When I tried to open a lemonade stand outside my Fox office, I learned about the piles of regulations that make it so tough for new businesses to get off the ground. But it's not just burdensome paperwork. Some entrepreneurs are charged with crimes, simply for trying to be entrepreneurs.

Tonight, we'll be joined by small business owners who get squeezed.

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Every year, federal government bureaucrats work hard to come up with some 80,000 pages of new and proposed regulations. That's a lot of pages -- 23 feet high if you stack them in one pile.

One rule that just went effect, which you can find by flipping to page 56,236 of the 2010 regulations, will require all hotels with a pool -- or a hot tub -- to install wheelchair accessible ramps or lifts into the water... continue reading »

My older brother, who used to hold me down and torture me, has finally seen the light. Okay, he was ten; I was five; and it wasn't really "torture," but he did go on to become another one of those ivy league socialists. At Princeton and Harvard, they taught him that business was nasty and that government needed to create an "orderly marketplace."

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The National Transportation Safety Board wants a nationwide ban on cell phone calls and texting while driving.

The safety police are thrilled. But as usual, regulation limits our freedom without proof that their rule will do more good than harm. Yes, thousands of people are killed because we are distracted, but more laws won't solve that... continue reading »

My column this week gives one more example of how well-intended regulation often hurts more Americans than it helps.

How can I say the FDA threatens smokers? What other conclusion can we draw when we consider that the FDA now talks about banning electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes. It sent threatening letters to manufacturers of the product.

The FDA is worried about e-cigarettes because they may be toxic... continue reading »

In The New York Times this week, John Tierney identifies a new way government regulation kills.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been shown to be unusually successful in helping smokers quit. The cigarette substitutes are basically nicontine-delivery devices, and the Royal College of Physicians found: ... continue reading »

I built my career doing consumer reporting, exposing bad businesses for pulling scams on people. I called for more government regulation. This kind of thing won me 19 Emmy awards.

Now I realize that I had it wrong. The free market deters and punishes scams better than regulation does. Also, government rips-off more people than business ever does.

Another point: some consumers are just stupid... continue reading »

The stupidity of bureaucrats continues to amaze.

In the 1970's, the rhinoceros was being hunted to extinction, so African government signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES), which makes it a crime to buy or sell Rhino horns. Did that stop the poaching? No. It's worked as well as drug and alcohol prohibition.

This South African newspaper explains how CITES caused a huge spike in prices... continue reading »

The President thinks jobs come from new laws:

"If you want construction workers on the worksite, pass this bill. If you want teachers in the classroom, pass this bill. You want small business owners to hire new people, pass this bill. If you want veterans to get their fair share of opportunity that they helped create, pass this bill. If you want a tax break, pass this bill."... continue reading »

I have written several blog posts explaining why Dodd-Frank creates more problems than solutions. But, I was shocked to see my friends at the New York Times are now calling the legislation a jobs program, of all things, because it has created work for accountants and compliance officers... continue reading »