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
CEI seeks to protect the right to vote in Wisconsin
CEI filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction asking a federal court to protect Wisconsinites’ right to vote ahead of the general election on November…
Iowa PBS
USMCA Renewal: Think Tank Urges Changes to North American Trade Deal
CEI Senior Economist Ryan Young was interviewed by Iowa PBS on USMCA recommendations. Ryan Young/Senior Economist, Competitive Enterprise Institute: “Trade policy…
Study
Toward a Renewed and Improved USMCA
Cross-border trade in North America has been an engine of prosperity for the United States, Mexico, and Canada. But the agreement governing…
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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…
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…
Blog
Bailout Bill Just Got Worse, But Congress May Approve It Without Reading It, Based on Misleading Claims
The bailout bill has been larded up with additional welfare that will increase its cost, but the House will likely approve it today without…
Blog
Bailout Bill Drafted by Senator Dodd Is a Scam on Taxpayers to Bankroll Left-Wing Extremists
The $700 billion bailout of the financial system just got worse, thanks to a rewrite by Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd. If the government…
Blog
Welfare Added to Bailout to Appease Liberals
The cost of the $700 billion bailout bill, criticized as unconstitutional by legal scholars, is rising, as Congressional leaders demand new handouts for deadbeats (and…
Blog
Kudos to Republican Study Committee for bailout alternative
Those of us (and CEI is among the “us”!) who oppose Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion bailout of Wall Street have been challenged to…
Blog
Cost of Bailout Gets Bigger; SEC Regulation Backfires
The financial bailout bill is not just “dangerous, inflationary, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.” It’s also a lot more costly than the government admits, judging from the hypocritical arguments…
Blog
Bailout Bill Dangerous, Inflationary, Unnecessary, and Unconstitutional
The $700 billion financial bailout bill being pushed by Bush and Congressional leaders is attracting broad opposition. Not only does it rip off taxpayers…
Blog
Bailout Threatens Economy, Shreds Constitution, Rips Off Taxpayers
The stock market sank as the Bush Administration capitulated to liberal demands that its proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system be expanded to add more…
Blog
Paulson bailout would worsen contagion-spreading accounting rules
My colleague Hans Bader is correct that most of the aims of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion bailout -- stopping the "contagion" of…
Blog
Trillion Dollar Bailout Will Lead to Future Bubbles
Why did the mortgage bubble occur? One reason was probably that financial institutions engaged in irresponsible lending suspected they were too "big to fail," and that the government would bail them out if their…
Blog
The ‘Naked’ Truth — Short sellers are unsung financial heroes
At the peak of the real estate boom, there was one group of individuals who said the bubble was about to pop. They pointed to…
Newsletter
Hurricane Recovery, Union Politics and Disaster Insurance
Residents of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast are being advised to avoid taps and drink only bottled water. Unions increase their spending on campaign advertisements and…
Blog
Clinton Pressure to Promote Affordable Housing Led to Mortgage Meltdown
The current mortgage crisis came about in large part because of Clinton-era government pressure on lenders to make risky loans in order to “make…
Blog
Lehman bankruptcy: In capitalism, failure is not a dirty word
My reaction to Lehman Brothers' declaring of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the refusal of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and others to take extraordinary Bear…
Blog
Defenders of Big Government Spawned Mortgage Crisis
The Heritage Foundation today discusses the bankruptcy of the great Wall Street investment bank, Lehman Brothers, and explains how defenders of big government caused the mortgage crisis. …
Letters
Letter On UIGEA to House Financial Services Committee Members
Attention: House Financial Services Committee LA September 15, 2008 Dear Representative: As the House Financial Services Committee moves towards consideration of…
Blog
Big Macs a Health Food? Man Eats 23,000 Big Macs
Don Gorske, a Wisconsin corrections officer, is in “good shape” after eating 23,000 Big Macs. He has, however, cut down on his consumption of french fries,…
Blog
When Government Fails, Blame the Private Sector
Taxpayers are now in the process of bailing out the "Government-Sponsored Enterprises" -- the mortgage giants Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac -- to the tune…
Newsletter
Fannie Mae Takeover, Stimulus Scams and Censoring TV Ads
The federal government assumes direct control over troubled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Democrats in Congress seek a second round of federal spending…
