Providence Journal
Private lobbyists collecting public pensions is illegal gift
State and local pension funds face unfunded liabilities ranging from $3 trillion to $5 trillion, according to various reports. This is well-known problem and many…
Forbes
Is Uncle Sam Really The Greatest Entrepreneur Of All Time?
A new book titled The Entrepreneurial State that is now making the rounds gives credit to Uncle Sam for inventing many of the technologies we enjoy…
Human Events
Converting the Unconvertible
Here’s a thought experiment: What words come to mind with the following statements? I grew up in Marin County, Calif., during the late 1960s and…
Forbes
Obama Addresses Economy And ‘The Financial Crisis Five Years Later’
Today and this week, President Obama will address The Financial Crisis: Five Years Later in an effort shift attention back to domestic economic…
Real Clear Markets
Obama Announces Detailed Six Point Plan To Make College Affordable
Human Events
No Bipartisanship, Please
We’ve heard it a million times: What Washington needs is more bipartisanship, more cooperation among the parties … like the old days. To which I…
Human Events
Stand with Rand on Credit Union Freedom
This week, the nation’s credit unions, member-owned financial services groups, are taking their case to Capitol Hill. On many issues they face, conservatives and libertarians…
Forbes
President Obama’s ‘Syrialoquy’: To Bomb, Or Not To Bomb
To bomb, or not to bomb, that is the suggestion; Whether ’tis nobler in the polls to suffer The Slings and Arrows of…
National Review
Truly Global Free Trade
Co-written by research associate Alex McHugh As the U.S. and several Asian Pacific nations resume discussion this week over the the Trans-Pacific Partnership…
Fox News
The suspicious science behind ‘happiness’ surveys
Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs, perhaps the world’s leading “sustainability” guru, has a favorite country when talking about progress: the tiny mountain Kingdom of Bhutan. …
Breitbart
Study Discovers Problems With Parenting, Not Energy Drinks
More than half of all calls to Poison Control resulting from energy drinks involve accidental exposure by children under age six, according to a new…
Human Events
Entrepreneurial Immigrants: America’s Lifeblood
It’s a story as American as apple pie: An immigrant comes to the United States, starts a business and becomes the proud owner of a…
Human Events
Europe’s economy needs a real dose of pro-market reform
Recession has been eradicated in Europe. Hooray! Or at least, that’s what recent headlines and grandstanding from political leaders would have you believe. The…
Forbes
Ronald Coase Was The Greatest Of The Many Great University Of Chicago Economists
Ronald Coase (1910-2013), the greatest of the Chicago School economists in my view, died this week. Yet, his work lives on. If it gains the…
The Hill
D.C. Abuzz About Energy Drinks
America’s politicians and media love a good public panic. And right now they’re having a field day touting the supposed dangers associated with energy drinks.
Huffington Post
Don’t Let Entrepreneurs Become a Casualty of the Immigration Impasse
Eberhard Anheuser came to America as a soap and candle maker in 1842. When he died, his company had pioneered the pasteurization of beer. Marcus…
Credit Union Times
Flawed Durbin Ruling Boosts Fed’s Odds:
Since U.S. District Judge Richard Leon issued his shocking decision on July 31 that called for even more draconian price controls under…
Real Clear Policy
The Feds Should Stay Out of the CBS Blackout
From Los Angeles to New York, 3 million Americans in eight U.S. cities haven't been able to watch CBS on cable for weeks, because of…
Human Events
The EPA Doesn’t Have to Tell Anyone Anything, Or Does It?
I am the new president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute – also known as the feistiest think tank in D.C. – and the newest contributor…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: Ron Binz Doesn’t Seem to Like Most Power Producers
It should come as no surprise that industry insiders, lobbyists and special-interest groups support Ron Binz, President Obama's choice to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory…
Real Clear Markets
Federal Judge Rules Food Stamp Recipients Can Unionize
In a surprise ruling, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion supporting the right of Supplemental Nutrition…
Real Clear Markets
United Auto Workers fairy tales
Once upon a time, in Chattanooga a young girl made her way to work, picking flowers to add to her basket of posies which she…
Forbes
My Father: A Eulogy To A Good Man From The Greatest Generation
Daily Caller
Today it’s ‘nudge squads,’ tomorrow it’s enforcement
It’s not yet true that the White…
Conservative Way Forward
The Eurocrisis Started in Basel
The popular wisdom about the Euro crisis is that it was all the greedy bankers' fault. Yet, we live in a political world, not a…
Forbes
Caveat Emptor Banking: Peer-To-Peer Lending Challenges Too-Big-To-Fail Status Quo
Imagine a financial institution that the government cannot deem too big to fail, requires no deposit insurance, can never be subject to a run, needs…
Forbes
Caveat Emptor Banking: Peer-To-Peer Lending Challenges Too-Big-To-Fail Status Quo
Imagine a financial institution that the government cannot deem too big to fail, requires no deposit insurance, can never be subject to a run, needs…
National Journal
Keystone XL: Not Enough Attention to Core Issues
In the protracted conflict over the Keystone XL Pipeline, too much attention is paid to peripheral issues and not enough to the core issues. Peripheral…
National Journal
Is ‘zero for zero’ a sugar industry ploy?
