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Abusing Discrimination
In America at century’s end, the surest way to obtain special treatment for a social group is to assert that its members suffer…
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Playing Politics With ATMs
If you’ve ever said to yourself, "There ought to be a law," then you have a friend in the U.S. Senate, and his name…
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Another Take On Takings
Imagine a federal law that prohibits people from “taking” something. No, it’s not the U.S. Constitution’s forgotten Takings Clause, which states, “nor shall…
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Save Elephants–Buy Ivory
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No Quarter for Kyoto
Most policy disputes are first and foremost rhetorical battles for the moral high ground. Is affirmative action unfair racial preference or justice to minorities?…
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Back Into Busting Trust-Busters
CEI’s work on antitrust reform may surprise some readers. Antitrust, after all, has been heraled as the "touchstone of a free market." Antitrust…
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Rethinking Antitrust Rules
Excerpts from Judge Alex Kozinski's speech at CEI's June 27, 1997 conference on antitrust regulation Printed in the July 1997 issue of CEI…
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CAFE’S “Smashing” Success
If at first you cannot succeed in pushing a bad idea, try, try again – just use different rhetoric. Twenty years ago, when corporate average…
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End OPIC Investing
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Hurricane Hype
The Clinton-Gore Administration has seized upon recent weather extremes to promote the fear of global warming. Speaking in North Dakota after this spring's floods, President…
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Asthma, Roaches And Regulations
They are repulsive and annoying, multiply rapidly, scurry off in unexpected directions, and harm human health. Cockroaches and bad federal regulations have more in common…
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Disparate Impact Dangers
On March 10 one of the nation's largest property and casualty insurers, Nationwide Insurance Company, agreed to part with $13.2 million to settle allegations…
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Precautionary Petard
The Precautionary Principle – the proposition that new technologies or products should not be permitted until we know they won't endanger health, safety, or…
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Officious Intermeddlers
With its April 4 decision to block Staples' planned merger with Office Depot, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provided fresh evidence that antitrust is economically…
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Washington Waterworld
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Are the CFTC’s Days Numbered?
In the final movement of Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony, his hero is hit by what the Viennese composer calls "three hammer-blows of fate" that ultimately…
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Chemical Weapons Convention Sell-out
Not since "read-my-lips" George Bush raised taxes and destroyed his presidency has a Republican leader so soiled the GOP's claim to be a party of…
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Species-Friendly Tax Cuts
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EPA’s Hazy Air Rules
In the first major environmental effort of the Clinton Administration's second term, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules tightening the nation's standards for two…
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Immorality of the Airbag Mandate
While the air bag issue occupies the full-time attention of dozens of technocrats, its ethical aspects have largely been ignored. At CEI's request, Bowling Green…
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NAIC Insures Privileged Access
Thousands of insurance executives and regulators converged on Orlando, Fla., in March to attend the spring meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners…
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The Ark That Wouldn’t Float
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Green Grantmaking in D.C.
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Better Late Than Never
The Food and Drug Administration has long been criticized for delaying the approval of new medical drugs and devices. Under outgoing Commissioner David Kessler, the…
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New Choices in Auto Insurance
The high cost of auto insurance is a serious concern for many people across the country. Annual premiums can run into thousands of dollars.
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Tyranno-Soros
It always makes me queasy when a successful capitalist uses his wealth and talent to sell anti-capitalism. Not because such behavior is a form of…
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Drivers Caught in the Full-Cost Trap
Over the past several years, the push to limit Americans' use of their automobiles has gained a great deal of momentum. Advocacy groups and government…
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Pension Reform Not So Simple
For years, pension analysts have warned of the unintended consequences of federal pension regulation. In 1996, even President Clinton acknowledged that the growth of regulation…
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Defenders of Wildlies
Have you ever been told you were wrong when you knew you were right? Sure, it happens all the time. You say the…
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Anti-Environmental Enforcement
Expanding enforcement of environmental “crimes” is at the top of Carol Browner's agenda for 1997. Browner, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, wants to…
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More Kid Stuff
Advocates of politically controlled universal health care coverage have retooled their offensive game plan. Uninsured children will serve as blocking backs for an end run…
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Cars and Civil Rights
1996 was the Centennial of the Car; it should have been called the Censorial of the Car. From magazine cover stories to interminable PBS…
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Legalized Gambling in the United States
Legalized gambling in the United States is increasingly under attack, not only within individual states regarding its proposed expansion into new jurisdictions, but also on…
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Real Patient Protection
An old political maxim has it that "as Maine goes, so goes the nation." A few decades ago, however, the balance of political trend-setting power…
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No Basis in Reality
"If there is one event that causes the diverse environmental community to hyperventilate in unison, it is an assault on the ESA (Endangered Species Act),"…
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Air Bags
Air bags were one of my first issues when I began working in public interest law twenty years ago. I had just started as…
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The Power of Positive Drinking
CEI is back in federal court. On October 29th, CEI filed suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to challenge the agency’s…
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Clinton’s Stealth BTU Tax
The centerpiece of President Bill Clinton's first budget proposal was a massive energy tax. The tax on BTUs (or "British Thermal Units") was estimated to…
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Message From the President: Hoarding the Nation’s Wealth
President Clinton's presidential order to drive man and his works from much of southern Utah makes political sense, but makes for very bad policy.
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Children’s Games
In a spasm of inaccuracy, a textbook writer once enthused that antitrust law is the "Magna Carta of free enterprise." A more accurate label for…
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Message from the Executive Director: Time for Another Contract
The 104th Congress was anything but "extremist." Its leaders proposed to balance the budget — but only after seven years. They called for family tax…
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Green but Anti-Government
Numerous opinion surveys have documented widespread public support for environmental protection. Polls routinely find that over 70 percent of Americans characterize themselves as environmentalists…
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Uncle Sam’s Commandments
While government activity is generally, and rightly, associated with taxing and spending, there is another way Congress carries out its objectives: by imposing health, safety,…
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The Political Economy of MSAs
As noted in the last issue of UpDate, the tax-advantaged medical savings accounts (MSAs) proposed in this year's round of congressional health care legislation would…
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Free Trade for All
Massachusetts Governor William Weld, running in a tight Senate race against Senator John Kerry, recently came out in favor of a protectionist trade ban against…
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Cool Climate…
Environmental activists are increasing the heat on policy makers worldwide to do something about global warming before it is too late. They charge that human…
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Hot Politics
As United Nations negotiations for the Global Climate Convention convene this month, scientists on the UN's panel of expert advisers are under fire for altering…
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Message from the Executive Director: Opposing Legal Plunder
Legal plunder is as old as government itself. In fact, most governments in most times and places are little more than glorified gangs of robbers.
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MSA’s — Panacea or Placebo?
The policy debate over whether to extend tax benefits to Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) has tended to polarize into two camps. MSA advocates gravitate toward…
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Wal-Mart — Predator or Prey?
In 1991, three retail pharmacies in Faulkner County, Arkansas, sued Wal-Mart for selling pharmaceutical items at predatorily low prices. The plaintiffs claimed that Wal-Mart's below-cost…