FEE
Was the New Deal Really a War on Free Enterprise? It’s Complicated
Cornell University historian Lawrence Glickman has mined an impressive volume of documents and diversity of sources in order to understand the meaning of a potent…
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…
Forbes
We’re Not Biased, We’re Liberals: How Cultural Leftism Will Slant Social Media Regulation
As debates over bias, harm, misinformation and election interference on social media unfold, it will be interesting to watch whether or not mainstream media opposes…
The Washington Times
Don’t Let the SEC Snatch Funds from Middle-Class Investors
In recent speeches, President Trump hailed deregulation as key to fueling big economic gains for all types of workers. Mr. Trump reminded Americans in his…
The Washington Times
We’re Not Biased, We’re Liberals: How Cultural Leftism Will Slant Social Media Regulation
“Water? What’s water?” —The fish As debates over bias, harm, misinformation and election interference on social media unfold, it will be interesting to…
Washington Times
Don’t let the SEC snatch funds from middle-class investors
The Atlantic
Trump’s DOJ Interference Is Actually Not Crazy
Toronto Star
The Big Debate: Should single-use plastics be banned?
The Washington Times
One Nation, Ungovernable: Trump White House Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Federal Budget
There has not been a federal budget surplus since Bill Clinton was president. Not long ago, President Trump’s New Foundation for American…
National Review
Why Impeachment Failed
The Atlantic
Abuse of Power Is a Dangerous Standard for Democrats to Play With
Almost the minute after the White House released its 110-page brief for the Senate impeachment trial, careful observers noticed a contradiction between the White House counsel’s…
The Hill
Improving Federal Environmental Impact Assessments
Last week, the Trump administration proposed significant improvements to how agencies implement one of the most important laws you’ve never heard of: the National Environmental Policy…
Forbes
Fed Continues to Disregard Rules When Putting Forth Its Own Rules
President Trump hasn’t minced words on his criticisms of the Federal Reserve. Now he has some backup from Congress’ bipartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), which…
Inside Sources
Federal Children’s Environmental Health Grants Used to Peddle Junk Science
For more than two decades, the federal government has doled out millions of dollars to fund university-based “children’s environmental health centers.” These centers operate under…
The Washington Examiner
Australian Wildfires Were Caused by Humans, Not Climate Change
Alarmists have been quick to blame climate change for the recent, horrific fires in Australia and California. Although human actions do bear a large share…
Forbes
Deepfakes and Beyond: Who Wins if Social Media Platforms are Regulated?
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone except you and people you agree with would just STFU? Attributed indirectly to Voltaire, the sentiment “I disapprove of…
Forbes
Trump White House Quietly Releases Overdue Regulatory Cost-Benefit Reports
The long-standing presumption that national top-down regulation of the economy from Washington brings substantial net benefits dominates public policy. But how much timely review of federal…
The Hill
Why are Labor Union Reforms Only Necessary for Mexican Workers?
The primary purpose of free trade agreements is to break down barriers to the free flow of goods across borders so consumers have access to…
Watts Up With That
Global Economic Conflict: A Nobel-Winning Alternative to the Paris Climate Agreement?
Every December brings the holiday season back into our lives, along with the lights, the decorations, and time with family and friends. December is also…
Inside Sources
Volkswagen — Smoke, Mirrors and Electric Cars
Volkswagen would like the world to know it plans to produce a million electric cars by 2022, likely leapfrogging (or maybe eliminating) competition like Tesla. The…
Forbes
Trump’ Year In Regulation, 2019
Today, Tuesday, December 31, 2019, is the last federal workday of the year. This presents an opportunity to review the heft of the Federal Register and its…
Forbes
The 2020 Unconstitutionality Index: 28 Federal Rules And Regulations For Every Law Congress Passes
Even in a presidential administration bent on cutting regulation (see my 2019 overview), the number of rules from hundreds of federal agencies …
The Washington Examiner
Beware ‘Eco-Friendly’ Christmas Gifts that Are No Such Thing
If you are looking to find some eco-friendly holiday gifts and decorations this year, be careful what advice you follow. Intentional or not, many suggestions…
The Atlantic
Democrats Have Failed to Prove Their Case Against Trump
The House Judiciary Committee has published articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Though potentially damning, the particular charges—abuse of power in connection with Ukraine…
Daily Caller
Sarbanes-Oxley is Hampering Investment—Look For Trump’s SEC to Fix It
“In the risk reform debate, as in so many political debates, logic is often for losers.” So lamented Competitive Enterprise Institute founder and president emeritus Fred L.
