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Wayne Crews’s Essay Recognized as Part of Atlas Network’s 2015 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award
A
collection of essays on the economic chal-lenges facing the United States,
What America’s Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity 
, published by Canada’s Fraser Institute and edited by George Mason University economics professor Donald Boudreaux, has been named winner of the Atlas Network’s 2015 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award, which “rec-ognizes the organization that published a book, magazine, report, monograph, or study that, in the opinion of a panel of external judges, has had demonstrable impact and made the greatest contribution to public understanding of the free society.”CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews contributed the essay, “One Nation, Ungovernable? Confronting the Modern Regulatory State” to the book. In his chapter, Crews provides a roadmap for how to assess and rein in federal regulation by highlighting the tools available to policy makers to bring about regulatory reform. He also explains the consequences of too much executive branch power. Capturing both data and analysis to provide a snap-shot of the ever-growing regulatory state, Crews offers practical steps to dial back America’s regulatory burden and restore constitutional constraints on government. Atlas awarded the winning organization a $10,000 prize and recognized it at the Liberty Forum and Freedom Dinner in New York City, November 11-12, 2015.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Obamacare vs. Beer, by Michelle Minton ...................5Undermining Encryption, by Ryan Radia .......................8Taxpayer-Funded Anti-BPA Activism Is the Real Danger, by Angela Logomasini ................9The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ......14Media Mentions ....................15End Notes .........................16
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BILL FREZZA
New Zealand’s Free Market Triumph
COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE VOL. 28, NO. 4 | WINTER 2015
FEATURED ARTICLES
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IAIN MURRAY
Why Liberals Secretly Love Corporations
As Time Passes, CEI Carries On
I
n the opening of Dylan Thomas’s verbally illustrative play “Under Milk Wood,” the First Voice repeats, “Time passes. Listen. Time passes.” Time has passed indeed. And I am out of time as leader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. I was not the first and I will not be the last leader of this merry band of warriors. And to whom-ever is next, whether wearing pants or skirts (or both!) I say welcome and enjoy it. You inherit a genuinely unique group of thinkers and doers. To put ideas into action, CEI has always been more than “just a think tank.” We take a full-service approach to public policy—combining rigorous policy work with an activist’s ability to market, educate, and propagate our research findings and prin-ciples. We are always willing to explain, to anyone who will listen why economic liberty make us all better off. But we do not stop there. We engage with policy makers, build coalitions, file Freedom of Information Act disclosure requests, broadcast our mes-sage near and far, and, when necessary, sue to ensure our economic future remains grounded in these timeless principles. The past decades have seen the unique and powerful institution that is CEI grow into the major policy player it is today. It has proved it can operate effectively, with limited resources, and punch above its weight. So keep on trucking, CEI. This too is just another season. Your next president will arrive already knowing what you are capable of.—Lawson Bader
 
FRED L. SMITH, JR. AND MARC SCRIBNER
Lessons for Business Lead-ers from the Near-Death and Revival of America’s Railroads
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 What America’s Decline
inEconomicFreedom Meansfor Entrepreneurshipand Prosperity 
edited byDonald J.Boudreaux
FraserInstitute MercatusCenteratGeorge MasonUniversity 󰀲󰀰󰀱󰀵
 
