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This week in ridiculous regulations: Au pairs and processed pears
The 2023 edition of Wayne Crews’ Ten Thousand Commandments is out now. Henry Kissinger died at age 100. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
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Inflation makes regulations even more expensive
The just-released 2023 edition of Wayne Crews’ Ten Thousand Commandments report estimates that the total cost of complying with all federal regulations is $1.94…
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The latest on nuclear power bans: Illinois poised to take an important step
The Illinois nuclear construction ban will soon be a thing of the past.Earlier this year, both state chambers, through a supermajority vote, passed a…
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Biden admin: Taxpayers don’t need to know about ‘official time’
The Biden administration is actively rolling back transparency requirements for unions, most recently by no longer posting information on the controversial practice of…
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Equity shmequity: How US government’s ‘discounting’ policy hurts the global poor
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently finalized its Circular A-4 guidance on regulatory analysis, constituting the first update to the guidance in…
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Free the Economy podcast: The future of energy and environmental policy with Travis Fisher
In this week’s episode we cover the political path toward abundance, the need for permitting reform beyond the National Environmental Policy Act,…
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The catastrophic consequences of COVID for California constitutional government
COVID-19 hit California hard. The effects of COVID on California’s population were terrible, and the government policies that California imposed on its citizens may have…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2023 is out now
The 2023 edition of CEI’s flagship annual study, Wayne Crews’s Ten Thousand Commandments, is out now. For those not familiar, 10KC gives a big-picture…
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Wall Street Journal reports consumer frustrations with over-regulated appliances
2023 is turning into the year of bad appliance regulations. Since January, CEI has submitted comments critical of proposed Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Slender salamanders and joint employers
Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary cease-fire. OpenAI’s board of directors fired CEO Sam Altman, then re-hired him and fired themselves. President Joe Biden…
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Free the Economy podcast: Making college pay with Preston Cooper
In this week’s episode we cover Javier Milei’s election as president of Argentina, how much money it takes to be happy,…
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Cold truth about government pushing electric: Natural gas is much cheaper
The Department of Energy (DOE) has repeatedly documented that using natural gas in homes is far cheaper than using electricity.This hasn’t stopped the Biden…
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Slice the regulatory turkey this Thanksgiving
The turkeys Liberty and Bell just received a Thanksgiving pardon from Joe Biden. The official presentation of a turkey for a presidential pardon and rescue…
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CEI’s The Surge: Carbon tariffs, CAFE standards, and more!
If you are interested in analysis and perspective on current energy and environmental issues, then we encourage you to subscribe to this new publication…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: California raisins and debit card fees
There was a pro-Israel and anti-Hamas rally on the National Mall of more than 200,000 people. A fight nearly broke out at a Senate hearing.
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Free the Economy podcast: Getting out of control with Neil Chilson
In this week’s episode we cover the American Nuclear Society’s Winter 2023 conference, the opportunities and pitfalls of online side-hustles, and the…
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Vehicle kill switches and other horrible things Washington is doing to us from a distance
The remote kill switch for automobiles authorized by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021 is a prime…
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Exposing the federal bureaucracy’s blurry courts
Many federal agencies prevent regular Americans from understanding what they are up to by obscuring the work being conducted by their little-known administrative law courts…
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Ringside seats at today’s Senate cage match
A lot of preparation goes into testifying before a Senate committee. To borrow from the late Donald Rumsfeld, there are the “known” things that…
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Labor Department would ignore law to change overtime rules
I submitted a comment on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute to the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor (DOL) regarding…
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Biden admin appliance regulations are bad for small businesses and homeowners
Department of Energy (DOE) bureaucrats are making 2023 a bad year for homeowners with an avalanche of proposed and final appliance regulations impacting stoves, washing…
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White House report reveals tens of billions in new annual regulatory costs
A consolidated Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations hit the shelves at the end of October, catching…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Junk fees and dehumidifiers
It was a four-day week due to Veterans Day. Another government shutdown deadline is less than a week away. The FTC issued a proposed rule…
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Free the Economy podcast: Personal finance and YouTube with Spencer Johnson
In this week’s episode we cover how states can reform higher education, ways that managers can make their employees happier at work,…
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NLRB responds to CEI on government ‘encouraging’ unionization
The National Labor Relations Board recently issued a rulemaking that included a direct rebuttal to an argument made by the Competitive Enterprise Institute regarding…
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10 important amendments for the House Transportation spending bill
The US House of Representatives is currently debating H.R. 4820, its Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development spending bill. There are many good amendments being…
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Experts weigh in: Sen. Cassidy’s carbon tariff bill would mean more taxes
A carbon tax is both bad policy and dumb politics. Yet Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has just introduced legislation, the Foreign Pollution Fee…
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Justice Department ignores consumers, boosts Bing in Google antitrust trial
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) case accusing Google of having and unlawfully maintaining a monopoly in search is in full swing in US District…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Gas cans and shorts reporting
President Biden issued an Executive Order on AI regulation. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. Jobs growth slowed, but still grew.
