Blog
A One-Pager on an “Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act”
In recent months CEI has presented the case for a “Abuse of Crisis Prevention Act” to counter and prevent the political predation that continues to…
Blog
Tackling Unmeasured Government Growth Must be Prioritized in the 118th Congress
Fred L. Smith Jr., the founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, refers to the regulatory state as the least disciplined part of the federal enterprise.
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Comment Critical of DOE’s Proposed Furnace Regulation
Several recent Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency standards for appliances have been a bad deal for consumers, but the latest proposed standard for residential natural…
Blog
Gonzales v. Google: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Algorithms
Today the Supreme Court agreed to hear Gonzales v. Google, LLC, a case that evaluates how broadly the liability protection is for platforms in…
Blog
Senate Bill Challenges China’s Status as a Developing Nation in New Treaty
Most United Nations environmental treaties are a bad deal for the United States, and some are made even worse because they give China a competitive…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Blog
Troubling Inflation News: Core PCE Increases 0.6 Percent
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator, Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), was updated this morning with August’s numbers. PCE measures inflation more accurately than the…
Blog
Are Nord Stream Methane Leaks “Catastrophic for Climate”?
Despite acknowledging that the Nord Stream pipelines were likely bombed by saboteurs, the Associated Press yesterday focused on the ruptures as a climate threat…
Blog
The Problems with the White House Competition Council
Sometimes seemingly little things slip under the radar that have big implications. One of those this week was the third meeting of President Biden’s…
Blog
SEC Gives Crowdfunders Inflation Relief, Must Do More
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adjusted for inflation some limits for companies (issuers) raising capital through Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF). The adjustment raises the…
Blog
The Jones Act vs. Puerto Rico, Again
Puerto Rico is almost entirely without power after Hurricane Fiona. Right now, there is a ship just offshore, ready to help. It has…
Blog
The Manchin Bill Will Not Reform Permitting Process
The Manchin-Schumer permitting bill, which has been attached to the Continuing Resolution funding the federal government beyond September 30, contains many promising-sounding reforms that…
Blog
Government May Not Avoid Just Compensation in Debt Seizures
Some state governments have been acting as if the Fifth Amendment’s requirement of just compensation doesn’t apply in the course of collection of government debts.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 75 basis points, with more increases likely to come. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging…
Blog
Senate Ratifies Anti-Consumer Kigali Amendment–but with A Silver Lining Regarding China
Last Wednesday, the Senate ratified the Kigali Amendment, a United Nations treaty restricting supplies of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a widely used class of refrigerants now targeted…
Blog
Fed Raises Federal Funds Rate
As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 75 basis points as part of its inflation-fighting efforts. Its target range will…
Blog
FTC To Use Algorithms in Bid to Hobble Gig Economy
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that it will use its “full authority” to investigate “unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive practices” by so-called gig…
Blog
The Founding Fathers and Free Trade
There is an ongoing small cottage industry of historical revisionism aimed at showing that America since its founding was friendly to protectionism and that this…
Blog
America Needs an Emergency Declaration to End All Emergency Declarations
Last night President Biden declared on 60 Minutes hat “The pandemic is over.” “If you notice, no one’s wearing masks, everybody seems to…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
CEI hosted its annual Julian Simon dinner on Thursday. The Consumer Price Index gave a mixed picture of inflation. A railroad strike was…
Blog
FTC Goes Back to Bad ‘70s Policies in Motor Vehicle Dealer Rule
Last night at CEI’s annual Julian L. Simon Memorial Award Dinner, CEI celebrated the 1970s—both the fashions and the deregulation toward the end of the…
Blog
FTC Hearing on Vaping Case Shows Antitrust at its Worst
Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held a public hearing about a seemingly resolved antitrust case about the vaping market. In 2018,…
Blog
No, We Don’t Need Federal Licenses for Big Tech
In the wake of congressional testimony by former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has suggested that he will partner with…
Blog
Virtual Reality and the Relevant Market Fallacy
The relevant market fallacy is one of the most common analytical mistakes in antitrust policy. One of the first legal questions in an antitrust…
Blog
Inflation Reduction Act and West Virginia v. EPA: Legislative History Refutes Sen. Carper’s Spin
“And whatever interpretive force one attaches to legislative history, the Court normally gives little weight to statements, such as those of the individual legislators, made after the…
Blog
Many Federal Agency Rules and Guidance Documents are Still Not Properly Reported to Congress and the GAO
A 2014 white paper prepared for the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), “Congressional Review Act: Many Recent Final Rules Were Not Submitted…
Blog
The European Union’s Crypto Protectionism Threatens Financial Freedom
Stablecoins, digital assets pegged to a financial asset like the U.S. dollar, are becoming increasingly popular around the globe. Some people use them as…
Blog
Could Heating Costs Set Records This Winter?
