The U.S. economy continues to drag, but why’s the recovery going so slowly? The 13.9 million unemployed Americans aren’t the only ones who want to know. Yesterday, following a speech by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke (who described the economic recovery as “frustratingly slow”), JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon …
The Senate is looking to do some more spending with a vote today on the Economic Development Revitalization Act, which will cost $1.5 billion through 2016 and an additional $760 million thereafter. The goal? Reauthorize funding for the Economic Development Administration — a vehicle for political pet projects, masked as …
With gas prices hovering at $4 per gallon, politicians are trying to sell quick fixes that will inevitably end up hurting consumers. The latest attempt is an open fuel standard that would require a certain percentage of new vehicles to be flex-fuel (a combination of gasoline and ethanol or methanol), …
It’s been two decades since Congress seized from states the authority to regulate the size of the biggest trucks traveling the highways. But what started as a temporary “freeze” on state rule-making predictably turned into a permanent federal usurpation of state regulation. The now-petrified standards have been rendered largely obsolete …
Tucked into the 232 pages of the May 31 Federal Register—the daily catalog of new regulation—was glaring evidence that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will exercise nearly unlimited power over how Americans obtain credit and loans and manage their money. That it will do so absent accountability …
The environmental police have struck again. This time, they are hindering efforts to produce domestic oil and causing regulation headaches for those just doing their jobs. Agencies partaking in a natural gas drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” are facing a lawsuit alleging that they’ve failed to give …
In the 1939 movie You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man, W. C. Fields demands to know “What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?!” If asked today, the answer might well be Congress. Dozens of Members are backing legislation that would allow states to prohibit consumers from making interstate …
Four months after President Obama called for a government-wide initiative to identify outdated regulations that are stifling the American economy, the first results are in. As announced today by Obama “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein, agencies have identified a wide-ranging set of regulations to roll back, promising some welcome savings for …
