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The Double Standards of Cannabis and Nicotine
View Full Document as PDF Executive Summary The principal benefit of recreational cannabis, as the name implies, is recreation. Many who enjoy using…
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Terrible Tech 2.0
View Full Document as PDF Executive Summary If you are looking for bipartisanship in Washington, D.C., the technology policy sector may be your…
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Repeal or Reform the Jones Act
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Tens of millions have lost their jobs. Unleashing the innovation and productivity…
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#NeverNeeded Price Gouging Laws Would Harm COVID-19 Response
Price gouging becomes a hot topic during every crisis. It has become especially topical during the COVID-19 crisis. Almost overnight, the need exploded for goods…
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Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help People Stay Home and Safe During the COVID-19 Crisis
As individuals and businesses continue to address the COVID-19 health crisis, access to technologies and services that have enabled large swaths of the economy to…
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How to Make Sure Reformed #NeverNeeded Regulations Stay That Way
Policy makers at all levels of government have waived more than 600 regulations in response to the COVD-19 crisis.[1] Those rules were…
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Repeal #NeverNeeded Trade Barriers
The most important priorities during the coronavirus pandemic are keeping people safe and minimizing economic damage. Trade barriers are harming both priorities. This paper contains…
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Policy Principles: Consumer Privacy
PRIVACY The right to privacy is a bedrock principle of a free society and essential to today’s economy. Yet, privacy protection is an ever-evolving field.
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Take Net Neutrality Regulations off the Table for Good
Congress should eliminate the looming threat of net neutrality regulations to Internet service providers (ISPs). Regulation deters investment and the coronavirus health crisis has revealed…
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America Last
The Jones Act requires any ship traveling between two U.S. points to be U.S.-manufactured, -owned, -flagged, and -crewed. This heavy-handed protectionist measure was enacted in 1920…
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End All National Institutes of Health Grants to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer
As the Trump administration considers defunding the World Health Organization (WHO) because of its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, it should also make sure that…
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Perverse Psychology
Cigarette smoking is a lethal habit that kills approximately half of those who sustain it over their lifetime. But, contrary to popular belief, the nicotine…
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Government-Run Payment Systems Are Unsafe at Any Speed
For people quarantining during the COVID-19 health crisis, electronic payments proved essential to obtaining needed supplies, from groceries to medicines, while maintaining social distancing and…
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Lift #NeverNeeded Plastics Regulations and Bans – Permanently
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, lawmakers have finally begun considering the unintended impacts of bans on single-use plastics, particularly the potential for disease transmission from…
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The Case against Social Media Content Regulation
As repeatedly noted by most defenders of free speech, expressing popular opinions never needs protection. Rather, it is the commitment to protecting dissident expression that…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2020 – Executive Summary
Download the Executive Summary as a PDF Spending control and deficit restraint are indispensable to a nation’s stability and long-term economic health. Yet alarm…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2020
Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and how they affect American consumers,…
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Deploy Rational Science-Based Policies for Medical Plant Sterilization
Several medical supply sterilization plants have shut down during the past year because of unwarranted fearmongering about ethylene oxide (EtO), a gas used to sterilize…
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Lift #NeverNeeded Regulations that Make Energy More Expensive
Low-income households, which are more likely to suffer from unemployment and other stresses during the COVID-19 crisis, spend much more of their household budget on…
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Pen, Phone, and Eraser?
