As a result, CEI experts have encouraged and supported trade-enhancing policies and treaties over the years, including “fast-track” Trade Promotion Authority, specific trade deals, and multilateral efforts such as the Doha round of the World Trade Organization. We have opposed increased tariffs, attempts to increase regulation through trade deal language, and the trend toward bilateral rather than multilateral deals. CEI continues to make the case for free trade in the face of increased bipartisan hostility to the idea.
CEI’s experts also work with like-minded colleagues abroad to oppose harmful initiatives, such as working with British colleagues to stop that country’s competition agency from blocking mergers between American firms based on speculative reasoning.
Featured Posts
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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…
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Good and bad trade news: Jones Act suspension, but more tariffs on the way
Two conflicting bits of trade news came out yesterday. The good news is that the Trump administration is considering temporarily suspending the Jones Act,…
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Tariffs and inflation: Response to latest CPI release
On February 13th, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent CPI release showed a 0.2 percent month-to-month increase for January and a 2.4 percent…
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Keeping Priorities Straight
Bjørn Lomborg, head of the Copenhagen Consensus, brings some much-needed common sense to the global warming debate. Reporting from Vanuatu, he finds that many locals…
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Obama Accepts “Blasphemy” Exception to Free Speech
In USA Today, liberal law professor Jonathan Turley is criticizing the Obama administration for endorsing a “blasphemy” exception to free speech: “Around the…
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Hot time in EU
The first half of Fall 2009 was a busy season in European politics. On September 27, the general elections took place in Germany. The results…
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Surprising comments on NYT article on climate treaty
Today’s New York Times carries an article, “Hopes fade for comprehensive climate treaty.” It’s not that important an article about the lead-up to Copenhagen. …
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Bill Gates Says Africa Needs GMOs
On Friday, Bill Gates announced at the World Food Summit in Des Moines that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would be redoubling its efforts…
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Defending free trade: the pending FTAs
The pending U.S. Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia are languishing in limbo, despite the fact that all three agreements will improve…
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New Version of Obama Health-Care Plan Relies on Imaginary Savings, Costs More Than $2 Trillion, and Will Explode Federal and State Budget Deficits
Health-care “reform” always costs more than predicted, as ObamaCare provisions have at the state level. So the claim that the new, cheaper version…
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Silencing Criticism through Libel Law
The physicist turned science journalist Simon Singh has been sued in a UK court and, this past summer, found liable for libel for an April…
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Senators Lindsey Graham and John Kerry: Yes We Can (Raise Your Energy Prices and Send Jobs Abroad)
Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) published a curious op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times titled, “Yes We Can (Pass Climate Legislation).” …
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Nobel Prize “Gift” Double Standard
Drug companies are apparently forbidden from offering freebies to doctors in certain liberal states like Massachusetts and Vermont, under the theory that doctors’ loyalty…
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Best article on Obama’s Nobel — Wash Post’s Cohen
Here’s Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen’s take this morning on the Nobel Prize announcement. It’s too good to excerpt: In a stunning announcement,…
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President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
President Obama is in a prime position to work wonders for the cause of peace. He can institute free trade in America. Trade is the…
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Precisely Backwards
Few things are more taxing than our elected officials’ economic illiteracy. How sad that visiting a wonderful country like ours may soon be one of…
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Supreme Court Confronts Free Speech, Animal Cruelty, Gun Rights, Violent Crime, and National Sovereignty Issues
The Supreme Court is back in session. Today, it is hearing a challenge to a federal law banning depictions of cruelty to animals…
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Corporate Human Rights?
Over at the Detroit News, Hans Bader and I explain why corporations have human rights despite not being human. The reason why? Transaction costs.
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World’s largest country reports first swine flu death
Six months into the swine flu outbreak China, with a population of over 1.3 billion or a fifth of the word’s population, has just…
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Unemployment Rises to 26-Year High of 9.8%; Obama’s Policies Worsen Unemployment and Credit Crunch
Unemployment has risen to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high. That’s much higher than the Obama administration predicted unemployment would rise, if Congress had refused…
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Stimulus Packages Don’t Work; Obama’s $800 Billion Stimulus Will Shrink the Economy
“Stimulus” packages that increase government spending don’t work, notes Harvard economist Robert J. Barro in the Wall Street Journal. The administration claimed that Obama’s…
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Overpaid Bureaucrats Expand in Number and Pay
Thanks to the $800 billion stimulus package, and other huge government spending increases, the number of federal and state employees is projected to increase massively.
