National Review
SNAP Back to Reality: Why the FTC Needs a Broader View of the Kroger-Albertsons Case
The FTC’s court losses under Lina Khan’s leadership have a common theme: word games. In nearly every antitrust case it brings, the agency defines relevant markets…
National Review
Challenging the Excessive Powers of an Administrative Law Court
At least one form of government abuse might end soon. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this term for Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, which …
National Review
The FTC Is Now Trying to Stop Mergers Before They Start
Lina Khan’s antitrust crusade is not confined to the courts. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair has turned her attention to a nearly 50-year-old law about…
Washington Times
Industry reports see ‘Spookflation’ as Halloween demand meets rising prices
Real Clear Markets
Barbie, Hot Wheels, and the Market for Lemons
The Barbie movie is more than a bit of good fun. It also teaches an economics lesson about lemons—the old slang term for defective goods, not the…
DC Journal
Point: This Labor Day, Don’t Let Pols Take Credit for Economy
Workers have much to celebrate this Labor Day. Unemployment is near its lowest level since the 1960s, and real wages are growing again. Post-pandemic inflation…
The Washington Examiner
10% tariff, 100% bad idea
Former President Donald Trump recently pledged to enact a universal 10% tariff on all imports if he regains the presidency. His…
National Review
The FTC’s Flawed Antimerger Ideology
The Biden administration has unveiled a draft version of new merger guidelines, courtesy of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of…
The Washington Examiner
Carbon tariffs will hurt trade, national interests, and consumers
Carbon tariffs are a bad idea that won’t go away, and now the European Union has launched the first one, the …
The Economic Standard
Adam Smith on how trade makes us better people
Economists love efficiency. That is why most of them love free trade. Countries with relatively free trade also tend to be …
National Review
The Fed’s Risky Rate Increase Helped Its Credibility to Reduce Inflation
The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate again on Wednesday, in its latest move to bring inflation back down to normal. Most people…
National Review
FTC Runs into the Judicial Wall
National Review
FTC Runs into the Judicial Wall
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust crusade has run into an obstacle: the judiciary. Indeed, the agency wants to expand its authority and broaden enforcement standards so…
National Review
Can a Trillion-Dollar Coin Repay Our Debt?
The red wave that wasn’t has consequences for policy-making in Washington. One result of the GOP’s new, narrow House majority is that outlandish and marginal policy…
National Review
No Need for Antitrust Scrutiny of Kroger–Albertsons Merger
The Hill
Biden’s ‘whole of government’ overhaul of federal agencies undermines their purpose
National Review
Virtual Reality and the Relevant-Market Fallacy
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is at a crossroads. Its main social-media platform is declining under heavy competition and faces twin federal and …
National Review
Regulators’ Misguided Crackdown on Nicotine Products and Their Makers
Federal agencies must really love black markets. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a plan to limit nicotine in cigarettes and …
National Review
The Case for Letting Crises Go to Waste
If there is an iron law in politics, it’s that when crisis hits, government grows. Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, advised that politicians should…
The Hill
An independent commission can bypass congressional dysfunction and help solve the worker shortage
Job openings have been at record highs for a while now, but companies can’t find the workers to fill them. How can Congress help? That…
Inside Sources
Point: Pay College Athletes
St. Peter’s University’s run of upsets wasn’t the only storyline from this year’s March Madness tournament. The other is that the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball…
National Review
Supply Shocks Are Not Inflation
Gas prices are spiking due to Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. President Biden announced a ban on importing Russian oil, which accounts…
Wall Street Journal
If You Play With Antitrust Fire, You Might Get Burned
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has opened an antitrust investigation into investment funds centered around environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. He argues that they…
The Frederick News Post
No Single Best Way to Work
COVID-19 might be winding down into an endemic disease like the cold and the flu — maybe. But even if the virus has more curveballs…
The Tribune-Democrat
There are Better Ways than Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to Boost Workers’ Pay
Twenty-five states raised their minimum wages this year, but the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009. Is it time…
Inside Sources
Minimum Wages Don’t Create Jobs
There are more than 10 million job openings in America right now. The worker shortage is contributing to goods shortages, rising prices and supply network…
The Washington Examiner
Democrats’ Carbon Tariffs Would Hurt Consumers and Slow Recovery
There is a real danger that the world’s first carbon tariffs could be added to the $3.5 trillion spending bill making its way through Congress.
The Hill
Sustained Economic Growth Needs Congressional Regulatory Reform
Former President Trump was the first president in 30 years to take a serious interest in regulatory reform. You might have to go back to former…
National Review
Are Tariffs the Right Response to Foreign Digital Taxes?
