Did Anti-Price Gouging Laws Lead to More COVID-19 Deaths?
A new paper finds that the shortages produced by emergency price controls led to more social interactions as people searched for scarce goods. Additional COVID-19 deaths weren't far behind.
Regulation
California's Requirement That Nonprofits Disclose Donor Information Poses a Grave Threat to Freedom of Association
A broad coalition of groups is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the state's policy.
Democrats Demand Bureaucrats Regulate Bureaus More Heavily
The STURDY Act would mandate new testing standards to prevent dressers from killing people.
Local Health Departments Have To Start Learning From Local Farmers and Markets
A promising new law will give agricultural communities in Massachusetts more say in local public-health rules that apply to them and impact their property and livelihoods.
'Ghost Gun' Bans Are Doomed from the Start
The DIY firearms movement specifically evolved to put personal armaments beyond the reach of the government.
Conservationists Pushed Ban on Non-Fatal Rhino Horn Harvesting. Poaching Skyrocketed.
Environmental activists should use the market to their advantage.
California Bill Would Give $1,000 Fines to Retailers With Separate 'Girls' and 'Boys' Toy Sections
The proposed bill from Assembly Members Evan Low and Cristina Garcia would require stores to have one unisex section for children's products and apparel.
California's YIMBYs Forgo Big State Upzoning Bill In Favor of Wonkier, More Modest Reforms
New bills in the legislature would make it easier for cities to allow more housing on their own, and crack down on places that try to cheat their way out of permitting development.
The Texas Blackout Blame Game
Neither wind power nor deregulation are responsible for the Texas power disaster.
Seattle Forces Beloved Takeout-Only Cider Bar To Close
One complainer managed to shut down a popular local business.
Grocery Store Owners Say That Pandemic Hazard Pay Laws Are Putting Them Out of Business
City-level requirements that grocery stores pay wage premiums during the pandemic could prompt layoffs, price hikes.
New York City's Outdoor Dining Doom
Preserving the country's greatest restaurant scene in the midst of a pandemic feels like an afterthought.
Journalists Worried About People Having Conversations on Clubhouse
A person you know might be having an online conversation without a transcriptionist and a fact-checker right now, and we have to stop it.
Menthol Cigarette Bans Will Fail Like Every Other Prohibition Scheme
The winners in every battle over restrictions are the people who do whatever they please without regard for government officials.
Safety Investigators Confirm the 'Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant Helicopter Safety Act' Wouldn't Have Prevented the Fatal Crash That Killed Lakers Legend
The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that a costly terrain warning system lawmakers wanted to mandate in response to Bryant's death would have been a non-factor in the accident that killed him.
You Will Soon Be Able To Taste a Lab-Grown Ribeye Steak
Cell-based meat cultivation is on its way.
Is America Too Bound by Red Tape to Support Space Entrepreneurs?
Regulators haven't kept up with the times when it comes to the changing nature of ventures into space.
What Would It Take To Reach Biden's Carbon-Free Electric Power Goal by 2035?
Parsing technology trends, policy proposals, and clean tax cuts
Mandated Pandemic Hazard Pay for Grocery Store Workers Prompts Store Closures, Lawsuits
California grocers have filed three lawsuits against local laws requiring "hero pay" during the pandemic.
California's Regional Stay-At-Home Order Was a Costly Failure
By the state’s own estimates, a two-month lockdown was less effective than a slow day of vaccinations.
Little Green Men Caught in Red Tape
When a metal monolith was discovered in the desert, all federal officials could see was a zoning violation.
Biden Tells Federal Bureaucrats To Approve Regulations With Benefits That Are 'Impossible To Quantify'
Biden has also moved quickly to remove some oversight that limited the growth of the regulatory state.
Hypocritical Politicians Violate Their Own Coronavirus Restrictions
The rules should not just apply to the little people.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom Issues Surprise Retraction of Controversial Stay-at-Home Order
The governor's order had banned outdoor dining and forbade Californians from socializing with members outside their household.
Will Democrats Learn to Love the Congressional Review Act?