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The Magic of Numbers
Is it really easier to work in groups or is it just a way to shift responsibility? This question is relevant after the recent summit…
Op-Eds
As Deficit Rises, So Too Does Number of Federal Employees
Thanks to the $800 billion stimulus package, and other huge government spending increases, the number of federal and state employees is projected to increase…
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7-Eleven serves up Big Gulp of Big Government to credit card consumers
Tomorrow, 7-Eleven Inc. and other big retail chains will hit Capitol Hill to offer Congress members and their staffs a supersize serving of hypocrisy. Retailers,…
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It’s Complicated
Journalists have a tendency to present overly-simple explanations of current events that often turn out to be false. Part of it is due to the…
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Obama Slaps Unconstitutional Gag Order on Critic of His Health Care Plan
While Obama ally ACORN attempts to gag whistleblowers who exposed its role in a recent scandal, the Obama administration is trying to gag…
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Hard-Left Obama Policies Draw Criticism for Undermining Democracy, Security, and the Rule of Law
In his 2008 campaign, Barack Obama talked a lot about “bipartisanship,” but in office, he has governed from the far left, on both domestic and…
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Funny, That
An article in today's New York Times laments the difficulty of "building momentum for an international climate treaty at a time when global temperatures have…
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Obama Speech to the UN: The Data
Myron has already pointed out how most of what the President claimed were the threats from global warming are exaggerated. Here’s the data to…
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Finding Something to Praise in Obama’s Speech Today
While this speech is mostly hogwash, I am surprised and delighted to be able to find one thing to praise in it: Later this…
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Obama Speech to the UN
President Barack Obama’s speech on global warming to the United Nations today is based on fantasy. Here are some quotes from the speech followed by…
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Chevron Plaintiff Lawyer’s Least Favorite Writer
In Forbes yesterday, New York lawyer Steven Donziger, consultant attorney for Ecuadorian plaintiffs in the suit against Chevron, criticizes my article,…
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Democratic Governor Criticizes Deficit-Exploding Obama Health-Care Plan; Middle Class Faces Huge Health and Global-Warming Tax Hikes
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen (D) is criticizing Obama’s health-care plan as “the mother of all unfunded mandates,” saying it will force states to spend…
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Firing Blanks on FOIA Part II
In his update to his post, Declan McCullagh notes an objection by the Center for American Progress: The fourth objection is the most compelling.
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Obama Wants to Extend PATRIOT Act
One may be a Republican and the other a Democrat, but make no mistake. Bush and Obama are two peas in a pod.
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Another Hoover on trade?
President Obama’s slapping of tariffs on tires imported from China is the latest in a series of protectionist moves by the U.S. that threaten the…
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Regulation of the Day 50: Tires from China
The burden is on tariff supporters to explain why they think people who live in one country are more deserving of economic opportunity than people…
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Scientist Who Saved a Billion Lives Dies; Congress Blocks Reform of Law Based on Junk Science
Norman Borlaug, the scientist who saved a billion lives by fathering the Green Revolution, died Saturday at the age of 95. His work…
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The Man Who Fed the World
Norman Borlaug was an American agricultural scientist and plant breeder whose work sparked what is now known as the Green Revolution. He was recognized with…
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Do Corporations Have Human Rights?
Intel’s defense in its EU antitrust case has taken the surprising line that the company’s human rights were violated. Over at Real Clear Markets, CEI…
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New Paper Shows Staggering Cost to Americans of Waxman-Markey
There’s a new cost:benefit study from New York University Law School’s Institute for Public Integrity that, its authors claim, shows that, “From almost…
Op-Eds
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes. The Wall…
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Regulation of the Day 47: Irish Potatoes
It is bad policy to keep perfectly good food off the market because of its shape, especially during times of recession and high food prices.
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‘The Times’ it is a changing
On Saturday, The Times of London published a news article under the headline "Organic food is a waste of money". The hard-0copy print edition of…
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Racist, Communist, America-Bashing Obama Adviser Resigns, Over Wacky 9/11 Conspiracy Theory
Obama’s racist, communist, America-bashing Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones, has resigned after revelations that he was a 9/11 “Truther,” who believed that George Bush…
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UN Declares Dictator Fidel Castro a “World Hero”
The UN has declared Fidel Castro, the longtime Communist dictator of Cuba, the “World Hero of Solidarity.” Castro killed thousands and thousands…
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CEI Weekly: CEI’s 9/12 Intellectual Ammunition Workshop
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's workshop for the 9/12 March on D.C., and a…
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India’s CO2 emissions to triple by 2030
India and China talk the Al Gore talk of climate Armageddon and the necessity for urgent action — yet their emissions keep going up and…
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Regulation of the Day 46: Chemical Weapons
If your company exports chemical weapons, make sure you keep good records. Every year, on company letterhead, you have to list ten things for the…
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Obama Imposes Sanctions on Impoverished Nation of Honduras, Despite Loss of Legal Basis for Doing So
The Obama Administration formally cut off aid to the impoverished nation of Honduras today, and announced other impending sanctions, to pressure the country to…
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Regulation of the Day 45: Wooden Crates
Even the humble wooden crate cannot escape the government’ watchful regulatory eye.
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Obama’s Sanctions Cause Suffering, Malnutrition, and Unemployment in Honduras
Earlier, I wrote about how the Obama Administration has imposed sanctions on the people of Honduras, such as blocking travel to the U.S.