Last week’s G-7 meetings provided an opportunity to resolve the growing international tensions over tariffs. Simply removing the tariffs enacted by and against the…
Inside Sources
How To Stimulate the COVID Recovery Without Trillions in New Spending
The COVID recovery is going well, but it could be going better. America’s unemployment rate is already down from double digits to under 6 percent.
National Review
Corporations Don’t Pay Corporate Taxes. People Do
A mammoth infrastructure bill is on the way from Congress, and policy-makers are touting a corporate-tax-rate hike to help pay for it. Treasury secretary…
The Hill
The Problem With A One-Size-Fits-All Federal Minimum Wage Hike
Minimum wage mandates aren’t free. They force employers to make difficult decisions and tradeoffs. When government forces wages up, non-wage pay goes down: Workers get…
Fortune
It’s Time to Raise the Cost of Spreading Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories were a major driver behind the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. They have also been a growing part of the…
The Hill
Are Two Federal Agencies Smarter Than One to File Antitrust Lawsuits?
Antitrust lawsuits seem to come in waves. The Justice Department sued Google last fall. Then Facebook was hit with two different lawsuits, one from the…
Op-Eds
Sometimes Bigger Is Better
Mark Zuckerberg was having one of 2020’s worst Zoom meetings. It was July 29, and one of the most influential men in the world was…
National Review
Free-Market Victories down the Ballot
The top of the ticket got most of the press, but for free-market enthusiasts, much of the real 2020 action was down ballot. As of…
Company News HQ
Uncertain Regulatory Relief at an Uncertain Time
Once the election dust settles, Congress will wrangle over another COVID-19 spending bill, but regulation will ultimately have greater impact on the recovery. Agencies have…
Real Clear Policy
Uncertain Regulatory Relief at an Uncertain Time
Once the election dust settles, Congress will wrangle over another COVID-19 spending bill, but regulation will ultimately have greater impact on the recovery. Agencies have…
Inside Sources
How to Reform Never-Needed Regulations – and How to Keep Them That Way
Policymakers have waived more than 600 regulations as part of the COVID-19 response. Federal agencies lifted rules against telemedicine and remote education.
Inside Sources
Pandemic Should Spur Large Scale Deregulation to Aid Recovery
Regulations are a big obstacle in fighting the coronavirus. They are also a major obstacle to economic recovery.
National Review
How Loosening Regulations Can Fight Coronavirus and Help the Economy
If a regulation isn’t needed during a crisis, it was probably never needed at all. To his credit, President Trump signed an executive order on May…
The Orange County Register
Assembly Bill 5’s Harms Can’t Be Exempted Away, It Must Be Repealed
The top two priorities for the coronavirus pandemic are keeping people safe and minimizing economic damage, in that order. California’s Assembly Bill 5 is harmful…
Real Clear Markets
An Effective Pandemic Response Would Be Deregulation
During a pandemic, regulations should not get between sick people and health care, or between hungry people and food. This also applies in normal times.
Washington Examiner
Prepare for the next pandemic with a commission to kill #NeverNeeded regulations
The coronavirus pandemic needs a long-term policy response.
Inside Sources
Tariffs — Possible Minimum Wage Hikes — Raise Taxes, Harm Workers
Presidential candidate Tom Steyer recently proposed increasing the federal minimum wage to $22 — more than triple the current level of $7.25, and the House…
Washington Examiner
Losing the Ex-Im Bank Battle Could Lead to a Victory in the War Against It
As flashpoint issues go, the Export-Import Bank is an unlikely candidate. And yet, here we are.
