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
Quartz tariffs are looming and your kitchen could pay the price
Earlier this week, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that increased quartz imports are injuring the domestic quartz industry. The petitioners, the Quartz…
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”…
Search Posts
Blog
How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history is aware of the failures of prohibition. Both the now-repealed ban on alcohol and the ongoing “war…
Blog
How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history is aware of the failures of prohibition. Both the now-repealed ban on alcohol and the ongoing “war…
News Release
Banning Common Refrigerant Would Impose Huge Costs on American Consumers and Businesses
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), joined by 19 free market groups, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposing an amendment to the…
Blog
New Junk Food Ordinance: Another “Feel Good” California Law that Does No Good
California is a tough place to live. Ranked as the state with the nation’s worst quality of life, Californians have the biggest debt-to-income ratio, suffer…
Blog
Government Is Asking if We Want Faster and More Effective Appliances. Say Yes!
For more than 50 years, Americans have used washing machines to clean their clothes and dryers to dry them. Manufacturers built highly effective products that…
Study
The Double Standards of Cannabis and Nicotine
View Full Document as PDF Executive Summary The principal benefit of recreational cannabis, as the name implies, is recreation. Many who enjoy using…
The Washington Examiner
Government Alcohol Advice Should be Based on Evidence, Not Agendas
Should adults cut their alcohol consumption in half for health reasons? That’s what a federal government advisory committee is recommending. It matters because that recommendation…
Blog
FDA Rules on E-cigarette Makers Go into Effect Today, to the Detriment of Public Health
The world was simpler in 2009 when Congress enacted a law that gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate tobacco. Back…
Blog
No Market Failure, No New Regulations
The U.S. Senate is about to consider federally regulating transportation network companies (TNCs) for the first time. But proof of market failure should always be…
Acton Institute
Thank God for single-use plastic bags
Thank God for single-use plastic bags Acton Institute cites Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini on environmental regulation and consumer freedom. The policy hardly affects one of its…
The American Spectator
Progressive Pests Try to Ban Pesticide Chlorpyrifos
The American Spectator cites Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini on CCCEH and pesticides. As Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Angela Logomasini has noted, CCCEH works with…
Blog
Anti-Nicotine Zealots Only Care about Science When it Says What They Want
Opponents of nicotine vapor products like to claim the scientific high ground. For years, they have asserted there isn’t enough evidence on the long-term risks…
Blog
How the U.S. Spreads Fake Vaping Fears, Part II
In a previous post, CEI's Michelle Minton described how, through the use of statistical hocus pocus, anti-vaping interest have exported vape panic around the world.
Blog
Trump’s Drug Price Control Orders Are Bound to Backfire
At a White House gathering last Friday, President Trump announced four new executive orders intended to restrict the ways pharmaceutical companies set the price of…
Blog
How the U.S. Spreads Fake Vaping Fears
The international health profession is rightly focused on the SARS-CoV-2 virus threat at the moment. Meanwhile, another multinational threat has insidiously spread: Alarmism about nicotine…
Blog
Perverse Psychology: How Anti-Vaping Campaigns Backfired
We have spent years and countless billions trying to deal with the supposed epidemic of youth vaping. It has only gotten worse. A new CEI…
News Release
Dr. Nancy Beck Will Bring Thoughtful Consideration of Science to Consumer Product Safety Commission
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will today hold a hearing to consider the nomination of Dr. Nancy Beck to be chair…
Study
Perverse Psychology
Cigarette smoking is a lethal habit that kills approximately half of those who sustain it over their lifetime. But, contrary to popular belief, the nicotine…
Blog
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Anti-Drug Warriors’ Crocodile Tears
There is a lot to say about the heinous killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and no shortage of opinions being offered. Many have…
Blog
Green Activists’ Unwarranted Attacks on CPSC Nominee Nancy Beck
Left-of-center environmental activists are at it again, maligning the reputation of one of President Trump’s nominees—with little regard for the truth. One of their latest…
News Release
Report: State, Local Governments Should Lift #NeverNeeded Plastics Regulations and Bans – Permanently
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a report urging state and local governments to end bans and restrictions on single-use plastics, like shopping bags…
Study
Lift #NeverNeeded Plastics Regulations and Bans – Permanently
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, lawmakers have finally begun considering the unintended impacts of bans on single-use plastics, particularly the potential for disease transmission from…
The Washington Examiner
Kill the Never-Needed Regulations Slowing the Economic Recovery
Our attention is focused on a single, terrible story like we’ve rarely seen before, a story that commands such a level of attention because it…
Comment
CEI Comments on EPA Transparency Rule
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) strongly supports EPA’s effort to increase transparency in scientific research underlying agency rules and research. CEI detailed in a 2018…
Blog
Cocktails in Quarantine: How your State Governs Booze Buying during Lockdown
With all the other added stress created by the outbreak of COVID-19, most states have chosen to relax alcohol laws in a pragmatic bid to…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in Opposition to Any Proposal to Impose “Buy American” Mandates on Medicines
Dear Secretary Mnuchin, Director Kudlow, Leader McConnell & Leader McCarthy: We write in opposition to any proposal to impose “Buy American” mandates on medicines.