The Hill
The British Election Will Show the Undeniable Power of Nationalism
My home town of South Shield in the northeast of England last elected a Tory as its member of Parliament in 1834. Now the conservative…
Inside Sources
Volkswagen – Smoke, Mirrors and Electric Cars
Volkswagen would like the world to know it plans to produce a million electric cars by 2022, likely leapfrogging (or maybe eliminating) competition like Tesla. The…
Forbes
How Regulation of “Harmful Speech” Online Will Do the Real Harm
Much of the debate over online speech concerns whether or not conservatives are “censored” by big tech. But there are bigger fish to fry.
The Wall Street Journal
A Republican Proposal to Feed the Country to the Swamp
Progressives dream of making the District of Columbia into a state, but now a pair of Republican senators have the same vision reflected through a…
Fox News
Lassman & Murray: Is New Conservatism Really Progressivism?
For much of the past century, conservatives in America largely fused the ideas, means and political factions of two distinct worldviews: traditional social arrangements informed by…
NewsMax
CFPB Litigation Won’t Help Student Borrowers
The efforts of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger have gone a long way in reversing egregious Obama-era actions that plagued the agency,…
Law and Liberty
When Commerce Is Not Enough
Why is anger a large part of your customer base? That’s the question we should ask when we look at what “woke capitalism” is doing…
The Atlantic
Stop the Ethanol Madness
The idea of requiring the nation’s gasoline supply to contain a certain amount of renewable biofuel was born in a short-lived doomsday fad of the…
Cato Journal
Review of “The Enlightened Capitalists”
James O’Toole, a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, has assembled an impressive collective history of dozens of innovative—and…
Inside Sources
Point: Critics Can’t Decide if Facebook Does Too Much or Too Little
During his recent appearance at Georgetown University, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg summed up the company’s predicament: “Right now, we’re doing a very good job at…
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.
The Washington Times
Congress Can Fix Legal Marijuana Business Banking Problem
Violent and property crime rates have decreased over the past 25 years, so it’s telling that instances of robbery or burglary against one sort of…
Forbes
Helicopter Government? How the Internet of Things Enables Pushbutton Regulation from a Distance
Artificial intelligence can be curiously stupid. My Android phone still thinks I’m “wing Cruz” and doesn’t know my kids. Pandora overplays The Church and Deadmau5…
Real Clear Markets
With Drug Pricing, Bipartisanship Isn’t an Excuse to Violate the Laws of Economics
In an age of intense political polarization, some may assume anything that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump even marginally agree on has…
NewsMax
CFPB’s Kraninger Catching Flak—and Hitting Her Targets
An anonymous World War II bomber pilot may be the source of the saying, “If you’re not catching flak, you’re not hitting your target.” But today, the…
The Chicago Tribune
PRO: Critics can’t decide if Facebook does too much or too little
During his recent appearance at Georgetown University, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg summed up the company's predicament: "Right now, we're doing a very good job at…
Los Angeles Daily News
The Cost of Ending Independent Work
The California legislature managed to pass a near statutory prohibition on independent work in misguided bid to “protect workers.” Lawmakers achieved this outcome by redefining…
Fox Business
Chicago Teachers Strike—What Benefits the Union vs. What Benefits Teachers and Students
For the second time in less than a decade, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) decided to go on strike. Since Thursday, the Chicago Public School…
The Wall Street Journal
Trump’s Pen Limits Executive Power
President Trump signed two executive orders curbing executive power Oct. 9. They’re a good start, but more is needed.
Wall Street Journal
Trump’s Pen Limits Executive Power
The Washington Times
Trump Executive Orders Curtail Union Business on the Taxpayer Dime
Imagine each working day, federal employees report for work but do not perform any governmental duties. Instead, they work for a private enterprise void of…
The Washington Times
Are Hurricanes Getting Worse?
On September 20, Aylin Woodward and Morgan McFall-Johnson wrote a juicy article for Business Insider on Tropical Storm Imelda. Like every other slow-moving storm that…
National Review
A Shale-Gas Revolution, If We Can Keep It
Living conditions in the early Industrial Revolution were often atrocious, and Marx and Engels thought they saw a trend. They predicted in Capital that as capitalism evolved,…
Inside Sources
5 Reasons Trump Is Right to Save Incandescent Light Bulbs
Americans will have more freedom of choice now that the Trump administration’s Department of Energy has set about undoing Obama-era regulations targeting incandescent light bulbs in favor…
The Journal of The James Madison Institute
How Florida Hit the Gas on Self-Driving Car Development
Orlando, Florida was not widely known to the public as a hub of automotive innovation. But in July, more than 1,000 researchers and developers joined…
The Wall Street Journal
Free-Marketeers Have Taken Social Conservatives for Granted
For many free-market advocates, the recent conservative dalliance with noncapitalist policies has been as stunning as it has been swift. While President Trump’s antipathy to…
Inside Sources
Air Conditioning – Saving Lives but Getting No Love
Every summer brings heat waves, but recent summers have also brought waves of criticisms about air conditioning. We are told that it is unnecessary, unhealthy and…
Forbes
Will the Regulatory Right-to-Know Act Ever Be Enforced?