CNS News
Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization Is Sadly All But Inevitable
Congress is back from its annual August recess. One of the top items on its agenda is reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, which has an expiring…
Inside Sources
More Than Jobs – the Minimum Wage’s Many Tradeoffs
The House of Representatives will likely vote this week on a plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024. Much…
National Review
President Trump Should Rediscover Regulatory Reform
President Trump, who made regulatory reform a priority early in his term, claims to have reduced federal regulatory burdens by $23 billion in fiscal year…
The Washington Examiner
Consumer Doom: Both Parties are Pushing Antitrust Rules as a 2020 Issue
After a two-decade lull following the Microsoft case, big antitrust enforcement cases are back in vogue. Both political parties are making antitrust regulation a 2020…
Washington Examiner
Consumer doom: Both parties are pushing antitrust rules as a 2020 issue
After a two-decade lull following the Microsoft case, big antitrust enforcement cases are back in vogue. Both political parties are making antitrust regulation a 2020…
Fox Business
The New Congress Must Repeal All of Trump’s New Tariffs ASAP: CEI
In two years, President Trump has doubled tariffs in the United States. Allies and adversaries alike have reciprocated, and the economic effects are already visible,…
The Hill
How to Rein in Regulatory Dark Matter
Divisive hot-button issues are distracting public attention from policy reforms that could make everyone better off by expanding the economy. One of these is regulatory…
Fox Business
Lessons from the GM layoffs: End the tariffs and the subsidies
General Motors announced on Monday it will be laying off 14,700 workers, closing five factories, and discontinuing several car models. This has caused some soul-searching in the…
Morning Consult
Trump’s Trade War Isn’t Working Because Tariffs Hurt Americans
The Trump administration recently announced a trade agreement that will replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The new…
Inside Sources
Will Trump’s Tariffs Kill Free Markets?
President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum against allies like Canada, Mexico and the European Union are only the latest skirmish in a long-term attack…
USA Today
Trump is Cutting Through Regulations, but Only Congress Can Make it Last
Eventually, politicians will be forced to get spending and deficits under control, but regulatory reforms are just as important to keep the economy growing and…
RealClear Policy
Regulatory Reform: A Beacon of Light for Bipartisanship
Common ground is nearly impossible to find in Washington these days. But with the Senate’s recent confirmation of Neomi Rao as the White House’s…
Fortune
Regulations Cost U.S. Business More Than Canada’s GDP
President Donald Trump’s administration has been busy issuing a flurry of executive orders intended to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses that keep them from adding…
The Hill
New President, New (Anti-)Red Tape Agenda
Federal regulators issue thousands of regulations every year. Decrees range from the Environmental Protection Agency’s gargantuan Clean Power Plan and “Waters of the United States”…
Investor's Business Daily
Here’s How The President and Congress Can ‘Rein In’ Regulation
President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald J. Trump have something important in common. They both have a chance to help America's job creators out from…
Investor's Business Daily
Inequality Is A Matter Of People, Not Numbers
From presidential candidates on down, everyone worries about economic inequality these days. In an era of stagnant job and wage growth, that’s a fair concern.
The Hill
Presidential candidates should talk about regulation
From “lyin’” to “low-energy,” the current election’s lowering of the rhetorical bar to levels that challenge even the most nimble limbo dancer is more than…
Foundation for Economic Education
Why Is the Middle Class So Angry?
The middle class is angry. Feeling left out of sharing in the nation’s prosperity the way they used to, they are increasingly turning to…
Real Clear Policy
Minimum Wage: Is Job Loss Acceptable?
Finally, some minimum-wage advocates are acknowledging the policy's tradeoffs. New School economics professor David Howell recently asked the Washington Post, "Why shouldn't we in…
Real Clear Policy
Reforming Regulation in 2016
The year 2015 was a record-setting one for regulation. The 2015 Federal Register, the daily digest where agencies publish proposed and final rules, reached 82,035…
Las Vegas Sun
Let’s be thankful that now is a fantastic time to be alive
Thanksgiving celebrates human cooperation. And even though the European colonization of America was not exactly a cooperative venture, the inaugural 1621 Plymouth Thanksgiving feast certainly…
Forbes
Virtuous Capitalism In Theory And Practice
Capitalism has a bad reputation. Many people see it as corrupt, uncaring, and in bed with politicians. And popular wisdom isn’t always wrong. For example,…
Washington Examiner
Easy Come, Easy Go
The Federal Reserve announced Oct. 29 that it was ending quantitative easing, its program to keep interest rates low. Two days later and halfway around…
American Spectator
No Triple Mandate for the Federal Reserve
A recent speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen got considerable attention over her subtly implied suggestion that the Fed consider taking on a…
RealClear Markets
Obama’s Pen and Phone Can Achieve Great Things
"[I]f Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will," President Obama warned in 2013. "I will direct my cabinet to come up with…
Investor's Business Daily
Ex-Im Bank Fight Shows How We Can Sunset More Useless Agencies
As far as flash-point issues go, the Export-Import Bank is about as unlikely as it gets. Few people have even heard of Ex-Im, a federal…
Rare
Why Ronald Reagan would kill the Export-Import Bank
One of my favorite economics jokes is the Tullock Economic Development Plan. Devised by the influential public choice economist Gordon Tullock, it involves taxing everyone…
The Daily Caller
Is John Boehner’s Lawsuit The Best Way To Rein In The Executive Branch?