There have now been several layers of congressional rescue-and-stimulus response to the coronavirus crisis, and there will be more “phases” to come. Given partisan discord,…
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Narrow the Focus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may well have taken their eye off the ball by…
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Profiles in Capitalism: The Role of the Business Leader in Public Affairs and Philanthropy
When Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) President Kent Lassman sat down to interview Ariel Corporation CEO Karen Wright at the CEI Summit in New Orleans in…
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The Scientific Case for Vacating the EPA’s Carbon Dioxide Endangerment Finding
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2009 “Endangerment Finding” from carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases grants the agency a legal mandate that can…
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How Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis
A number of factors are combining to stress the American economy in the spring of 2020—the global and domestic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an…
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How Federal Policy Puts Eating Disorder Sufferers at Risk
Around 8 million Americans suffer from clinically significant eating disorders that drive them to develop and maintain unhealthy, and sometimes fatal, eating habits. The American…
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What the Green New Deal Could Cost a Typical Household
In early 2019, a handful of progressive Democrats galvanized their party around a set of proposals that, even if only partially implemented, would radically restructure…
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CEI Letter Following HAV E&C hearing
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), thank you for holding the hearing today, “Autonomous Vehicles: Promises and Challenges of Evolving Automotive Technologies.” We…
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Federal Health Agencies’ Misleading Messaging on E-Cigarettes Threatens Public Health
The scientific community is increasingly unified in the assessment that e-cigarettes are vastly safer than smoking, help smokers quit, and are a net positive for…
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The American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act: Myth vs. Fact
Beginning in the 1970s, concerns that the refrigerants used in most air conditioners and refrigerators were leaking into the air and depleting the Earth’s ozone…
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CEI Achievement Report 2019
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California Ride Share Contracting Legislation Is a Solution in Search of a Problem
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5) into law on September 18, 2019.[1] The legislation, which generally takes effect…
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Union Time on the Taxpayer Dime
“Forcing free and independent individuals to endorse ideas they find objectionable is always demeaning,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion in Janus v…
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The Push to Raise the Legal Age to Buy Tobacco to 21 Has Little Basis in Fact
The notion that raising the tobacco purchasing age to 21 helps reduce adolescent smoking seems plausible enough. But there is little evidence in support of…
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Federally Funded Children’s Environmental Health Centers Do Little to Promote Public Health
October is Children’s Health Month, a time when official federal agencies call attention to important efforts and policies designed to advance childhood health and safety.
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Democratic Capitalism: Why Political and Economic Freedom Need Each Other
Is capitalism destroying democracy? It is an old question that political thinkers have long wrestled with.
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Selling Your Data without Selling Your Soul
Humans have always sought to defend a zone of privacy around themselves—to protect their personal information, their intimate actions and relationships, and their thoughts and…
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Minimum Wages Have Tradeoffs
Raising the minimum wage is currently a top policy issue at the federal, state, and local levels. This paper opposes increases for three reasons, and…
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How the Ex-Im Bank Enables Cronyism and Wastes Taxpayer Money
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is a federal agency that seeks to boost exports by private U.S. businesses. It pursues its mission through loan guarantees,…
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The Case against the Protecting the Right to Organize Act
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2019 (H.R. 2474) would radically overhaul United States labor relations law to facilitate labor union organizing without…
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Modernizing the Passenger Facility Charge to Increase Airport Investment, Reduce Federal Spending, and Save Travelers Money
The passenger facility charge (PFC) is a congressionally authorized, federally regulated local airport user fee. The PFC exists alongside the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), a…
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What the Green New Deal Could Cost a Typical Household
In early 2019, a handful of progressive Democrats galvanized their party around a set of ideas that—even if only partially implemented—would restructure vast areas of…
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What the Green New Deal Could Cost a Typical Family
In early 2019, a handful of progressive Democrats galvanized their party around a set of ideas that—even if only partially implemented—would restructure vast areas of…
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Authorizing Automated Vehicle Platooning, 2019 Edition
Automated vehicles have captured the public’s imagination in recent years following successful on-road demonstrations by developers such as Waymo (its parent company, Alphabet, also owns…
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A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change
Climate change is not a hoax, but as a political matter, it is a persistent pretext for expanding government control over the economy, redistributing wealth,…
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Transforming Surface Transportation Reauthorization
The United States Interstate Highway System serves as the backbone of American commerce and personal travel. Funded as a pay-as-you-go basis largely through federal excise…
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A Policy Maker’s Guide to Climate Change
Thanks to the ingenuity of U.S. businesses, but also to the Republican rollback of the prior administration’s anti-energy policies, America is positioned to be a…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2019
Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and how they affect American consumers,…
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The Case against Antitrust Law
Politicians and pundits across the ideological spectrum often call for greater competition in the marketplace. While their favored means vary widely, the view that current…
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Cryptocurrency and the SEC’s Limitless Power Grab
Many questions are being asked about cryptocurrency. Is it a major innovation that will improve standards of living in ways we cannot yet imagine? Or…
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Anti-E-Cigarette Puritans Put Lives at Risk
Big tobacco companies were publicly pilloried when they were found to have misled the public about the dangers of their products. To this day, that…
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EPA’s Flawed IRIS Program Is Far from Gold Standard
Environmental activists claim that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) represents the gold standard for risk assessment.[i] In…
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CEI Achievement Report 2018
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Free to Prosper
CEI’s Agenda for the 116th Congress highlights specific steps lawmakers can take to rein in unlawful overreach by executive agencies, reduce the costs of federal regulations,…
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Antitrust FAQ
1. What is antitrust? Today’s body of antitrust laws is the culmination of over one hundred years of unclear objectives, contradictory interpretations, and controversial court decisions.