For the past two years there's been a big production made of the Trump Administration’s year-end Status Report on the “one-in, two-out” regulatory reduction program. These…
Forbes
What is the Cost of the Permanent Federal Regulatory Bureaucracy?
It is well known that businesses constantly seek favors from government. The phenomenon is called "rent-seeking" by economists, and it gets lots of attention. Elon Musk of…
The Atlantic
The Problem With the State-Level Investigation of Google
The battlefield is getting crowded. European antitrust enforcers have been fighting America’s tech giants for years. In the U.S., both the Justice Department and Federal…
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…
The Orlando Sentinel
CON: E-cigarette Flavor Ban Ineffective and Dangerous
Never let a crisis go to waste. That could be the official motto for the anti-tobacco industry, which has irresponsibly exploited this summer's sudden outbreak…
The Wall Street Journal
Packing the Court Is a Real Threat
Democrats are threatening to pack the Supreme Court by enacting legislation to expand its size if they take the White House and Senate in 2020.
The Washington Examiner
Silver Linings: Hurricane Dorian was Bad, but Super-Accurate Forecasts Saved Lives and Prevented False Alarms
On the surface, Hurricane Dorian looks like a real bad hat. It blasted the Abaco Islands in the northwestern Bahamas, and then traversed Grand Bahama,…
Fox News
Climate Questions for Politicians (That No One Seems to Want to Ask)
The Democrats running for their party’s presidential nomination are focusing more on climate change. Here are five questions reporters should ask to test whether the candidates’ climate…
The Hill
Facebook Audit Shows Conservatives Have the Social Media Company’s Attention
Facebook last week released the first portion of an independent report compiled by former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) addressing allegations of bias against conservatives by the…
The Washington Examiner
The Truth about Plastic Straws
President Trump’s campaign has raised nearly half a million dollars in a matter of weeks selling plastic straws with “Trump” emblazed on each one. They…
Inside Sources
Consumer Choice Is Not Elitist
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, thinks it’s fine that your new dishwasher takes more than 2 hours to complete a cycle — we think consumers…
Forbes
Will the Regulatory Right-to-Know Act Ever Be Enforced?
For the past two years there's been a big production made of the Trump Administration’s year-end Status Report on the “one-in, two-out” regulatory reduction program. These…
Inside Sources
Consumer Choice Is Not Elitist
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, thinks it’s fine that your new dishwasher takes more than 2 hours to complete a cycle — we think consumers…
Fox News
Daniel Turner, Kent Lassman: Green New Deal is No Deal at All – We Know because We Studied It
When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., unveiled the Green New Deal in February, they instantly changed the conversation on environmental policy. What in times past…
The Wall Street Journal
Death by Accounting?
The likelihood of a flu pandemic this season may be remote, but many in Washington don't want to take chances. Agencies from the Centers for…
Washington Examiner
FDA Can Save Lives by Rejecting Scott Gottlieb’s Lies
E-cigarettes have proven effective at helping people quit smoking, a massive potential public health gain, considering nearly half a million people die every year from…
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…
Fortune
Why Recent Antitrust Regulation Isn’t Really About Consumer Protection
In its second hearing today, the House Judiciary Committee continued its investigation into the tech antitrust issue. This latest iteration of “hipster antitrust” is nothing more…
The Boston Globe
Let There Be a Clean Break Between Unions, Nonmembers
The editorial “House gets it mostly right on labor law” misses the mark. The primary provision of the bill that the Globe finds sensible —…
Fox News
Conservatives Who Want Facebook, Other Social Media Regulated Should Think Twice
There are growing calls from both sides of the political aisle for government regulation of speech on social media platforms, but letting government dictate what…
The Washington Examiner
Emotions, Not Facts, are Guiding Juries against Roundup
A California jury this week awarded a whopping $2 billion based on a couple's claim that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer known…
Washington Examiner
Sorry, but YouTube’s New Video Removal Policies are Consistent with the First Amendment
It may be called YouTube, but that doesn’t mean it belongs to you. It is the property of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. People…
Washington Examiner
Sorry, but YouTube’s new video removal policies are consistent with the First Amendment
It may be called YouTube, but that doesn’t mean it belongs to you. It is the property of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. People…
The Hill
Legalized sports betting is paying off
A year ago, New Jersey’s fight to overturn the failed federal ban on sports betting was vindicated by the Supreme Court, with the justices deeming…
Daily Caller
Trump May Adopt an Obama-Era Climate Policy
Forbes
Trump’s Regulatory Reform Agenda by the Numbers (Summer 2019 Update)
The Trump administration released the Spring 2019 edition of the twice-yearly Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.