On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner announced plans to sue the White House for breaching the Constitution’s separation of powers. “On one matter after another…
Washington Times
A Model for Rolling Back Outdated Regulations
Very few people would argue for maintaining horse-and-buggy rules in the era of driverless cars, such as Google’s recently introduced prototype. Most rules still manage…
The Hill
Regulation Without Representation
Washington Times
Stop the money presses!
Leading up to Janet Yellen’s Jan. 6 confirmation vote, the Federal Reserve recently announced that it will taper back its bond-buying program, known as quantitative…
Daily Caller
How the shutdown is impacting regulation
For the seventeenth time since current budgeting rules were adopted in 1976, the federal government is shut down. Seventeen years of relative peace have devolved…
Washington Times
The real cost of federal regulations
When the news broke that the National Security Agency has been monitoring Americans’ communications, the Obama administration was reluctant to discuss if it…
The American Spectator
The Regulatory Improvement Commission
There are regulations for everything from restaurant menus to walk-in freezers’ energy efficiency. Almost no one denies that the nation’s economy is saddled with some…
Forbes
Congress Confronts ‘Laws Gone Wild’
How extensive is federal regulation? The “hidden tax” now tops $1.8 trillion annually, an immense drain on innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity and living standards. Federal…
The American Spectator
Twenty Years of Non-Stop Regulation
Twenty years ago saw the release of the first edition of Ten Thousand Commandments, an annual report that tracks the cost and scope of the…
Investor's Business Daily
America’s Soaring Regulations Cost $1.8 Trillion A Year
Politicians from both parties routinely tout the need to roll back unnecessary regulations. But how much overregulation is there exactly? Most politicians have no idea,…
Daily Caller
The Towering Federal Register
This week marks the publication of the 20th anniversary edition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the federal regulatory state, Ten Thousand Commandments.
The American Spectator
Republicans Dishonor Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher’s passing led many around the world to reflect on her legacy. In the United Kingdom, reactions ranged from fond remembrances by supporters to…
Washington Times
Who Regulates the Regulators?
In Beltway terms, the Federal Communications Commission’s $350 million budget request for 2013 is practically a rounding error. Yet it costs the American people a…
The American Spectator
At Minimum, a Big Loser
President Obama brought the minimum wage debate back into the news in a big way in his State of the Union address, when he proposed…
The American Spectator
The Anti-Democracy Index
The United States Constitution gives “all legislative powers herein granted” to Congress. Neither the judicial nor the executive branch has the power to make laws,…
Daily Caller
EPA costs US economy $353 billion per year
Transparency is the lifeblood of democracy. Washington needs more of it, especially in the all-too-opaque world of regulation. The…
Washington Times
Federal rules cost $10,000 per employee
What do the Progressive Policy Institute, former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, former presidential candidate Herman Cain and the Competitive Enterprise Institute have…
Daily Caller
Missing: Regulatory transparency
Every spring and fall, as certain as the turning of the seasons, the General Services Administration’s Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) issues a new edition…
Fox Business
Winning the Presidential Debate with Regulation
Presidential debates are where the candidates try to show the average likely voter they know what he or she wants better than the other guy.
Washington Times
Regulations and Rules Equal Broken Government
When President Obama and Mitt Romney are jousting about taxes during their Wednesday night debate, one or both candidates might correctly point out that the…
Investor's Business Daily
Federal Agencies Should Stop Using Cost-Benefit Analyses
Every year, the Internal Revenue Service releases data on how much tax revenue it takes in. It never argues that the nation's tax burden is…
RealClear Policy
Congress Should Create a Repeal Committee
When Congress passes a highly unpopular bill that forces people to buy products from private businesses, and then the Supreme Court upholds it, something needs…
USA Today
FDA rules won’t do much good
Food-borne illnesses kill as many as 3,000 Americans each year, but consumers should not expect new Food and Drug Administration regulations to help. These rules,…
American Spectator
Needed: Judicial Activism
When it comes to the issues, it’s much harder than it should be to find substantive differences between President Obama and Mitt Romney. One potential…
Washington Times
Season for Relief From Big Government
The good news is that this year’s budget deficit will be half a trillion less than last year’s. The bad news is that it still…
Daily Caller
Three Quick Thoughts on the Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court has upheld the health care law’s insurance mandate, to the surprise of many. This surprise sparked a few quick thoughts about the…
Daily Caller
The IRS’s Trojan Horse
It may be another 10 months before Tax Day rears its ugly head again, but that doesn’t mean that the American people should take their…