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Fear Profiteers
The rise of a vibrant market for e-cigarettes has been a blessing for many smokers. After many failed attempts to quit, e-cigarettes provide an exciting…
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How Antitrust Regulation Hinders Innovation and Competition
Few economic concepts elicit such strong reactions as that of monopoly, and the policy intended to address it—antitrust regulations (called competition policy in the European…
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Will the Trump Fuel Economy Reform Proposal Create Deadly Air Pollution?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have proposed to partially roll back the corporate average fuel economy…
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A Partial Eclipse of the Administrative State
Deterioration of checks and balances via regulatory overreach and over-delegation by Congress to agencies are central to most modern critiques of the administrative state. Less…
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The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol: Myth vs. Fact
Beginning in the 1970s, concerns that the refrigerants used in most air conditioners and refrigerators were leaking into the air and depleting the Earth’s ozone…
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Common Myths and Facts about Trade
International trade, usually a low-key issue, has sparked a heated debate under the current administration. As with any hot issue, several common misperceptions afflict the…
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U.S. Should Stop Funding the International Agency for Research on Cancer
Numerous scientific bodies around the world, both public and private, attempt to assess the cancer-causing potential of various industrial chemicals. Ideally, those research programs should…
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Government for Rent
This paper is based on documents obtained by CEI and other public policy groups over the course of more than a year, beginning in June 2017,…
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Law Enforcement for Rent
This paper is based on documents obtained over two and a half years from open records requests and, in some cases, subsequent litigation. Due to…
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“Whatever the Cost” of the Endangered Species Act, It’s Huge
For years, the snail darter, a little fish found in the upper Tennessee River basin, has been a symbol of the extraordinary regulatory power of…
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Traders of the Lost Ark
View Full Document as PDF With contributions by Fred L. Smith Jr., Marc Scribner, Daniel Press, and Ryan Khurana Profiles in Capitalism August…
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Authorizing Automated Vehicle Platooning, 2018 Edition
Automated vehicles have captured the public’s imagination in recent years following successful on-road demonstrations by developers such as Waymo.[1] The prospect of…
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EPA Transparency Rule Will Bolster Science and Improve Rulemaking
Transparency is a cornerstone of the scientific process and a well-recognized goal long-extolled within the scientific community.
