The Virginian-Pilot
Trey Kovacs: Virginians should preserve the right to work
No one should be forced to financially support an organization they disagree with under threat of penalty. Virginians have the chance to stand up for…
The Wall Street Journal
Obama’s Electric Car Money Grab
A federal judge last week approved a $14.7 billion settlement to partially resolve the legal fallout over Volkswagen’s installation of “defeat devices” designed to cheat…
Foundation for Economic Education
An Existential Threat to the UK’s Sharing Economy
A UK Employment Tribunal has ruled that drivers who use the Uber platform should be regarded as employees. This qualifies them for various statutory…
Huffington Post
Activists Wage War on Women’s Personal Care Choices
I suspect most women would agree that when you find a skin care product that works, you stick with it. But activist groups are waging…
Forbes
Surging Federal Register Of Regulations Cracks Top 10 Fattest Ever–With 2 Months Still To Go
The federal debt isn’t the only thing doubling every few years. Both presidential candidates have declared they will cut mounting regulatory red tape, particularly for…
Forbes
Next President Should Fire CFPB’s Cordray
“You’re fired!” A certain presidential candidate made that phrase famous. But whoever is elected to the White House this November should say those words to…
National Review
Bureaucrats Threaten the Rule of Law
Donald Trump’s recent refusal to promise he’ll accept the presidential election’s result has raised much concern. Yet, there has been little outcry over Consumer Financial…
Forbes
Is Capitalism Worth Defending?
In an election season poised to set new records for voter fatigue, we’ve seen a lot of negativity about major American institutions, including…
Forbes
Republicans and Democrats Unite Against $86 Billion AT&T-Time Warner Merger Deal
In a response to earlier media mergers such as Comcast-NBCUniversal, and in an effort to adapt to a world in which consumers increasingly turn away…
Foundation for Economic Education
One Driver’s Story Shows the Benefits of the Sharing Economy
When I was in London last week, I chatted with my Uber drivers whenever I used the service to get around the city. One driver’s…
Investor's Business Daily
‘I, Whiskey’: Free Markets And The Human Spirit
In a political season that's seen a lot of skepticism about big business and trade, it can be good to step back and remind…
Forbes
White House Showcases National Plans For Mars Journey, High Technology
President Barack Obama is hosting the White House Frontiers Conference at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. The idea is to “explore the future of innovation,”…
Foundation for Economic Education
Work Is Changing for the Better, and Government Is Trying to Hold It Back
Should your boss tell you how to vote? To even ask the question is absurd today, but it was not always so. Prior to the…
Forbes
Classical Liberalism Alive And Well In Miami
It’s difficult to wage a war without allies, and the War of Ideas is no different. Yet, capitalist defenders—free market intellectuals and wealth-creating business leaders—rarely…
National Review
CFPB “Structurally Unconstitutional” – US Court of Appeals
In a rare victory for the Constitution and American political tradition, the US Court of Appeals from the DC Circuit today found that the…
Foundation for Economic Education
Climate Modeling: Settled Science or Fool’s Errand?
I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read Daniel Sarewitz’s recent piece Saving Science in the New Atlantis, but it is causing…
InsideSources
A New President Needs a New Red Tape Agenda
Federal regulators issue thousands of rules and regulations every year. Decrees range from the Environmental Protection Agency’s gargantuan Clean Power Plan and “Waters of the…
Cayman Financial Review
Britain’s Brexit Vote Opens Way for a Regulatory Rethink
The Daily Signal
The Sneaky Way Public Unions Are Getting Tax Dollars for Union Activities
Taxpayers expect their government to spend tax dollars wisely, on activities that benefit the public. But across the country, governments at all levels give away…
Fox News
It’s Judgment Day for the EPA’s Clean Power Plan
On Tuesday, September 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear arguments over EPA’s massive Clean Power Plan. The…
The Hill
Meet the new Robber Barons
There was a time when railroad tycoons built empires by exploiting government connections to take advantage of the little guy. Today, the tables are turned,…
NewsBusters
Liberals, Media Allies Might Face Some Serious Opposition on Financial Regulation
New York State’s Department of Labor recently made headlines with its rules mandating that employers paying their workforces with prepaid debit cards ensure that employees…
The Daily Caller
The EPA’s “Power Plan” Is An Unlawful Power Grab
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument next Tuesday, September 27 on the Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called Clean Power Plan. The centerpiece…
Cato Journal