The U.S. sugar lobby is promoting a supposedly free market idea: to get rid of the U.S. sugar support program if Brazilian producers give up…
National Journal
New study proves menu labeling doesn’t work as promised
Does calorie labeling on restaurant menus encourage healthier eating? A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health suggests not, concluding that calorie…
Forbes
We’re In A Cultural War Between The Forces Of Economic Dynamism And Stasis
In a recent column, I noted that our tribal ancestors viewed entrepreneurs with suspicion. In their view, entrepreneurs were too willing to violate…
Forbes
The Founders’ Greatest Fears About Democracy Are Playing Out
Our Founders’ greatest fear that pure democracy would inevitably destroy itself is being played out in two distinct dramas, both headed toward the same ending.
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…
Huffington Post
To Save the Planet, Obama Sets White House A/C to 85 Degrees
President Barack Obama, rebounding off his pivot from giving speeches on race relations in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict to giving speeches about…
Forbes
Want To Revive Glass-Steagall? Try This Wall Of Separation Instead
A debate is raging on the left, the right, and even in libertarian circles on the best way to escape from the Too-Big-To-Fail quagmire. But…
Wall Street Journal
In Praise of Banking at Big-Box Stores
Cowritten by Research Associate Kyle Tassinari Here's some good financial news for millions of Americans: The provision in Dodd-Frank that imposed a three-year moratorium on…
Huffington Post
Want to Revive Glass-Steagall? Try This Wall of Separation Instead
A debate is raging on the left, the right, and even in libertarian circles on the best way to escape from the Too-Big-To-Fail quagmire. These…
Daily Caller
A culture of freedom: the first casualty of the U.S.-EU trade deal
Co-written by Research Associate Alex McHugh The proposed trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment…
Forbes
Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge Was The Ultimate Job Creator
There is probably no figure more emblematic of the greedy, penny-pinching capitalist than Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Dickens is often seen…
Forbes
We Are Gathered Here Today To Witness The Burial Of The Protestant Work Ethic
Economic values do not spring from a vacuum. They are rooted in the broader moral values we rely on to navigate our lives. Let me…
Forbes
Internet Myth: Ronald Reagan Regretted Legalization
Americans often bolster arguments with quotes from Founding Fathers or other U.S. political icons. Unfortunately, this practice often leads to quotes being invented to support…
Forbes
Why LeBron James Should Be Rooting Against ObamaCare
The sudden announcement of a one-year delay of the Obamacare employer mandate confirms the fear expressed even by the law’s supporters that implementation will be…
Newsmax
Free Speech Trumps SEC Advertising Ban
Wednesday was finally the day that the Securities and Exchange Commission — one year and three months after it was instructed to do so by…
Forbes
Can Post-Constitutional America Recover Its Freedom And Prosperity?
It is by now undeniable that our Constitution is being unwound at an accelerating rate. With the wave of a blog post, the President of…
Forbes
E-Verify Exposes The Hypocrisy In Republican Free Market Rhetoric
After he introduced the Regulatory Accountability Act, Rep. Lamar Smith summarized the GOP attitude on regulation since the Tea Party movement’s influential rise. “Employers across…
Forbes
Beware the Myth of European Austerity
Beware the Myth of European Austerity “France’s Austerity Drive Pushes Country into Recession.” “How Austerity Has Failed.” Thus proclaim two recent, typical…
Forbes
Europe’s lessons on austerity success
With the U.S. national debt about to pass the $17 trillion mark – more than America’s total economic activity in 2012 – and federal interest…
The American Spectator
EPA Growth Knows No Limits
This op-ed was co-written by Todd Wynn at the American Legislative Exchange Council. Last week, President Obama rolled out a climate plan fit…
Forbes
The Great Obamacare Intergenerational Swindle
In the sci-fi thriller The Hunger Games, a group of young people are made to compete against each other in a fight for survival. Post-Constitutional America…
Forbes
Who Made Government Big? We Did
After U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced recently that the Fed would reduce its asset purchases through mid-2014, financial industry players and the journalists…
Forbes
On Independence Day — How Free Are You, Really?
