Salim Furth: Government Regulators Have Added At Least An Extra $3,800 To The Price Of Producing A New Car

The high cost of savings-government style.  When Congress and the Obama administration passed and implemented extremely strict fuel economy regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed that it would save consumers a few thousand dollars on gas and add only $948 to the price of a new car. Three teams of independent     ... MORE

VIDEO: The Truth Behind The Affordable Care Act

The Brute Force Of Government Spending On Autopilot

by Debra J. Saunders.   My car was towed from an area near a train station in San Francisco last month. I had parked in front of a small "No Parking" sign that I had not seen. I spent an hour looking for my car and calling an attendant who didn't answer the phone. When someone finally answered, she told me my car had been towed. It cost me $350.  ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: How Regulators Quietly Drive Up Costs

Seen and unseen.    California political observers are understandably fixated on the goings-on in the state legislature, which is the living embodiment of what New York Judge Gideon Tucker wrote in an 1866 ruling: "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session." Reporters and commentators also focus on major legal  ... MORE

Gov’t Regulations Weigh On Gloomy Small-Business Owners

an Investor's Business Daily editorial.        Red Tape: Two new surveys of small-business owners show they’re “treading water,” and the government isn’t throwing them any lifelines. Instead, it’s weighing them down with more and more costly and burdensome regulations. Optimism about economic conditions last month hit a two-year low     ... MORE

American Slips To 11th Place In Economic Freedom

Government is slowly squandering our heritage.    A “solid C,” they call it in school. Not flunking, certainly, but also not excelling. That grade characterizes the score of 75.4 that the United States earned on the Heritage Foundations’s 2016 “Index of Economic Freedom,” which grades countries on such factors as property rights, government   ... MORE

Oakland’s Minimum Wage Is Up, Wal-Mart Is Out

by Leah Jessen.     How that workin' out for ya? A minimum wage of $12.55 an hour in Oakland, Calif., may be the culprit for a Wal-Mart store’s closure. Last Friday, Wal-Mart announced it will close 269 stores globally—including 154 locations in the United States—impacting about 10,000 associates here at home. “The minimum wage in the city of    ... MORE

3,000 Business Regulations Coming In 2016

by Shubhomita Bose.  Another year, another roll of red tape for small businesses to cut through. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, over 3,000 new regulations are in the pipeline for 2016 on top of the 3,300 issued in 2015. Some of the regulations that will have a direct impact on businesses include a possible Environmental Protection Agency  ... MORE

Obama Pushing Thousands Of New Regulations In Year 8

by Timothy Noah.   Nearly 4,000 regulations are squirming their way through the federal bureaucracy in the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency — many costing industry more than $100 million — in a mad dash by the White House to push through government actions affecting everything from furnaces to gun sales to Guantanamo. That    ... MORE

Obamacare Rules Brew Trouble For Craft Beer Makers

By Eric Boehm.  Obamacare regulations could be brewing up trouble for small breweries wanting to grow. Beginning next year, restaurant chains with more than 20 locations nationwide will be subject to new rules requiring calorie information on all menus. Restaurants will have to measure menu items made in-house, but when it comes to    ... MORE

Veronique de Rugy: Death To Deductions

Simplifying the tax system.   As Jeb Bush vies for the spotlight in a crowded presidential primary field, the former Florida governor is hoping his tax plan will help set him apart. Bush's proposal would lower rates on individuals and corporations-standard conservative fare-while limiting or killing many popular deductions and exemptions, something   ... MORE

John Farrier: This Robot Keeps Store Shelves Full

In response to a $15 minimum wage.   One of the most common tasks for retail workers is to look at the shelves, see which items are low, and restock those areas from storage. Now that task may be partially replaced with robots. Simbe Robotics calls its invention Tally. This robot roams a store autonomously, scanning shelves, finding out which  ... MORE

J. Wilson: Regulation Growth Strangles The Economy

Whenever liberals complain about deregulation, show em this. One of the biggest arguments against conservatives and libertarians is the belief that evil deregulation is what caused the economic collapse in 2008 and the current income inequality. Politicians like Elizabeth Warren have built their careers around this false argument. They want to   ... MORE

Costs From Regulations Pile Up, Hurt Small Business Profits

by Joyce M. Rosenberg.   Govt's war on capitalism. It's getting more expensive to be an employer and small business owners say that's making it harder for them to make money. The health care law, minimum wage increases and paid sick leave laws in some states and cities are increasing costs. Small companies also face the prospect of higher overtime  ... MORE

Veronique de Rugy: The Tip Of The Regulatory Iceberg

Crippling innovation speeding the growth of government. In 2014, the government issued 2,400 new regulations, including 27 major rules that may cost $80 billion or more annually. They range from forcing restaurants to list the number of calories in food—even though past experiments have revealed that such measures fail to change     ... MORE

Regulations Cost U.S. Businesses $1.88 Trillion A Year

by Clayton Browne. Just about everybody agrees that businesses need some degree of regulation to assure public safety, but people with different political perspectives often vehemently disagree on how much regulation there should be, the form of the regulation and who should be doing the regulating. A recent report from the Competitive   ... MORE

Seattle Raised Its Minimum Wage, Now This Is Happening

by Meghan Raffa.    As of April 1, the minimum wage in Seattle rose to $15. Small businesses have seven years to implement this change, while large companies must raise wages within the next two years. On one hand, it seems like a good thing that the government is mandating that low-income workers make enough money to help them meet  ... MORE

Rick Moran: 175,000 Pages Of Federal Regulations

What "unfettered capitalism?"        Whenever a liberal like Paul Krugman talks about the American system of “unfettered capitalism” I break out laughing. There are currently about 175,000 pages of federal regulations governing anything and everything about American business. In truth, many regulations have become necessary over the      ... MORE

American Small Business Struggles Under Heavy Regulation

by Paul Ebeling.    What big business pays politicians to do. Heavy US regulation putting a damper on American small businesses, but larger businesses are able to surmount regulatory burdens and might even thrive from them, a new American Action Forum (AAF) study released indicates. The survey was conducted by a policy analyst for AAF, a center- ... MORE

More Executive Overreach, This Time from the EPA

by Ilya Shapiro.      Power brokers and their dictates. The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in Michigan v. EPA, asking whether it was unreasonable for the Environmental Protection Agency to ignore costs in determining the appropriateness of regulating mercury emissions from power plants. The EPA’s proposed regulations are expected ... MORE