Gasoline prices reached their peak at over $5 per gallon last June before declining to the current $3.70, but the worst may be yet…
Blog
Why Railway Unions Oppose the Deal Biden Helped Arrange
The Chamber of Commerce today urged Congress to step in and impose a settlement should talks between the rail industry and the its…
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Opposing Increased Government Interference in Rail Operations
CEI and 21 other organizations and individuals have signed a letter opposing the misleadingly named Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act, which would…
Blog
Mixed News on CPI: Headline Rate Improves, Core Rate Accelerates
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August is out. It increased 8.3 percent over the last year, down from 8.5 percent in July. The…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Queen Elizabeth II passed away at age 96. Meanwhile, in a four-day week, agencies issued new regulations ranging from St. Louis bridges to Atlantic krill…
Blog
Fed Chairman Powell’s Remarks at Cato Monetary Conference
Every year, our friends at the Cato Institute hold a monetary policy conference. This year’s conference opened with Cato President Peter Goettler interviewing Federal…
Blog
Paternalistic FTC Rule Would Stifle Consumer Choice in Auto Market
As if American drivers didn’t face enough headwinds with high gas prices, supply chain constraints, and state rules that may force them out of…
Blog
Pondering the Paradox of the Paltry Proliferation of Prominent Proposed Rules in the Federal Register
Spending is up, the debt is up, and Republicans keep helping raise the debt ceiling. Armageddon does not result, we have learned. On the…
Blog
NLRB Proposes Third Rewrite of Joint Employer Rule in Four Years
As expected, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed a new version of the “joint employer” rule, which establishes when a…
Blog
The Inflation Reduction Act’s Implications for West Virginia v. EPA: A Response to Professor Dan Farber
An environmental reporter last week asked for CEI’s thoughts on University of California, Berkley law professor Dan Farber’s article on the Inflation Reduction…
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Letter Against EPA Interference with Alaska’s Pebble Mine
Mining is one of the relatively few environmentally related issues where federal agencies other than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been given the lead—or…
Blog
Threats to Democracy Posed by an Unleashed Administrative State
President Joe Biden’s much-covered Independence Hall remarks last week have drawn their share of praise, condemnation, and memes. Prominent was Biden’s easy deployment of…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The labor market continues to look strong, and the Federal Trade Commission lost its attempt to keep an early cancer-detection test off the…
Blog
Starbucks Alleges an NLRB Whistleblower Reveals Election Shenanigans
A challenge by Starbucks to a recent union election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) includes a remarkable claim by the company: There…
Blog
Dispelling Misleading Claims about the Inflation Reduction Act and West Virginia v. EPA
In adversarial proceedings, it is seldom prudent to rely on your opponents’ assessment of the outcome. Alas, some conservatives seem inclined to believe Democrats’ self-serving…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Biden announced partial student loan forgiveness for people earning up to $125,000. The number of new final regulations this year topped 2,000. Meanwhile, agencies…
Blog
The Fed’s Preferred Inflation Measure Improves, Mixed Picture on Consumer Spending
Two new economic indicators published Friday morning give reason for cautious optimism. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the inflation measure that gets the…
Blog
Student Loan Forgiveness Is Regressive, Will Increase Tuition
When the Inflation Reduction Act passed, I pointed out that its $300 billion in tax increases and spending cuts would not begin to phase…
Blog
SEC Small Business Committee Throws Down the Gauntlet on State Trading Preemption
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee (SBCFAC) has thrown down the gauntlet. As the SEC’s website explains, the…
Blog
New York Right to Repair Bill Is a Bad Idea
Do consumers have the right to repair their smartphones, tablets, and laptops? The short answer is yes. While copyright law may have some room for…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2022 Federal Register surpassed 50,000 pages last week. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from hearing aids to vessel repair duties. On to the…
Blog
CDC Restructuring Shows that Institutions Matter
One of my policy mantras is that institutions matter. That’s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) restructuring announcement is big…
Blog
Prominent Short Sellers Target ESG-themed Firms
For a long while, my CEI colleagues and I have touted the vital role that short sellers play in a free market economy. CEI Founder…