Review of “Markets without Limits”
Are there some things that should be beyond the market, that is, which should not be permitted to be bought and sold? Jason Brennan and Peter Jaworski…
Los Angeles Times
If a law has a first name, that’s a bad sign
Donald Trump claims to be running for president as an outsider. But his campaign has resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book…
The Denver Post
Like Obama, Hickenlooper using heavy-handed tactics on climate policy
On climate change, is Gov. John Hickenlooper ripping a page directly from President Obama’s authoritarian playbook? Obama dodged global warming during his reelection campaign, only…
Real Clear Policy
Footlong Subs and Other Frivolous Lawsuits
You may have heard about the attorney who sued his dry cleaner for $67 million for losing his pants, or the movie-goer who…
Forbes
Why Future Federal Communications Commission Oversight Hearings Should Explore Sunsetting the Agency
There’s another Federal Communications Commission (FCC) oversight hearing underway in the Senate Commerce Committee, with most of the time being spent on doings with…
Newsmax
CFPB Favors Trial Lawyers at Consumers’ Expense
Investor's Business Daily
Regulators Want You Punching The Clock On A Smartphone App
It's not your grandfather's workplace anymore. As anybody who has worked for 20 or more years will tell you, the world of work has…
Inside Sources
Time to pare back union legal privileges
With Labor Day around the corner, a traditional holiday honoring American workers, it’s an apt time to take a hard look at the value of…
Foundation for Economic Education
Greatest Hits of the Science Deniers
"And yet, it moves.” Thus muttered Galileo Galilei under his breath after being forced by the Inquisition to recant his claim that the Earth moved…
Forbes
Brexit Planners Should Look To The U.S. For Inspiration
In June, British voters voted to leave the European Union, whose bureaucracy had imposed alien laws and regulations on them for decades. The EU system…
Forbes
The Federal Communications Commission Should Take A Selfie
There are either dozens of federal agencies or hundreds, depending, seemingly, upon the day of the week or whom one asks. The Federal Communications…
The Hill
One year later, Congress still needs to reverse NLRB joint employer standard
With economic recovery and job creation still hurting, Congress should make it a priority this September, when they are back in session, to take action…
Huffington Post
Unfair Policies Drive Up Home Prices
In an article for CNN, Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine outlines his and Hillary Clinton’s plan to promote fair housing – indeed a…
RealClear Markets
Wal-Mart’s Jet.com Buy Puts Online Sales Tax at the Forefront
Forbes
CFPB Anti-Arbitration Rule Will Harm Consumers and FinTech
"Gotcha!" That’s what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) claims binding arbitration clauses in consumer finance contracts often amount to. In these clauses, consumers agree…
Forbes
How The Next President Can Use Executive Power To Jumpstart Economic Growth On Day One (Part 2)
The Federal Register contained over 7,700 rules and regulations among an all-time-record 73,000 pages the year President Reagan was elected. One response was his Executive…
Foundation for Economic Education
Our Media-Driven Epistemological Breakdown
Forbes
How The Next President Can Use Executive Power To Jumpstart Economic Growth On Day One (Part 1)
After what will have been eight years of debate over executive overreach and Barack Obama’s “pen and phone,” and it will be time for…
Washington Post
Preserving the prairie
The Aug. 8 front-page article “Prairie, farmers’ old enemy, could be their lifeline,” about the environmental importance of Midwestern prairies, failed to mention why…
Forbes
Capitalism and the Candidates
As a longtime advocate for capitalism, I’ve been considering the prospects for free market ideas in a White House presided over by either of the…
Forbes
Nobody For President
Tyler Morning Telegraph
Texas faces real harm from EPA’s Invisible Haze rule
Texas recently got a temporary reprieve from an ineffective, staggeringly costly mandate imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. Court of Appeals for…
Forbes
Here’s What Happened The Last Time We Tried Donald Trump’s Moratorium On Regulations
In Donald Trump’s Detroit economic speech and in his “An America First Economic Plan: Winning The Global Competition,” he said: "Upon taking…
Fox Business
One Year Later, the Joint Employer Standard Still Causing Confusion
This month marks the one-year anniversary of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Browning-Ferris decision, which radically redefined employment rules for businesses nationwide. Under the…
Forbes
New Hostility To High Finance Has Ancient Roots
Recently, the Republicans assembled in Cleveland approved a platform that includes some praiseworthy planks on government reform, but one provision stood out as a jarring…
Newsday
How many Americans will die because of the FDA’s vaping rule?
