Politicians mess with the economy. They create tens of thousands of pages of burdensome regulations every year. They pass "stimulus" bills that they promise will reduce unemployment... continue reading »

The nanny state strikes again, this time to regulate our diet. Over the last few months, a group of government agencies studied the link between advertising and childhood obesity.

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Government is all over our cars.

This month the Obama administration announced new rules for car fleets: average mileage must increase from 35 mpg to 54 mpg by 2025.

But smaller cars are more dangerous. The government admits that since its mileage rules went into effect, the falling size of cars has caused 2,000 extra deaths a year... continue reading »

Government's at it again - licensing poor people out of the taxi business. Today's WSJ reports:

Lawmakers are on the verge of approving sweeping changes to New York's taxi industry with the aim of improving cab service outside Manhattan. ... continue reading »

Want to be an interior designer? A hair braider? A taxi driver? Go for it! It's that drive to be your own boss that's made many Americans independent, and that's helped make America prosperous.

Wait, you better not. Once, you could just start your own business, but today, nearly 1 in 3 Americans needs a government license to do it. And getting a license often means spending years and thousands of dollars for unnecessary classes... continue reading »

Last week, Senators John Kerry and John McCain introduced the “Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act”, claiming that internet privacy is a “fundamental right of American citizens.” I thought fundamental rights were in the Bill of Rights. I didn’t see this one there, so I’m going to make this the “Boring, But Important” section on my FBN show this week... continue reading »

On The Factor tonight, O’Reilly will debate me about rising oil prices. Bill sees a conspiracy (though he denies that it's a "conspiracy theory.") He once said: “the oil companies are rigged. The markets are rigged. With supply and demand having little to do with what we pay at the gas pump.”

Nonsense. The markets aren’t even rigged by OPEC. OPEC produces 40% of the world’s crude oil, according to the Energy Information Administration. 40% hardly gives them monopoly power... continue reading »

Normally on my TV show, we focus on big assaults on Freedom, like the $14 Trillion Debt; the crippling rules that politicians pass; the authoritarian laws... continue reading »

This week on STOSSEL (Thursday @ 9pm ET), I look at … The Future. When I watch movies from 20, 30 years ago and see flying cars, jet packs and the like…today’s “future” seems lame. Where are the floating hotels? Where is my robot servant? The most radical change over the past decade has been the internet. That happened without government regulation... continue reading »

It’s natural to assume that life needs to be planned – that without planning, we would have chaos. But there’s a difference between the plans individuals make for our own lives and central planning by government.  In my column this week, I steal an idea from economist Dan Klein, and use the example of a skating rink:

You are our Ruler... continue reading »