemented…
Blog
Green Spin and Bottled Water
Americans are well aware of the power of political “spin” during election years. But political spin is nothing compared to “green spin,” perpetrated by environmental…
Blog
It wasn’t bailout that caused Monday’s market surge — 3 other factors
Since the $700 billion bailout was first proposed, whatever the stock markets did, much of the press took that as a sign that the market…
Blog
Let Uncle Sam’s People Go!
One of most outrageous features of the federal social welfare state is that Uncle Sam doesn’t want you to be independent. For instance, if you would…
Blog
The Swiss are Nuts … About Plants’ Rights, Anyway
I've visited Switzerland several times. I've always believe the Swiss to be rational, level-headed people. Far more sober than so many Europeans. They've managed to…
Blog
The international mark-to-market contagion — sending global markets in a downward
Bailouts. Global interest rate cuts. More bailouts. Global government liquidity injections into banks. Direct government buying of commercial paper. And even more types of bailouts.
Blog
The World is About to End … Again!
Climate alarmists are in good company. After all, for centuries at least, and probably since the beginning of humanity, some people have worried about the imminent…
Blog
Obama denigrates Delaware in debate
Poor little Delaware. In every presidential election since 1992, she has been in the “blue” column voting for the Democratic candidate. She has long had…
Blog
More Bailouts on the Way
At last night’s debate, Senator McCain floated a horrible idea: to have the government buy up bad mortgages and then write off part of…
Blog
NEW VIDEO: Global Warming and Eco-Imperialism
Coming from the UK, CEI Senior Fellow Iain Murray knows a little something about the history of political empires. Today, however, we find ourselves…
Blog
Deregulation Wasn’t to Blame for Financial Crisis
Even the reliably-liberal BBC says that deregulation wasn’t the cause of the financial crisis. Other liberal journalists like Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby have…
Blog
Market down on bailout — Don’t compound damage with overregulation of ‘Main Street’
Today -- five days after a courageous independent vote against Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's $700 billion bailout for Wall Street -- the U.S. House of…
Blog
Bailout Bill Grows More Bloated, Ignoring Alternatives
There are alternative approaches to the bailout that would cost taxpayers less. But instead, Congress is expanding the bailout bill to stuff it with more…
Blog
Bailout Bill Gets More Expensive and Dangerous
The politically dangerous $700 billion financial system bailout bill is getting even more expensive as supporters load it up with pork to get wavering…
Blog
Bailout Bill Is A Threat to Democracy
At least in its original form, the $700 billion bailout bill was unconstitutional because it gave the Treasury Secretary boundless discretion to buy, or…
Newsletter
Bank Insurance, Banning Wine Coolers and Rationing Meat for the Planet
Members of Congress consider raising the federal bank insurance limit for individual deposits to $250,000. Utah bans flavored alcoholic malt beverages from grocery and convenience…
Blog
Deregulation Didn’t Cause the Financial Crisis, But It Might Help Solve It
Banking expert Peter Wallison explains why deregulation didn’t cause the financial crisis, while Steven Malanga explains how government regulators foolishly pressured banks to drop prudent lending…
Blog
Investing in Communal Failure: The Current Economic Crisis as a Result of Regulation
Unfettered greed is the suspect many point at to explain the current economic crisis. To some extent, they are right, but it isn't irrational…
Blog
BREAKING NEWS: Bailout Vote Fails in House
The House of Representatives just voted down the $700 billion corporate finance bailout, despite earlier urging from President Bush to push the measure…