E-cigarettes could lead to a 21 percent decline in deaths from smoking-related diseases for people born after 1997, according to a study published in Nicotine…
The Huffington Post
The Best Possible Zika Prevention Kit Includes DEET
Last week, Broward Country Florida recorded the first two Zika cases transmitted by mosquitos in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
Washington Times
Preserving the right to work
Labor unions are aggressively filing lawsuits against right-to-work laws across the nation. Currently, in Idaho, Indiana, Wisconsin and West Virginia, organized labor is challenging workers’…
Foundation for Economic Education
One Man’s Fight against Bureaucratic Tyranny Moves On-Campus
Beating a people into submission doesn’t happen overnight. It proceeds in stages, and requires long-term leveraging of institutions and appeals to moral authority to justify…
Herald Democrat
Subsidizing Luxury Vehicles Makes No Sense
Should you spot a Tesla electric car on the road, see if the driver is smiling. He should be smiling at you for contributing $7,500…
Forbes
Unfunded Mandates On The States Rising Again
Fifteen Republican Attorneys General just wrote to House and Senate leadership, concerned about agencies “failing to fully consider the effect of their regulations on…
Huffington Post
Don’t Give up on the Monarch Butterfly!
Last winter, monarch butterfly numbers soared, increasing by more than one-third in their overwintering habitat. Yet we are well into July, and while my…
Foundation for Economic Education
Progressivism’s Parade of Horrors
Forbes
How Glass-Steagall’s Return Would Shatter America’s Hometown Banks
Set against the Main Street backdrop of Cleveland, the drafters of the Republican convention platform pledged support for a banking rule signed into law by…
Foundation for Economic Education
Ma Bell Suppressed Innovation for Thirty Grueling Years
"Oh, for the days of Ma Bell!” is not a lament we’re likely to hear. And for good reason. Before the breakup of AT&T, America’s…
Forbes
Antitrust Regulation And The 2016 Party Platform Debates
Having never been a fan of antitrust protectionism, I found it interesting that (according to Bloomberg) while Democrats are highlighting antitrust in their…
National Review
GOP Platform Contains Serious Mistake on Banking
One of these things is not like the other. In the generally good section of the GOP’s Platform entitled Regulation: The Quiet Tyranny (p.27-28), there…
Real Clear Policy
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Science
Consuming butter does not increase the risk of heart disease, a recent study found. Those who believed in the accuracy of U.S. government dietary…
The Hill
Big Brother? How SOPRA can help restore proper authority
The Internet as we know it may soon become unrecognizable. That’s because the freewheeling “network of networks” soon will be regulated by bureaucrats. The D.C.
Forbes
Here’s How Financial And Other Regulators Are Issuing Rules Without Writing Them
At the end of June I testified in a U.S. Senate Homeland Security Regulatory oversight subcommittee hearing on Examining the Use of Agency Regulatory…
Foundation for Economic Education
Fear Not Malevolent AI Robots
I’ve recently become hooked on Michael Solona’s new podcast series, “Anatomy of Next: Utopia,”a fascinating analysis of our most advanced and rapidly developing technologies…
Forbes
Manage Water Like Oil To Increase Supply
Some of the natural resources we use every day are traded freely in the market economy, while others are heavily regulated and controlled by government…
The New York Times
Costs of Regulations
To the Editor: You criticize our study of federal agencies, “Ten Thousand Commandments,” for analyzing the costs of regulations without adjusting for their alleged benefits…
USA Today
Soda taxes slim wallets, not waistlines
Since Philadelphia’s city council approved a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on soda this month, “public health” advocates, led by former New York City…
Op-Eds
Britain was always a bad fit for the EU: Think tank
Fox News
Persecuting climate skeptics: The cover-up continues
Seventeen attorneys general got more than they bargained for when they held a March 29, 2016 “publicity stunt” press conference to announce, with former…
Foundation for Economic Education
The Prisoners’ Dilemma of Britain and the EU
The world economy roiled following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Uncertainty was the cause. Even the scope of the potential deal is unknown…
Inside Sources
Brexit Vote Is the End of the Beginning
In the end, it wasn’t close. People had been expecting a clear win for the Remain side in the popular vote on whether Britain should…
Maryland Reporter
Opinion: County contracts with union paid leave cost taxpayers
Prince George’s County Council is considering approval of a union contract covering firefighters and paramedics. But legal developments around the country should give council members…
Forbes
If ‘Fiduciary Rule’ Goes Through, the Joke Is On American Savers
John Oliver’s viewers may think of themselves as the smart set, but the popular TV comic recently suggested that he rather deems them dim bulbs…
National Review
Britain’s Time for Choosing
I’ve steered clear of opining here about tomorrow’s Brexit vote as so many others have been doing such a good job of it, like…
American Legislative Exchange Council
Union Time on the Taxpayer Dime
Connecticut state budgets are in dire straits. Belts need to be tightened. Revenue projections estimate the budget deficit could spill over $900 million in…