Fox News
Models of Misinformation — Climate Reports Melt under Scrutiny
A last-ditch effort to refute climate “skeptics”—people unconvinced that we need to spend trillions to reshape our economies to halt or slow “climate change”-- has…
Fox News
Ben Lieberman: There’s a new addition to the list of enemies of the planet — buildings (yes, buildings!)
Environmentalists and their friends in Congress dislike an ever-expanding list of materials and industries American families rely on, from fossil fuels to vehicles to logging,…
Fox Business
Big Tech vs. Free Speech? It’s Not that Simple
After Facebook and other social media companies’ recent moves to ban Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and other extremists some pundits are calling for the end of the safe harbor that…
Daily Caller
LIEBERMAN: Trump May Adopt An Obama-Era Climate Policy
Believe it or not, the Trump administration is seriously considering entering into a global environmental treaty that was a key part of the Obama climate…
Forbes
What If the Administrative State Cannot Be Reformed?
For the past couple of years I’ve been emphasizing the usefulness of an executive order from President Donald Trump on regulatory "guidance documents" to bridge the gap…
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 Hill
Federal Reserve defies White House and Congress on Banking Regulation
President Trump and the Federal Reserve continue to clash over interest rates, but another simmering dispute concerns the regulatory burden the Federal Reserve and other…
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…
Forbes
Here are the Next Executive Orders President Trump Should Issue on Regulatory Reform
What's next for oversight and streamlining of federal regulations? On April 11, 2019, the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought issued…
Inside Sources
Ideology Undermines Earth Day Goals
April 22 is the 49th anniversary of Earth Day as well as the former communist dictator Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s 149th birthday. Is it a coincidence…
Medium
The FDA’s Runaway Trolley Problem
If you’ve ever participated in a thought experiment, you know how fun that can be. The most famous is the Trolley Problem, entertainingly portrayed by…
Medium
Where Anti-Vaxxers and Anti-Vapers Meet
You might have more in common with anti-vaxxers than you want to believe. You might feel the need to reject the possibility because you would…
CNS News
Facebook Moves on from ‘Move Fast and Break Things,’ Calls for Regulation
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s motto used to be “Move fast and break things.” Now that his company is under increased political scrutiny—and facing calls for…
Real Clear Policy
Federal Pot Prohibition Nears its End
America has made up its mind on marijuana. Most Americans think it should be legal, and all but two states have decriminalized or legalized the drug in…
The Hill
Federal Reserve defies White House and Congress on banking regulation
President Trump and the Federal Reserve continue to clash over interest rates, but another simmering dispute concerns the regulatory burden the Federal Reserve and other…
The Sacramento Bee
PRO: Climate Science Needs a Critical Review by Skeptical Experts
Is global warming a looming catastrophe? President Donald Trump has often said he doesn't think so even while his administration continues to release official reports…
Law & Liberty
The Unenumerated Rights of the Privileges or Immunities Clause
Does the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause include unenumerated rights, like the right to earn an honest living or make contracts? Professor Kurt Lash…
National Review
Breaking Up Platforms Has Sickening Implications
Hipster antitrust sickens me. Literally. I was under the weather last week. Feeling ill, I spent a good amount of time at local pharmacies, searching…
Forbes
Warning Signs: How Trump’s Ascendant Regulatory Impulses Could Swamp His Deregulatory Program
President Donald Trump has pruned rules and costs and held down regulatory output with more enthusiasm than other presidents. But on the flipside of Trump’s controversial regulatory savings, Trump sports regulatory…
The Washington Examiner
The Inefficiency of Efficiency: Appliance Standards Often Cost More Than They Save
It is hard to find anything in Washington more inefficient than an efficiency standard for home appliances. Each standard can require more than 30 bureaucratic…
Real Clear Policy
The Flawed EPA Program that Needs to be Cut From the Federal Budget
As the Trump administration and Congress look for items to trim from the federal budget, they should paint a target on the Integrated Risk Information…