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Study Finds that Outlawing Work Reduces Employment
George Mason’s Mercatus Center has provided further proof that California’s AB5 law, which was intended to boost worker employment by preventing them from being misclassified…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: address labels and consumer reviews
Yet another federal shutdown crisis was averted, this time until March. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee marked up the PROVE It Act,…
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Virginia Senate Democrats block repeal of EV mandate
Democrats on a Virginia state Senate committee voted down Republican attempts to roll back the state’s vehicle emissions law on Tuesday. The law, passed…
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Nuclear phaseouts strike again
While there has been some good news in the US recently on nuclear power issues, including a partial removal of the Illinois nuclear ban, the…
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Flight attendants try to decertify union that most never voted for
One of the underlying flaws with US labor law is that it sees workers and the unions that represent them as synonymous, rather than as…
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The threat to sound economics isn’t over
This week, the New York Stock Exchange withdrew its proposal to create a new designation for public companies called Natural Asset Companies, or NACs.
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Free the Economy podcast: The culture of economic freedom with Sam Gregg
In this week’s episode we cover the old-fashioned roots of ESG investing, the blocked merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, the future…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Independent contractors and emergency haddock action
Happy MLK-government snow shutdown days, everyone. There was more shutdown drama last week. The US launched strikes against the Houthis, one of three factions trying…
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Congressional Review Act vote shows cracks in joint employer rule
A vote in Congress Friday showed off the cracks in the support for the National Labor Relations Board’s new “joint employer” rule. It is…
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When the FTC’s anti-merger goals overshadow the prospect of saving lives
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a ruling on the important case of Illumina-Grail v. Federal Trade Commission. A unanimous 3-0…
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Policy hurdles to natural gas delivery pose winter danger for Americans
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) just released its 2023-24 Winter Reliability Assessment and it has concerning implications for the winter ahead. The report highlighted many…
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The FCC snares broadband in web of regulation
In the children’s book Walter’s Wonderful Web, a determined spider builds webs that are too “wibbly-wobbly” to withstand the wind but perseveres until he constructs…
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Free the Economy podcast: Against crony capitalism with Nick Sorrentino
In this week’s episode we cover emergency federal spending, workplace management trends for 2024, suppressing speech about public health, and defending…
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A promising 40th anniversary year for CEI
This year CEI celebrates 40 years of eliminating excessive regulation and unleashing human potential. To kick off our anniversary year, we unveiled a new logo…
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Appeals court rejects DOE’s attempt to eliminate fast dishwashers
The days of dishwashers with four-hour cleaning cycles may be coming to an end. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals repudiated the Biden administration’s…
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Congress could revoke many costly Biden admin rules with Congressional Review Act. Here’s a list!
Until April of 2023, a federal rule costing $100 million was considered “economically significant.” Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review) raised that…
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Power to the… regulators? That’s what new worker classification rule will do
The US Labor Department’s new worker classification rule is a major step backwards, causing trouble for worker and employer alike as they try to…
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Don’t make crypto the electricity scapegoat
A radical new tax proposed by the Biden administration would make cryptocurrency mining the scapegoat for electricity usage. The so-called Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME)…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Auto dealers and automated tariffs
The first week of the new year’s regulations is in the books. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from junk fees to cable tv competition. On…
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Free the Economy podcast: Protecting your property rights with Betsy Sanz
In this week’s episode we cover slow-moving infrastructure projects, the impact of the conservative boycott of Bud Light, good and…
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Unconstitutionality Index going into 2024: 46 rules for every law
The Biden’s administration’s 3,018 rules and regulations of 2023 is fairly typical of agency output these days. But while rule counts remain relatively stable,…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: 2023 year-end special
The tentative final numbers for new regulations for 2023 are in: The final four-day week of 2023 was relatively slow: 60 final regulations, 34 proposed…
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Federal Register 2023 gives Congress 90,402 reasons to restrain the regulators
As we bid farewell to 2023 and ring in 2024, the Federal Register reveals a noteworthy chapter in regulatory history under the Joe Biden administration.