As reported in Reason by Ronald Bailey, a recent study finds that “Federal Regulations Have Made You 75 percent Poorer.” The claim is that GDP…
Forbes
On Independence Day — How Free Are You, Really?
As reported in Reason by Ronald Bailey, a recent study finds that “Federal Regulations Have Made You 75 percent Poorer.” The claim is that GDP…
Forbes
UAW ate Detroit: Chattanooga could be its next meal
Co-written by Research Associate Julia Tavlas. Will Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant expand and hire more workers? That’s what Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and City Mayor…
Forbes
‘Racist’ Massachusetts Voters Defeat A Hispanic Republican Senatorial Candidate
Pretty offensive headline, isn’t it? Baselessly ascribing racist motives to voters for choosing Caucasian Rep. Ed Markey over Latino challenger Gabriel Gomez in this week’s…
National Review
Obama’s Climate Plan: It’s for the Kidz
Yes, the official subtitle of “President Obama’s Plan to Cut Carbon Pollution” is “Taking Action for Our Kids.” That should give you plenty of clues…
National Review
A Bar Fight over Privatization
A booze-fueled brawl has broken out in Pennsylvania. But not in a bar — this fight is unfolding in the statehouse. Pennsylvania is one…
Forbes
Coming Soon: A Dramatic Downshift In Company Size, Plus Hours Worked
The regulatory state never sleeps, relentlessly working day and night to tilt the economic playing field in favor of the politically connected. The regulations it…
Forbes
Coming Soon: A Dramatic Downshift In Company Size, Plus Hours Worked
The regulatory state never sleeps, relentlessly working day and night to tilt the economic playing field in favor of the politically connected. The regulations it…
USA Today
America should learn from Europe on wind power
As the Department of Energy considers a loan guarantee for the Cape Wind Project in Massachusetts, it should learn from Europe's failed wind energy experiments…
Forbes
The Blackberry Q10 Delivers As Mike Lazaridis Reflects
I first met Mike Lazaridis, the retired co-CEO and founder of Research in Motion (RIM), in 1991 when I was a rogue marketing manager at…
National Review
Dodd-Frank’s Early Returns
‘Admit it . . . you haven’t read it all either.” Thus said a New York Times op-ed (by Bono, of all people) about…
Investor's Business Daily
Online ‘Fairness’ Tax Could Hit Your 401(k)
Financial transaction tax proposals have prompted much debate over the past year, both in the U.S. and internationally. In February, the European Union proposed allowing…
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…
National Review
The Climate’s Alright
“Progressive” politicians, pundits, and organizations continue to wage political warfare on affordable energy, and their team still controls the Senate and the EPA. Their worldview,…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Education Department Can’t Ban Speech
As a former Education Department lawyer, I share George Will’s dismay that the Education Department is now pressuring colleges to ban speech such as sexual…
Forbes
The Real Reason Amazon Flip-Flopped On Internet Sales Taxes
Proponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act claim it’s about fairness to traditional retailers and cash-strapped states. But the flip-flop by Amazon.com, now one of…
The Hill
State-based drug tracking puts Americans at risk
When consumers take prescription and over-the-counter drugs — as more than half of all Americans do each month — they expect those medicines to improve…
Long Island Newsday
Colleges Paranoid Over Sexual Speech
As a former U.S. Education Department lawyer, I largely agree with Cathy Young's criticism of the department for demanding that colleges treat as "sexual harassment"…
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,…
Forbes
Once The Obama Narrative Implodes, Reality Breaks Through
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of…
Politix
Will Politics Take Away Your Caffeine?
Forbes
The IRS Fiasco Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
You certainly hear some amazing things in congressional testimony. Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS unit that determines whether organizations receive tax-exempt status, claimed…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: When the First Amendment Is Repealed by Bureaucrats
Greg Lukianoff is right to criticize the Education Department for illegally trying to abolish the requirement that comments must be offensive to a "reasonable person"…
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Dark Cloud Over Academic Freedom: How the Education Department Would Limit Dating
Recently the Education Department issued a controversial "blueprint" for dealing with sexual harassment that could expose colleges that follow it to First Amendment lawsuits and…
Washington Times
Letter to the Editor: Free Speech Isn’t Harassment
The Washington Times rightly criticizes the Obama administration for demanding unconstitutional college speech codes (“Repealing free speech,” Comment & Analysis, May 17). The…
The American Spectator
Disabling American Sovereignty
Coauthored with Geoffrey McClatchey. The United States Senate will likely soon consider ratification the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),…
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.