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European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and Lessons for U.S. Privacy Policy
The European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which enters into effect on May 25, 2018, is the most significant policy change regarding data…
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The CFPB and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act
View Full Document as PDF Freedom, equality, and justice are all bedrock principles of the American experiment. Yet it is no secret…
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Platform Economy Bibliography
View Full Document as PDF It is hardly news that the growth of the online economy has upended a wide array of…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2018
View the Full Report Here Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations,…
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Online Sales Taxes Make Government Bigger and Undermine Federalism
View Full Document as PDF The rapid growth of online retailing has prompted state and local government officials to seek greater authority…
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Legalizing Sports Betting in the United States
Every March, millions of Americans join friends, relatives, and coworkers in “March Madness” betting pools, centered on the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Men’s Basketball…
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The New National ID Systems
View Full Document as PDF The past few years have seen growing awareness and concern about U.S. government surveillance of the American…
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Supreme Court Can Strike a Victory for Worker Freedom in Janus Case
View Full Document as PDF Mark Janus is a state child support specialist in Illinois. He works to ensure that children receive…
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How the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Payday Loan Rule Hurts the Working Poor
View Full Document as PDF Ariane is a 22-year-old single mother from Oakland, California. Working a low-wage job, she gets by paycheck…
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Modernizing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
View Full Document as PDF Thousands of times per year in the United States, automobile drivers are temporarily blinded by the high…
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Improving America’s Broadband through Competition, Not Regulation
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The Case against the Volcker Rule
View Full Document as PDF The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has severely restricted business and consumer access…
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A Veneer of Certainty Stoking Climate Alarm
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Still Endanger U.S. Economy
View Full Document as PDF Nearly a decade since the housing bust of 2008 sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin, much…
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Let States Regulate Sports Gambling within their Borders
View Full Document as PDF Every year, millions of Americans gamble on sports. Whether betting on the Super Bowl or filling out…
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The Case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The CFPB was meant to protect American pocketbooks and property. But the unconstitutionally structured agency is harmful to consumers.
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Bureaucratic Dark Energy
View Full Document as PDF There are thousands of felonies committed every day in Washington, D.C. Not in the places one might…
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What’s the Difference between “Major,” “Significant,” and all those other Federal Rule Categories?
View Full Document as PDF Bureaucracy, rather than interaction with elected representatives, dominates the relationship of the individual to the government. The…
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Shrinking Government Bureaucracy
View Full Document as PDF Shrinking Government Bureaucracy is a series of policy proposals by Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) experts to rein in…
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Union Time on the Taxpayer Dime
View Full Document as PDF Published with the James Madison Institute Over the past 20 years, Floridians have consistently made conscious decisions…
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Rethinking the Environmental Protection Agency
View Full Document as PDF The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget is the most impenetrable of all federal department and agency…
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Rethinking the Federal Communications Commission
View Full Document as PDF Created by the Communications Act of 1934, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wields broad authority to regulate…
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Rethinking the National Labor Relations Board
View Full Document as PDF The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that oversees private sector labor relations in the…
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Rethinking the Securities and Exchange Commission
View Full Document as PDF The nation’s securities laws and the very existence of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are premised…
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Rethinking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
View Full Document as PDF The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should be abolished. In its current form, it undermines the constitutional…
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Rethinking the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
View Full Document as PDF The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration and Congress created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) during the Great…
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Rethinking the Department of Commerce
View Full Document as PDF The Department of Commerce’s mission statement is a charter for government interference in markets. It employs 47,000…
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EPA Denial of Chlorpyrifos Ban Sets Pro-Science Precedent
View full document as PDF Some consumers may wonder why some staples of a healthy diet, such as orange juice and many…
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Ending the EPA’s Billion-Dollar Green Energy Rip-Off
View Full Document as PDF The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in recent years has established a pattern of making industrial policy…
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Why Wall Street Loves Glass-Steagall
View Full Document as PDF Debates over financial regulation often refer to “Wall Street” and “Main Street” as shorthand for, respectively, 1)…
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Authorizing Automated Vehicle Platooning, 2017 Edition
View Full Document as PDF Automated vehicles have captured the public’s imagination in recent years following successful on-road demonstrations by developers such…
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Dispelling Six Myths on Air Traffic Control Reform and Labor Relations
View Full Document as PDF In 2016, when House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) introduced legislation to reform the…
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Air Traffic Control Reform 2017: Frequently Asked Questions
View Full Document as PDF The air traffic control reforms contained in the 21st Century Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization (21st Century AIRR)…