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Is the Fed done with interest rate hikes?
The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee held the federal funds rate steady this week at its most recent meeting, as expected. It will range…
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12 important amendments for the House Interior, environment spending bill
The House is currently debating H.R. 4821, its Interior and environment spending bill. There are many good amendments being considered on the floor. Here…
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5 bad appliance regulations Congress should reject with the Congressional Review Act
This is the third article in CEI’s Special Briefing Series: Defending the Personal Energy Choices of Americans. It isn’t just gas stoves. The Biden administration has…
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Free the Economy podcast: The trouble with big-government conservatives with André Béliveau
In this week’s episode we talk about which state has the least-bad business taxes, how many Americans really love America, the continuing…
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UAW strike epilogue: Big Three will continue to shrink
The United Auto Workers has won, according to the headlines. What the union has won will force three companies, Ford, GM, and Stellantis, owner…
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SEC commissioner bashes private markets, shows why public capital flight is happening
Caroline Crenshaw, a designated Democratic commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently was sharply critical of private markets. “Investor protection and systemic risk…
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H.L. Mencken channels Adam Smith
Over at Liberty Fund’s AdamSmithWorks website, I have an article drawing a parallel between Adam Smith’s moral philosophy and H.L. Mencken’s satire:…
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Three Supreme Court justices have gone public about the fundamental unfairness of civil forfeiture
Yesterday, I was able to get out of the office to watch the oral argument in Culley v. Marshall before the Supreme Court of…
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CEI’s The Surge: Climate change slush fund, the true cost of EVs, and more
If you are interested in analysis and perspective on current energy and environmental issues, then we encourage you to subscribe to this new publication…
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Biden administration cites fanciful numbers to support ‘right to repair’
The Biden White House hosted an event on right to repair last Tuesday to provide information “about federal and state efforts to strengthen the…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Joint employers and almond taxes
GDP grew 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023. Mike Johnson became Speaker of the House. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from Kraft…
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FCC wants European-style broadband regulation, would throttle American consumers
Aristotle said that nature abhors a vacuum so that every space in nature must be filled. Apparently, the FCC has taken inspiration from ancient Greek…
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What we’re not seeing here: Why policy debates need Bastiat
I was honored to give a presentation this week to the George Mason University Economics Society. The title of my presentation was “Unseen Consequences: Frederic…
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Issue at a glance: Blocking the Biden climate change slush fund
Overview of the issue: The Biden administration is using what has become a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) slush fund to spend billions of…
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NLRB expands ‘joint employer’ rule to include kitchen sink
The National Labor Relations Board has issued its new rule for “joint employer status.” As expected, it extends the rule for when one company…
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Ford-UAW deal: Declare victory and go home
The current United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers has been more of a public relations spectacle than an actual strike. At no…
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Free the Economy podcast: Polling capitalism with Karlyn Bowman
In this week’s episode we talk about the surprisingly low demand for free transit, the demographics of higher education in the U.S.,…
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Pope’s letter on climate change misses mark
The Vatican is concluding the last week of the 2023 Synod of Synodality, a three-year series of discussions involving Catholic bishops and selected laypeople.
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Air travel will continue to increase—unless grounded by climate change policies
The Duke of Wellington was said to have opposed the growth of railroads in 19th-century Britain because they would “only encourage the common people to…
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UN Montreal Protocol meeting begins in Nairobi
The United Nations’ 35th meeting of the parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) begins this week in…
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Stopping mergers before they start
If two companies above a certain size want to merge, antitrust regulators have to approve the deal first. The FTC recently published draft guidelines for…