Blog
SEC Attempts to Regulate Indefinable “ESG” Topics
Today is the filing deadline for public comments on a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed rule titled “Investment Company Names.” This proposal…
Blog
Megaportals for Guidance Documents: Toward Emergency 2025 Legislation to Correct Biden’s “Whole-of-Government” Incursions
In preparing an August 2022 update on executive branch sub-regulatory guidance documents and memoranda (the observable tally is 107,000 but vastly more exist), a…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The FBI raided former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from street markings to salmonella prevention. On to the…
Blog
Progressives Need Democracy, Not Technocracy
As Democrats debate the merits over legislative versus administrative action on topics ranging from climate change to gun control, they face a fundamental decision: technocracy…
Blog
How the Inflation Reduction Act Favors Unions over Taxpayers
The word “prevailing” appears 27 times in the text of the misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by Congress Sunday and…
Blog
CPI Gives Reason for Cautious Optimism on Inflation
Inflation may finally be coming down. July’s month-to-month Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase dropped to zero last month, down from 1.3 percent in June. The…
Blog
Federal Agency Guidance Document Inventory Tops 107,000 Entries
Federal statutes appear in the U.S. Code. Regulations, pass through the Federal Register, and come to rest in the Code of Federal Regulations. But no…
Blog
CEI Submits Comment Opposing EPA Proposed Rule Allowing States to Use Clean Water Act as a Climate Policy Tool
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute submitted a comment to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its proposed regulatory changes to Section 401 of the…
Blog
How the Inflation Reduction Act Will Expand Regulation
Ever since observers began tallying rule counts and pages in the Federal Register, detractors have complained about what poor measures such devices are. They might…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The Inflation Reduction Act, which would not reduce inflation, is now expected to pass after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema agreed to sign on. Meanwhile, agencies issued…
Blog
Why Carried Interest Tax Hike Deserves to Die in IRA and Otherwise
The Inflation Reduction Act (referred to by critics such as Phil Kerpen as the Income Reduction Act) will likely be voted on in the…
Blog
Does the Schumer-Manchin Bill Undercut West Virginia v. EPA? No, But Not For Lack of Trying
This Wednesday on Fox Business with Larry Kudlow and later on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned that buried…
Blog
How to Make Official Time Even Worse
“Official time” is the practice of allowing members of public sector unions to conduct union business while getting paid for the regular government job…
Blog
Think Handouts to Rich Electric Vehicle Buyers Are Unfair? Check Out the Inflation Reduction Act’s Homeowner Tax Breaks
The Manchin-Schumer Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 extends the current tax credits up to $7,500 for electric vehicles (EVs). Among the many flaws with…
Blog
Important NEPA Reform Vote in Senate this Week, with Implications for the Schumer-Manchin Package
The Senate may vote as soon as this week to reinstate Trump administration reforms to the federal permit process under the National Environmental Policy Act…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
GDP shrank, the Federal Reserve increased the federal funds rate, the Senate passed the CHIPS+ Act to subsidize chipmakers, and the Build…
Blog
Net Zero, Joe Manchin, and High Energy Prices
This morning National Review published my article expressing skepticism that the advance of “net-zero” climate policy is inevitable (or even likely). It was written…
Blog
Regulators Going off the Rails on a Crazy Train
One year after a supply chain crisis caused shortages across the nation, the Biden administration is trying to prevent railroads from modernizing and automating.
Blog
As Congress Mulls Stablecoin Law, CEI Shows the Way
Reports sprung last weekend that consensus stablecoin legislation from the House Financial Services Committee was near ready. While Congress is unlikely to debate…
Blog
The Facebook Antitrust Case Is Aging Poorly
Antitrust cases often take years to litigate. While wasteful, this isn’t always a bad thing. The politics surrounding a case might stay the same, but…
Blog
Getting Inflation Wrong and Making It Right
Everyone makes mistakes. Owning up to them is an underrated life skill that is almost non-existent among political pundits. Doubling down when threatened is a…
Blog
Stomping FROGs: An Updated Inventory of Biden’s Elimination of Trump-Era Final Rules on Guidance Document Procedures
Since President Obama unleashed the pen and phone, federal agency guidance documents and the confusion and abuse surrounding them has been covered extensively.
