An Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act to reaffirm boundaries of politicians and the legislation they can pass has become necessary to the survival of limited government, given the routine “flash policy” responses to crises - including the 2008 financial crash and the COVID-19 pandemic. Excessive...

Political party reformers promised to roll back the regulatory state's excesses during the 1994 and 1996 election cycles. While broad-based reform targeting counterproductive environmental and risk regulation didn't occur, a recognition persists that regulations often go too far. However, there...

Gains from trade may have been operative in allowing peaceful, simultaneous violations of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 both to occur in the year 1836. In the formative years of the vast continental United States, every other proposed and actual violation of...

We know the federal government spends over $3.5 trillion annually, but it remains surprising how little is known regarding the costs of individual categories of federal regulation and intervention, let alone costs in the aggregate. Estimates range from trillions in foregone GDP to a few tens of...

The modern conceit is that administrative regulation and rule making work. Overreach by bureaucracy and the administrative state may not only impede economic efficiency but also undermine health, safety, and environmental progress. Healthy government requires recognizing downsides to coercive...

It has been long recognized by members of both major political parties that federal regulatory burdens can operate as a hidden tax. President Donald Trump has echoed that view. In response, his administration has issued a “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” Memorandum to executive branch...

Unleashing entrepreneurship is a global imperative, evidenced by worldwide governmental passion for classifying and measuring entrepreneurship, and by a mounting consensus that excessive entry regulation and other impediments dampen entrepreneurial innovation. This chapter provides an overview...

Ten Thousand Commandments 2021 surveys the size, scope, and cost of federal regulation and intervention and effects on consumers, businesses, and the U.S. economy at large and otherwise attempts to shine a light on the under-appreciated “hidden tax” of America’s regulatory state. The new...