Blog
The Man Who Fed the World, And the Film that Condemned Him for It
The first indication that PBS’s new documentary on agronomist Norman Borlaug will not be overly laudatory is its title. Anti-hunger activist Leon Hesser called his…
Reason
Federal Regulations Are Making the Grocery Store Supply Crunch Worse
Reason cites Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on FDA food regulations: “It’s not terribly unreasonable to have these sort of minimal safety rules remain…
Blog
Robots Are Here to Make Your Job Safer and Cleaner
Positive stories about win-win results from the march of automation are everywhere in our economy, but they don’t get told and repeated enough. The workers…
Blog
Deregulation Is an Effective Pandemic Defense
In a new op-ed in RealClearMarkets, Iain Murray and Ryan Young outline the major points of CEI’s just-released #NeverNeeded paper, which identifies regulations harmful to…
Blog
EPA Inspector General Report Could Exacerbate Medical Supply Shortages
As hospitals struggle to access sterile medical supplies, the EPA Inspector General released a report that could make things worse. It alleges that EPA officials…
Blog
FDA Four-Month Delay Not Enough to Save E-Cigarette Industry
To fight the coronavirus, many states have pressed pause on certain rules and regulations. Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed an order lifting the state ban…
Blog
Greenpeace’s Swing and Miss Reveals Its Hypocrisy about Health Risks from Reusable Bags
According to Greenpeace, my recent article on the sanitary benefits of single-use plastic bags is part of an effort to “exploit” COVID-19 fears and promote…
Blog
House Democrats’ Third Coronavirus Supplemental Appropriation Bill Is an Outrage
The Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act is the most irresponsible piece of fiscal legislation to come out of the profligate Congress for a…
Blog
Regulation, Not Offshoring, Is Hindering Industry from Ramping up Production
In his latest Bloomberg column, Noah Smith argues that offshoring production led to the current shortage of medical masks and equipment in the face of…
Blog
Toilet Paper Economics: Emergency Capitalism Still Better Than Normal Socialism
There are quite a few hot takes circulating at the moment about how grocery stores temporarily running out of toilet paper amid the current coronavirus…
Blog
Liberty in the Time of Coronavirus Part 1
A recent headline at The Atlantic declared, “There are No Libertarians in an Epidemic.” But, just as there are atheists in foxholes, there are libertarians…
National Review
Pandemics, Stimulus, and the Limitations of Flash Policy
Over the past two weeks, America has faced the onset of a pandemic, an oil-price war, and a stock-market crash. In the face of these…
Fox News
AOC Criticized For ‘Inapt’ Comparison Between Fed’s Coronavirus Response And Student Loan Debt Relief
Fox News cites Senior Fellow Richard Morrison on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comments on the coronavirus: But according to Competitive Enterprise Institute fellow Richard Morrison, Ocasio-Cortez was…
News Release
Report: Federal Dietary Guidelines Put Eating Disorder Sufferers at Risk
Federal dietary guidelines and government-mandated calorie disclosures can adversely impact people who suffer from restrictive eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, a new Competitive Enterprise…
Study
How Federal Policy Puts Eating Disorder Sufferers at Risk
Around 8 million Americans suffer from clinically significant eating disorders that drive them to develop and maintain unhealthy, and sometimes fatal, eating habits. The American…
Blog
HHS Price Disclosure Rule Will Not Make Medicines More Affordable
In his State of the Union Address, President Trump renewed his commitment to “lower[ing] the cost of health care and prescription drugs” and “requir[ing] drug…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter to the White House on Vaping
Dear Mr. President We urge you to preserve access to life-saving alternatives to cigarettes for the millions of adults who rely on electronic cigarettes and…
Comment
Michelle Minton Testimony on Flavored Tobacco Products
Thank you for giving the public an opportunity to provide input as you consider this proposal. I sincerely hope you listen to the testimony you’ll…
Blog
Dangerously Inaccurate Reporting on Vaping-Linked Outbreak Persists
Coverage of the outbreak of illness linked to “vaping” has been handled poorly in general, but the New York Post's recent reporting is especially egregious.
Forbes
Trump: Free The Dishwashers!
Forbes cites CEI on dishwasher inefficiencies: The Competitive Enterprise Institute calculated that dishwasher cycle time 40 years ago was…
Newsweek
Trump Says Water Efficiency Standards Mean Showers, Toilets and Dishwashers Don’t Work Properly
Newsweek cites General Counsel Sam Kazman on CEI’s dishwasher petition: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a free market group which lobbies for consumer…
Blog
CDC Confirms Black Markets, not “Vaping,” Caused Outbreak
A new CDC report puts the final nail in the coffin of the idea that the spat of lung injuries that occurred beginning last summer…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter on Surprise Billing
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy, Leader Schumer, and Whip Scalise, The undersigned groups representing millions of taxpayers and consumers around the country urge…
Reason
House-Passed Budget Deal Raises Age to Buy Cigarettes to 21
Reason cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on e-cigarettes. As Michelle Minton, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, pointed out in a…