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
President Biden signed the FORMULA Act, which will temporarily suspend baby formula tariffs and other regulatory measures that made the formula shortage worse. Footage emerged…
Blog
Tennessee Corruption Case Raises Questions about Forfeiture and Police Office Culture
On a summer Tennessee night in 2021, Deputy Daniel Jacobs of the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office attempted, essentially, to sell a 2010 Lincoln MKZ to…
Blog
UK Leads on Crypto Privacy
The much-hyped “crypto winter” has emboldened cryptocurrency critics. The usual charges of “Ponzi scheme” (Robert Reich) and “The Big Scam” (Paul Krugman) have…
Blog
Celebrating Pat Michaels: Colleague, Mentor, and Friend
Dr. Patrick Michaels, a leading light of the climate realist movement and cheerful warrior for scientific integrity and individual liberty, died unexpectedly last week. CEI…
Blog
Former Trade Official Opposes Minor Tariff Relief
Now that former President Trump’s China tariffs are four years old, a mandatory review process is underway. President Biden has indicated he might lift…
Blog
Green Politics Leads to Higher Gas Prices
Americans have been plagued by high gas prices in recent months, with recent polls showing fuel costs at the top of the list of…
Blog
The Effect of Transfer Payments on the Labor Force Participation Rate
In the The Wall Street Journal last Thursday, James Piereson of the Manhattan Institute laid out the case for the relationship between a shrinking…
Blog
Financial Regulators’ Climate Fetish
Financial regulators’ attention, both in the United States and globally, seems focused on issues far afield from their core mission at a time when turmoil…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The James Webb Space Telescope sent back its first images, and they are amazing. The Consumer Price Index increased 9.1 percent over the last…
Blog
New CEI Paper Lays Out the Worst in Tech Legislation
Bipartisanship in Congress is rare, but it shouldn’t always be celebrated. Bad ideas, despite consensus, still lead to bad results. And recent congressional efforts to…
Blog
A Closer Look at The Guardian’s “The Uber Files”
On July 11, 2022, The Guardian published an expose of rideshare giant Uber’s business practices, based on a trove of leaked documents it obtained. However,…
Blog
Certification Program Goes Bananas
Private regulation is an excellent alternative to government regulation, if done right. One form it can take is independent certification. For decades, groups like the…
Blog
Inflation Sped Up in June: What’s Going On?
Last month, it had looked like inflation may have peaked. That celebration was likely premature. According to numbers released this morning, the Consumer…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while giving a speech. Boris Johnson resigned as UK Prime Minister. Jobs numbers remained strong in the…
Blog
Lack of Air Conditioning, Not Climate Change, Is the Real Summer Heat Wave Threat
Climate change policies often pose a greater risk than climate change itself, and that is especially true during summer heat waves. Each new heat wave…
Blog
DOT’s Doublespeak Carbon Reduction Program
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing to require its state and metropolitan counterparts to reduce on-road carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from portions of…
Blog
European Parliament Gives Final Approval to Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act
The European Parliament yesterday approved the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), two expansive new laws that will target the…
Blog
China Tariffs: Will Inertia Win?
Former President Trump’s China tariffs came with a safeguard: They expire after four years unless an internal review finds them worth keeping. On trade issues,…
Blog
Some Good News on the Mountain Valley Pipeline
There are a lot of bad federal policies currently blocking American energy. Perhaps worst of all are measures bottling up Appalachia’s abundant natural gas that…
Blog
294 Costliest Rules in Biden’s Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations
Unelected federal agencies personnel issue over 3,000 rules and regulations every year. That compares to a far lower number of laws passed…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Happy Independence Day, everyone. The Supreme Court issued a major ruling on the separation of powers in the case West Virginia v. EPA. Agencies…
Blog
Supreme Court EPA Ruling A Warning Shot to Agencies like NLRB
The Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency that the EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act is…
Blog
The FTC vs. the Right to a Fair Trial
The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed capping the nicotine in cigarettes, which will encourage many smokers to smoke more to get the same nicotine…
Blog
A Breakdown of Rules in the White House’s Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions
Since the early 1980s, federal departments and agencies have highlighted selected regulatory priorities in spring and fall editions of the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory…
Blog
Supreme Court Reins in the Administrative State in West Virginia v. EPA
The Supreme Court’s decision today in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency is an important brake on the administrative state that has inexorably grown…
Blog
DAOs: One Answer to Woke Corporations
Imagine a group of mothers upset about Disney’s opposition to a state parental rights bill in Florida. Instead of merely venting in a Facebook group,…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The January 6 hearings continued and the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from nuclear fees to pelagic resources. On…
Blog
Federal Agency Tries to Extend Reach with Joint Employer Standard
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal labor law enforcement agency, is likely planning to vastly expand its reach through a rulemaking on something…