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3 days ago | 
cei.org | John Berlau |Ryan Smith
On Friday, federal financial regulators made the right decision in approving the merger of Capital One and Discover. In their joint approvals of the merger, the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) seemed to recognize points made by CEI in its favor. Namely that, far from being anticompetitive, the merger could introduce new, game-changing competition into the markets for credit and payments.
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3 days ago | 
cei.org | Ryan Young |Ryan Smith
President Trump and El Salvador president Nayib Bukele confirmed that they would continue to imprison people without due process. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from showerheads to stormwater. On to the data:• Agencies issued 36 final regulations last week, after 32 the previous week. • That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every four hours and 40 minutes. • With 694 final regulations so far in 2025, agencies are on pace to issue 2,345 final regulations this year.
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3 weeks ago | 
cei.org | Sean Higgins |Ryan Smith
President Trump’s newly-confirmed labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has been viewed with suspicion by many on the free-market right. She can rectify that by adopting the same free-market approach as Trump’s previous picks for the cabinet position, Eugene Scalia and Alexander Acosta. We at Competitive Enterprise Institute have some ideas on how she can do that.
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3 weeks ago | 
cei.org | Jessica Melugin |Ryan Smith
The third episode of Otherwise Objectionable, the narrative-driven podcast that tells the true story of Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, moves beyond the earliest days of the internet to the beginning of the Dotcom Era. Spam makes its first appearance on early internet forums, angering the small online community. Dueling lawsuits leave early web companies with a massive question: can they moderate speech without getting sued off the face of the earth?
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1 month ago | 
cei.org | Jessica Melugin |Ryan Smith
Otherwise Objectionable is the brand-new limited series podcast that tells the true story of how a previously-obscure defamation law, Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, is behind America’s amazing tech boom as well as the internet experience we all rely on and take for granted today.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
cei.org | Ryan Smith
At this point, it is easier to name the major home appliances that have not been hit with bad regulations from the Biden administration – televisions are off the hook. But for just about everything else, Department of Energy (DOE) bureaucrats are going all out with anti-consumer rules, including ones for furnaces, air conditioners, washing machines and dryers, light bulbs, refrigerators, ceiling fans, dishwashers, and stoves.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
cei.org | Ryan Smith
This week’s roundup will be a little different than usual. Since the new year began mid-week, and I already published a breakdown of 2024’s year-end numbers, as did Wayne Crews, here we’ll just list weekly data for last week’s new regulations. Annual projections and other data will be back in next week’s edition. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from food labels to cybersecurity workers. On to the data: • Agencies issued 66 final regulations last week, after 69 the previous week.
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Jan 1, 2025 | 
cei.org | Ryan Smith
All the major regulatory numbers for 2024’s new regulations are now in the books. Here are the highlights, followed by a little analysis and a preview of what 2025 might hold:• Agencies issued 3,248 new final regulations in 2024. • That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 42 minutes, 24/7, for all 366 days of the leap year. • For comparison, there were 3,018 new final regulations in 2023, 3,168 in 2022, and 3,257 in 2021. • Agencies issued 1,769 proposed regulations in 2024.
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Dec 30, 2024 | 
cei.org | Ryan Smith
As the 119th Congress and incoming Trump administration prepare to govern, one key weapon in their arsenal will be the Congressional Review Act (CRA) of 1996. Among other provisions, this often-overlooked law allows the incoming Congress to overturn regulations issued in the final 60 legislative days of the 118th Congress. Expect a flurry of so-called resolutions of disapproval aimed at costly Biden administration regulations that, fortunately for the over-regulated, fall within this window.
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Dec 26, 2024 | 
cei.org | Ryan Smith
Oil, and the refined products that it produces, has many uses for which it’s incredibly well suited. Being burned in power plants that generally rely on natural gas isn’t one of them. New England is continually plagued by its lack of sufficient natural gas pipeline infrastructure and cold temperatures often require gas plants to run on backup oil because home heating has priority claim on the limited gas.
