CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews talks about why antitrust actually hurts competition, and offers some ideas for regulatory reform based on his recent articles for BigGovernment.com and The Washington Times, and on his annual Ten Thousand Commandments report.
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Posted in Antitrust, CEI Podcast, Economics, regulation
Tagged 10000 commandments, 10kc, Antitrust, biggovernment.com, cei, ceipodcast, podcast, regulation, regulatory reform, ten thousand commandments, washington times, wayne crews
Through June, the government spent about $620 billion of stimulus money. The Obama administration claims that the spending has saved or created 2.3 to 2.8 million jobs.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume those job creation numbers are true. In fact, let’s pick the rosiest number — 2.8 million jobs.
At a price of $620 billion, that comes out to $221,428.57 per job. Startlingly inefficient.
Now consider that that $620 billion had to come from somewhere else. Some of that money came from taxes. That leaves less money left over for consumers and businesses to spend. Some of the stimulus money was borrowed. That leaves less capital for private companies borrow.
The private sector tends to spend less than the government to create a job. Since stimulus spending is spending more money to create fewer jobs than the private sector, it is actually causing net harm to the job market.
In place of the spending stimulus, I humbly offer a deregulatory stimulus. CEI VP Wayne Crews and I offer some specific proposals here.
Posted in Economics, Spending, Stimulus
Tagged arra, deregulate to stimulate, deregulation, deregulatory stimulus, economic stimulus package, jobs, unemployment, wayne crews
And it’s on pace to hit a near-record 80,447 pages. Over at the Daily Caller, I crunch some of the numbers and offer up some Ideas for regulatory reform, inspired by Wayne Crews’ 10,000 Commandments.
-The Federal Register’s accelerating pace is due to two things. One is implementation of the health care and financial regulation bills. The other is that, fearing a party change in Congress, lame-duck regulating may have already begun.
-Keeping Federal Register page counts in check is important. Keeping the contents of those pages in check is even more important. Comprehensive regulatory reform involves much, much more.
-Such as five-year sunsets for all new regulations unless specifically reauthorized by Congress.
-And a comprehensive look at the regulatory state in each year’s Economics Report of the President.
-And a bipartisan commission to comb through the books for harmful or obsolete regulations. They would hand their recommendations for repeal to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without amendment.
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Posted in Publications, regulation
Tagged 10000 commandments, daily caller, dea, deregulate to stimulate, drug enforcement administration, federal register, reform regulation, regulation, regulatory reform, regulatory reform commission, sunsets, ten thousand commandments, wayne crews
Last year Americans paid $989 billion in income taxes (Happy Tax Day!). What you probably don’t know is that federal regulations cost as much as the income tax plus another quarter-trillion — $1.24 trillion in all.
Wayne Crews catalogues the damage in the freshly-released 2010 edition of “Ten Thousand Commandments.” Well worth a read.
If you don’t have time to read the full study, Wayne and I summarize the main findings over at AOL News.
A few numbers you should be aware of: 3,503 new regulations passed last year. Hardly any were repealed. More than 95 percent of the cost is off-budget, since the private sector pays for regulatory compliance costs. That means the burden of government is about a third higher than what it spends — in all, about 30 percent of the economy goes to paying for the federal government
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Posted in Economics, Publications, regulation
Tagged 10000 commandments, 10kc, aol news, deregulate to stimulate, regulation, regulation without representation, Ryan Young, ten thousand commandments, wayne crews
Today’s American Spectator Online has a piece by CEI VP Wayne Crews and I on curbing Congressional abuse of unfunded mandates. If the term is new to you, unfunded mandates are basically an accounting gimmick that lets government understate how much it costs taxpayers:
rather than fund a new federal job training program through a Department of Labor appropriation, Congress could mandate that all Fortune 500 firms provide, and pay for, such training. The first appears on the federal budget, the second does not. For politicians, it’s the perfect scheme. The government can spend — or, rather, force other people to spend — as much as it wants without adding to the deficit.
Decency demands this trickery stop; a bill from Rep. Virginia Foxx looks like it would do some good on that front.
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Posted in Economics, Political Animals, Public Choice, Publications, regulation, Spending, Taxation
Tagged american spectator, american spectator online, regulation, Ryan Young, unfunded mandates, virginia foxx, wayne crews
A new Maryland law makes it illegal for manufacturers to set a minimum retail price for their products in sales contracts. The law is meant to increase competition. Unfortunately, it will have the opposite effect.
As Wayne Crews and I explain in the The American Spectator, it could prevent retailers from competing with each other on non-price grounds, such as customer service, product demonstrations, and advertising.
Some products, such as televisions or cars, have high information costs. Customers want to know a lot about these products before they commit to a purchase. They want to know what they’re getting. Try before they buy.
By forcing retailers to compete against each other to give customers more and better information and service, minimum price agreements can help consumers get what they want and boost sales at the same time.
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Posted in Economics, Regulation of the Day
Tagged maryland, minimum price agreements, price controls, price theory, regulation, Regulation of the Day, retail price support, the american spectator, wayne crews
Inertia Wins! 
