I mentioned the other day a claim from CEI that regulatory burdens cost the economy nearly $2 trillion in 2008. The Phoenix Center also recently produced a policy bulletin examining the costs of the regulatory state (Hat-tip: Big Government). In quantifying the…
Brian Garst
Brian Garst is Vice President of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.
He writes regularly on tax and free-market issues, and has been published by national and international outlets such as Offshore Investment, RealClearPolicy, Cayman Financial Review, China Offshore, Thomson Reuters Accelus, IFC Review, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, Human Events, and Townhall.
Regulatory Burdens Cost Economy Almost $2 Trillion
There are thousands of examples of the burdens placed on the economy and ordinary citizens, who see costs soar in response to excessive government regulations. A recent report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute called Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
To Fix the Budget, Bring Back Reagan…or Even Clinton
President Obama unveiled his fiscal year 2012 budget today, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that there’s no major initiative such as the so-called stimulus scheme or the government-run healthcare proposal. The bad news, though, is that government…
Two Bad Stories for Property Rights
Two recent stories are sure to get your blood boiling if you support private property rights. The first regards a decision by the Supreme Court not to hear a New York eminent domain case, which saw Columbia University first game the system to have property falsely…
Frivolous Lawsuit Gives New Meaning to ‘Just Say No’
What do you do when your kids clamor for something you don’t think they should have? For most (good) parents, the obvious answer is to “just say no.” For others, it’s to sue! With perfect Grinch timing, a consumer group has sued McDonald’s demanding that it take the…
Free Market Video Contest Ends Today
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s Free Market Video Contest is set to end today. In an effort to adopt some Christmas spirit, however, we’ll accept videos that trickle in over the next day or two. But don’t push your luck if you want a shot at the $1,000 first…
Great Moments in Local Government
The South Los Angelos City Council is not satisfied with the culinary choices of the people of South Los Angelos. While consumers have been voting one way with their wallets, the City Council has voted to use government force to override their preferences. How many…
Visualizing Prosperity
Although not necessarily the intent of this video, the impressive data visualization makes it hard not to see just how profoundly the spread of freedom and capitalism has dramatically improved the lives of billions throughout the world in such an historically short…
Untangling Sherrod’s Keynesian Nonsense
Nancy Pelosi was rightly mocked for her nonsensical assertion that subsidizing unemployment is the best way to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, as we pointed out at the time, such claims reflect nothing more than standard Keynesian economics as understood by so…
A Sign of the Times
Management of roads used to be the business of local governments – that is, until the federal government dangled its grant money over the states as leverage. Now, thanks to this usurpation of authority, we have stories like this: …[T]he Federal Highway Administration…