Forbes
Self Help Africa: Why Only Profits Can Cure Poverty
The importance of profiting from one’s efforts ought to be an easy concept to embrace. It is why humans no longer live in caves. If…
Forbes
Move Over Polar Bears, Palm Oil Orangutans Want Their $5 Worth Of Fame
What do polar bears,orangutans, the Walt Disney DIS +0.48% Company, Cheetos, recycled fundraising schemes, and corporate shakedowns have in common? It’s just another day on the social…
Forbes
E-Verify’s biometric database: A huge step toward a permission-slip society
“Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this mocking remark, Ronald Reagan dismissed a national ID proposal in 1981. In the 32 years…
Wall Street Journal
Should Washington Allow Internet Gambling?
Forbes
A Supreme Court EPA Decision That Could Cost Taxpayers $21 Billion Per Year
Is the Clean Air Act so badly flawed that it will cripple environmental enforcement and economic development alike unless the EPA and its state counterparts…
Forbes
Conservatives Must Reject the “Poor Are Parasites” Narrative
When Mitt Romney made his comments about the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay taxes and were supposedly “dependent on government,” many conservatives rightly…
Forbes
How The Federal Reserve Became History’s Biggest Bad Bank
Every time a plane crashes, a team of engineers and aviation experts jump into action, methodically reconstructing the event to determine the cause—whether mechanical failure,…
Real Clear Markets
The GOP Has a Blurry View of Free Markets In Medicine
Bad ideas and special interest politics don't ever die in Washington, D.C. They get re-introduced in the next Congress. Earlier this month, Rep. Larry Bucshon,…
Washington Times
Nutritious apples, poisonous claims
Eat fewer apples, strawberries and grapes, and more corn, onions and pineapples, and you'll protect yourself and your children from "toxic" pesticides, according to the…
Washington Times
To Grow, The U.S. Economy Needs More Low-Skilled Immigrant Workers
Recently introduced legislation to tackle immigration reform has elements that should satisfy both liberals and conservatives–namely, strong border security metrics for conservatives and a pathway…
Orange County Register
Lost lives the real costs of regulator overreach
Every once in a while, one encounters the perfect example of the folly, naivete and hubris of an ivory-tower academic. A case in point was…
Washington Post
Letter to the Editor: Getting the history of the Voting Rights Act right
Gary May’s diatribe against Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia displayed the historical ignorance he inveighed against [“Scalia vs. the Voting Rights Act,” Sunday Opinion,…
Forbes
Gay Marriage, Polygamy, Bestiality, Abortion, Infanticide, Pot, Foie Gras, Plastic Bags, Big Gulps and Democracy
Consider the following list: 1) Marry someone of your same gender, 2) join a harem, 3) have sex with your donkey, 4) kill your baby the…
National Review
The Life of Julius
Remember the White House’s poster child for welfare dependency, Julia? Meet Julius. Julius is the star of a new original production from my team at the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
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…
The American Spectator
The Internet Sales Tax Reveals Its Foolish Head Yet Again
They’re at it again: On Monday, the U.S. Senate voted 74-20 to proceed with debate on the “Marketplace Fairness Act.” The act would permit states…
The American Spectator
Shielding EPA’s McCarthy from scrutiny is what’s ‘totally bogus’
“Totally bogus.” That’s how Joe Davis, environmental journalist and director of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ WatchDog Project, describes “the concerns over fake emails.” By…
The American Spectator
U.S. Should Copy Estonia, Which Made Austerity Work
Another month of disappointing job numbers is a painful reminder that the U.S. economy is struggling after almost five years of fiscal and monetary stimulus.
The American Spectator
Boxer’s claims on behalf of EPA nominee don’t hold water
Barbara Boxer may not look much like a football player, but she has demonstrated the skill of an all-pro lineman when it comes to protecting…
The American Spectator
The curse of bipartisanship: Why the grand coalition’s return won’t save Italy
THE re-election of Giorgio Napolitano as President of the Italian Republic this weekend – supported by the centre-left, centre-right, and the centre – is as…
National Journal
Explaining Energy Gridlock
Why is there is no momentum in Congress for the “comprehensive energy and climate legislation” once proudly championed by the Obama administration and environmental activists?…
Baltimore Sun
Unions do their business on taxpayers’ dime
It's the old "fair share" argument, but this time it holds even less water than usual. The Maryland State Education Association, the union that bargains…
Forbes
Poverty Professionals And The Crony Capitalists Who Love Them
Yes, it looks like a wedding announcement out of The Onion, but when it comes to making a killing off the never-ending “War on Poverty,”…