The CRA may offer Democrats a quick and easy way to repeal Trump Administration regulations, if they are willing to use it.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy Vetoed One Outdoor Dining Bill Because It Took Too Much Power Away From Zoning Officials. Will He Do That a Second Time?
Garden State lawmakers have unanimously passed two bills now allowing restaurants to keep their outdoor operations running so long as their indoor dining rooms are restricted.
Supreme Court Ends Pandemic Permission To Prescribe Abortion Pills Remotely
Plus: Amazon responds to Parler lawsuit, Trump's execution spree continues, a bad ruling on safe injection houses, and more...
California Voters Liberate Ride-Share Drivers From A.B. 5
The lawmakers who passed A.B. 5 ignored the many benefits of contractor status.
Pandemic-Slammed Small Businesses Require Regulatory Relief
Entrepreneurs discouraged by red tape even before COVID-19 need officials to leave them alone.
In a Last-Minute Reversal, HHS Voids FDA Fees on Distillers Who Produced Emergency Hand Sanitizer
Thanks to coverage at Reason and pushback from the industry, the federal government voided $14,000 fees on do-gooder craft distillers just in time for the new year.
When There Wasn't Enough Hand Sanitizer, Distilleries Stepped Up. Now They're Facing $14,060 FDA Fees.
Distilleries just learned that to cap off a brutal year, the FDA is charging them a fee normally reserved for drug manufacturing facilities.
Local Governments Play Scrooge To Stop People from Helping the Needy
Do you have a license for that refrigerator stocked with free food?
When Your Outfit Is Made Illegal
When fabulous clothes are outlawed, only outlaws will be fabulous.
To Protect 'Children' From E-Cigarettes, Congress Imposes New Restrictions on Everything Related to Vaping of Any Kind
The law bans mail delivery of vaping products and requires all vendors to comply with burdensome tax reporting rules.
Congress Legalizes Smokey Bear Impersonations
The $2.3 trillion spending bill repeals criminal penalties for using Smokey Bear's likeness without government permission.
Therapist Elizabeth Brokamp Fights for the Right To See Patients Virtually
"I hope my case can start removing senseless boundaries to teletherapy," said Brokamp, who is suing in federal court on First Amendment grounds.
A 14th Amendment Case That Deserves the Supreme Court's Attention
It's time to breathe some life back into the Privileges or Immunities Clause.
Dodd-Frank Is Driving the Wrong Kind of Innovation
The federal government responded to the 2008 mortgage crisis by piling new regulations on the financial system, but lower-skilled finance employees were squeezed out of the job market.
New D.C. Law Says Restaurants Must Rehire Staff They Were Forced To Lay Off
The new law layers more bureaucratic requirements on a hospitality industry trying to bounce back from its worst year on record.
California's Health Secretary Concedes There Is No Empirical Basis for the State's Ban on Outdoor Dining
The ban is "not a comment on the relative safety of outdoor dining," Mark Ghaly says, but part of the effort to keep people from leaving home.
California Judge Says Los Angeles County's Outdoor Dining Ban Isn't 'Grounded in Science, Evidence, or Logic'
A tentative decision from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant is yet another rebuke of officials trying to reimpose March-style lockdowns on a skeptical public.
Don't Believe the Hype About 'Socially Responsible' Investing
Want to make money and help the world, too? Wall Street says you can!
Libertarian History/Philosophy
Walter E. Williams, Free Market Scholar and Iconoclast, RIP
"I just do my own thing," said the George Mason University economist and author of The State Against Blacks.
The Unseen Costs of the COVID-19 Pandemic
We must not ignore the suffering that this pandemic and our collective response to it have inflicted on millions of fellow citizens.
Ajit Pai on Net Neutrality, 5G, and Why He Wants To 'Clarify' Section 230
The outgoing FCC chairman discusses 'light-touch' regulation and the future of free speech on the internet.
The U.K. Approves COVID-19 Vaccine While the U.S. FDA Dawdles
It's not like we're in the middle of a pandemic or anything, right?