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Transparent New Year: SEC shows its work after CEI prodding
As we enter the New Year, it is important to reflect on what went well and not so well in 2023. We should do our…
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Liz Warren’s revolving door with Wall Street
There was an interesting development in the world of big government and big business recently. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) declared that “The abuse of…
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American small businesses are paying through the roof for regulations
In a new column at Forbes, I take look at the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) update of its …
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Free the Economy podcast: Avoiding a Central Bank Digital Currency with Nicholas Anthony
In this week’s episode we cover the legislative record of House of Representatives in 2023, the proliferation of conferences about ESG investing,…
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No, we don’t want as many new laws as possible
The New York Times recently published an article reviewing what happened in the House of Representatives over the past 12 months, and it gives…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Oxides of nitrogen and approaching of whales
Congress has adjourned until January, so the Republic is safe until then. The Fourteenth Amendment suddenly became a factor in the presidential race. Meanwhile,…
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The existential threat AI poses to the Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild recently concluded a lengthy strike against Hollywood studios with a contract that included new protections for its members from artificial…
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Even the University of California system has dropped carbon offsets
MIT Technology Review just published an article on one of my perennial favorite topics, carbon offsets. According to senior editor James Temple, the University…
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Dear California, just let the trains run
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) in April approved regulations to ban the operation of diesel locomotives in California and the rule goes…
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Free the Economy podcast: (De-)regulating tech and AI with Adam Thierer
In this week’s episode we cover social mobility in the 50 states, Elizabeth Warren’s revolving door with Wall Street, the latest…
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A steel sumo that might wrestle China to the mat
There are ironies a-plenty in the news that Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. plans to buy U.S. Steel. The fact that a foreign company would own…
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New Liquefied Natural Gas ruling makes Jones Act even more unreasonable
A new Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) decision will make compliance with the Jones Act even more onerous for natural gas producers. The…
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FDA power grab would hurt labs, patients, rule of law
The Food and Drug Administration has proposed to amend one of its rules for the purpose of unlawfully expanding its jurisdiction over diagnostic tests.
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Silver lining? New federal merger guidelines: 11 bad ideas instead of 13!
Today the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly issued their final version of the 2023 Merger Guidelines.
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Should government-favored non-profits have their own shadow courts?
Imagine being sued by a private nonprofit that is sanctioned by a federal agency to enforce securities laws. The nonprofit appoints its own judges and…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Baby formula waivers and phonorecords
The 2023 Federal Register became the second-largest ever, dating back to 1936. A new CEI study makes the case for reforming administrative law…
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CEI’s The Surge: COP28, House passes car legislation, and carbon taxes
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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Defense bill amendment could help undo China’s unfair advantage in environmental treaties
Congress is currently considering the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA), including a long list of amendments added to the bill.
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FTC replies to CEI in auto dealer rule, still full of hot, nitrogen-poor air
This week, the Federal Trade Commission issued its long-awaited, nearly-400 page nannyist final rule on auto and other motor vehicle dealers sales. The rule…
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Obscuring the SEC’s climate disclosure rule may invite a host of legal problems
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) pending climate disclosure rule has been delayed yet again. The climate disclosure rule will require publicly traded companies to quantify…
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Common sense has left the building: The push to redefine joint employer rule
The National Labor Relations Board did something earlier this year that union leaders and their allies on Capitol Hill have long demanded: It expanded…
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Free the Economy podcast: Making Congress work with Kevin Kosar
In this week’s episode we cover people who fetishize old homes, the big AI risk no one’s talking about, how environmentalist activists…
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America’s unfair second court system
Stone Washington and I have a paper out today on reforming administrative law courts, or ALCs. We also summarize our findings over at National…
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Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next year?
As expected, the Federal Reserve kept the federal funds rate the same this week, which influences other interest rates, including car and mortgage payments. The…
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Khan’s FTC could harm America’s competitiveness abroad
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) threatens to put US global competitiveness at risk by pursuing stringent antitrust goals that target the largest American tech companies,…
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Senators asking the right question on nuclear license renewals
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) ranking member of the SenateEnvironment and Public Works Committee and Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) ranking member of the Committee’s Subcommittee on…
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Biden’s yearly Federal Register second-highest page count ever, could still score number one
The Federal Register is the daily depository of rules and regulations. Today, the count stood at 86,256 pages, with three weeks to go for Joe…
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Inflation holds steady, Fed interest rates likely to stay put
The Consumer Price Index went up 0.1 percent in the month of November. Its 12-month increase is 3.1 percent, same as last month’s report.
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Federal government waves goodbye to ‘economically significant’ regulations
Last week, the Fall 2023 edition of the White House’s Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions appeared. It features the…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Address labels and exporting missiles
The FDA approved the world’s first gene-editing therapy, which could cure sickle cell disease. The unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent. Meanwhile, agencies issued…
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Tom Vilsack tries to change the subject, but a slush fund is still a slush fund
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack published an op-ed in direct response to an op-ed written by CEI’s Patricia Patnode in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
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Free the Economy podcast: Centers of Progress with Chelsea Follett
In this week’s episode we cover the housing abundance agenda, antitrust concerns about corporate climate alliances, the future of global nuclear…
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Important question: How many people will new AI regulations kill?
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released a draft memorandum outlining new requirements for federal agencies using artificial intelligence (AI).
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House should brake bureaucrats limiting vehicle choice with CARS Act
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is trying to limit the ability of Americans to buy gas-powered cars. That is, the cars that people actually want…
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COP28: The conference on penance
Dubai is currently hosting the 28th Conference on Penance (COP). Well, that’s what the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on…
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Central banks are watching. Let’s watch them back.
One of the biggest dangers of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), I and others have warned, is that it would give a government that…
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Is UAW still an automaker union? How Gaza became a top issue
The name “United Auto Workers” would appear to pretty clearly indicate who that union represents, but it is increasingly becoming inaccurate. Today, only about…
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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…