Investor's Business Daily
Congress Missed Chance To Roll Back Job-Killing Regulations
A dismal May jobs report — where only 38,000 jobs were added to economy when 162,000 were expected — was the lowest mark since…
Forbes
Improve Access to Capital & Access to Wealth Creation With More Crowdfunding Deregulation
In this hyper-partisan era, the one thing Republicans and Democrats seem to agree on is the need to enable entrepreneurs and small businesses to gain…
Coalition to Save Local Businesses
CEI: Heavily Scrutinized NLRB Joint Employer Standard Heads to Court
Most people can pretty easily tell you who their boss is, but the Obama administration has made that a difficult question. In a decision last…
Real Clear Policy
House Moves to Take Back Ozone Policymaking
Last Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a long overdue bill to take back air quality policymaking from the most powerful and unaccountable government…
The Salt Lake Tribune
EPA’s expensive haze solution won’t produce detectable difference
Seven hundred million dollars. That's how much of your money that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is willing to throw away for nothing. This is…
Real Clear Policy
Congress, Reject Labor Department’s Overtime Rule
The Obama administration publicly touts the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule as a boon for workers. But the rule, which dramatically raises the salary…
Real Clear Policy
Congress, Reject Labor Department’s Overtime Rule
The Obama administration publicly touts the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule as a boon for workers. But the rule, which dramatically raises the salary…
Wall Street Journal
Amnesia? We Remember the Lack of a Cushion
As longtime critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who warned early on that they could destabilize the financial system, we were shocked by Douglas…
The Washington Post
Obama administration is not as transparent as it claims
In trying to explain how the State Department snipped out several embarrassing minutes from a 2013 press briefing video, an agency spokesman claimed that “there…
Foundation for Economic Education
DC Takes Aim at Airbnb, Hits Existing Rental Industry
Washington, DC’s new regulations on Airbnb and similar businesses could end up killing off old-fashioned bed-and-breakfasts. Airbnb, the service that allows owners to rent out…
Cato Unbound
The Administrative State Lacks Its Own Justification: Expertise
Legitimacy notwithstanding, we tend to discuss the administrative state as if it is a functioning expert entity, taking expertise in its divisions for granted. But…
Forbes
Bureaucracy’s Paradox: When Fewer Regulations Mean Less Freedom
"To limit abuse by the rulers, ancient Rome wrote down the law and permitted citizens to read it. Under Dodd-Frank, regulatory authority is…
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.
Inside Sources
Can Alternative Energy Replace Fossil Fuels?
Portugal recently obtained four days’ worth of electricity from hydropower dams, wind turbines, cultivated biomass, and other renewable sources. That’s after the small Iberian…
Forbes
What CEOs Should Be Saying About Inequality
Despite living at a time of unprecedented decreases in poverty around the world, we’re witnessing a seemingly unprecedented increase in worry about income…
Cato Unbound
No Law Passed, Not Even A Regulation Promulgated—But Servitude Nonetheless
In my last post I suggested that I may point out a few prominent examples of agencies regulating with “guidance” alone rather than the notice-and-comment…
National Review
“Income Inequality” – Missing the Point
President Obama, Paul Krugman tells us, has declared war on income inequality. In fact, income inequality is at the root of just about everything…
Cato Unbound
On the Administrative State’s Illegitimacy
"Who is better than overreaching bureaucrats to decide when the bureaucrats are overreaching?” That was one respondent’s characterization of the mindset that provoked the recently…
Washington Examiner
States constitutions can rein in union subsidy
On May 10, the Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could provide a roadmap to eliminate a persistent form of government…
Fox News
Surprise, surprise, Obama’s new overtime rule was never intended to raise your wages
The Obama administration claims that millions of salaried workers will get a raise under the new Department of Labor overtime rule. But a wage increase…
Forbes
Obama Releases Spring 2016 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
In the just-released spring 2016 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations (Agenda), a roundup published twice yearly by the White House Office of Management and…
Washington Times
Conservatives trend liberal over Facebook
Conservatives are hopping mad about Facebook allegedly manipulating its Trending Topics to discriminate against right-leaning news stories. And some want to do something about…
Newsmax
Let’s Fix Crowdfunding so Middle-Class Investors Can Profit
More than four years and one month after Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012, the…
National Review
Stopping the Bureaucrats Requires an End to Chevron Deference
National Review
Google Bans Payday Loan Ads: Who Needs Operation Choke Point?
Yesterday, Google announced in a blog post that it was changing the terms of its advertising service to ban payday-loan ads. Their reasoning was…