CEI Looks Ahead to 2016
by Gregory Conko
F
our years ago, I had the privilege—and the daunting task—of searching for a new president to lead CEI, when founder Fred Smith decided it was time for him to step down. Our six-person search committee set out to find an intelligent and char-ismatic leader with a positive vision for defending individual liberty and free enterprise, and the focus to lead us toward achieving those goals. We pored over scores of resumes, held dozens of interviews with many highly qualified candidates, and eventu-ally selected Lawson Bader as our unanimous choice to be the next CEI president.Following an organization’s founder as president is a formidable job. But Lawson rose to the chal-lenge, and he proudly led CEI in some of its most important battles: fighting the Obama administra-tion’s energy rationing policies, the National Labor Relations Board’s onerous employment rules, the Treasury Department and Securities and Exchange Commission’s assault on America’s banking and finance industries, and many other expansions of federal power. Under Lawson’s leadership, CEI took our Obamacare legal challenge all the way to the Supreme Court. And Lawson laid out an ambitious vision for a bigger, more effective CEI as we negoti-ated, and recently completed, a successful merger with the Center for Class Action Fairness, a move that will make CEI’s litigation program even more effective. In November, we said a fond farewell to Lawson, as he rose to yet another challenge: replacing his dear friend Whitney Ball as the head of DonorsTrust. We, of course, will miss Lawson. But my colleagues and I are also eager to turn the page on a new chapter in CEI’s future, as our work continues. And we mean to be every bit as feisty and aggressive as CEI has been for the past three decades.We will continue to implement our strategic plan to derail implementation of the EPA’s destructive and unconstitutional power plant emissions rules. We will continue to expose and push back against the Obama administration’s lawless Operation Choke Point, which uses threats of harassment by bank regulators to shut down legal but politically unpopu-lar businesses, such as small dollar lenders, pawn shops, and gun dealers. We will continue to battle the Transportation Security Administration’s intrusive and ineffective airline passenger screening practices. And in time, we expect our legal challenge to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to land CEI back in the Supreme Court. We are working closely with House and Senate leaders from both political parties, and with state and local government officials, on a raft of reform measures to roll back aggressive regulatory poli-cies. In the current Congress alone, more than half a dozen pieces of legislation to rein in the regulatory state and make federal agencies more accountable to the American people incorporate ideas devel-oped and promoted by CEI scholars. Our devoted and capable staff will not rest until regulatory reform proposals like these are enacted into law and we succeed in our mission of removing government-created barriers to free enterprise, innovation, and prosperity.In short, we at CEI have an ambitious agenda, and we are eager to get on with the business of implementing it. In my 21 years at CEI, I have never before seen the organization more focused or more eager to bring about positive change. Sure, we may have to look for a new president. But we won’t let that slow us down. We are determined to find a can-didate who will challenge us to work even harder, and who will lead CEI in many more of the important battles to lift the heavy burden of government from the shoulders of America’s consumers and producers.Stay tuned.
   F   R   O    M    T   H   E    A   C   T   I   N   G   P   R   E   S   I   D   E   N   T
Publisher
Lawson Bader
Editor
Marc Scribner
Editorial Director
Ivan G. Osorio
Contributing Editor
Keara VickersThe CEI Planet is produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pro-market public interest group dedicated to free enterprise and limited government.
CEI is a non-partisan, non-profit organization incorporated in the District of Columbia and is classified by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3) charity. CEI relies upon contributions from foundations, corporations and individuals for its support. Articles may be reprinted provided they are attributed to CEI.
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CEI.ORG COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
Ph (202) 331-1010Fax (202) 331-0640info@cei.orgISSN#: 1086-3036
 
R.M. FREEDMAN
SOCIETY
Help the Competitive Enterprise Institute carry on its work for generations by joining the R.M. Freedman society.
In 2013, CEI established the R.M. Freedman Society in honor of Robert M. Freedman, a business owner from West Bloomfield, Michigan, who placed CEI in his estate and, in 2009, sadly passed on and gave CEI its first legacy gift. We named the society in appreciation of his generosity. Many of CEI’s extended family choose to include CEI in their estate plans through:• Bequests,Charitable Remainder Trusts,Charitable Lead Trusts, or as a Life insurance beneficiary.If you make the decision to include CEI in your estate plans, please reach out and let us know.
While these sorts of decisions should be undertaken with the help of an estate planner, Lauren Avey and Al Canata of CEI can be a resource to you. You can reach them anytime at 202-331-1010.
CEI Merges with CCAF
By Ted Frank
O
n October 1, the Competitive Enterprise Institute completed a merger with the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF), a public interest law firm, which I founded in 2009 to challenge abusive class action litigation practices that harm consumers and shareholders. The merger combines CEI’s and CCAF’s proven track records in promot-ing free markets and challenging overregulation, creating a unique legal program dedicated to protecting the rule of law and supporting economic freedom, prosperity, and innovation.Founded in 1984, CEI has grown into an effective advocate for free-dom on a wide range of policy issues, including energy and environment, business and finance, technology, telecommunications, and food and drug regulation. CEI has long fought cronyism, rent-seeking, and other abuses of government power. Under the supervision of General Counsel Sam Kazman, CEI’s litiga-tion program has a long history of success, including establishing major new precedents for combating regulations that restrict consumer choice, stifle innovation, and limit competition. From its constitutional chal-lenges to Sarbanes-Oxley, the Big Tobacco Deal, and lethal federal fuel economy standards, CEI continues to develop new approaches to fight overregulation.CCAF has won tens of millions of dollars for consumers and sharehold-ers in fighting class action abuse. This work fits right in with CEI’s mission. By winning some precedent-setting cases, we seek to drastically reduce trial lawyers’ incentives for bringing abusive class action suits that yield no real benefit to the plaintiffs on whose behalf they’re supposedly filed and for structuring settlements in ways that benefit attorneys at the expense of their clients. For example, we won an important Sixth Circuit appeal in 2013 in the case
In re Dry Max Pampers Litig
. The proposed class action settlement, over alleged defects in a new line of diapers, would have paid attorneys $2.7 million, while the plaintiffs only got the opportunity for a refund—if they had not already received a refund and had retained the receipt and bar code from a years-old purchase of diapers. CCAF’s successful objec-tion led the trial lawyers to drop their meritless litigation and walk away with nothing. Moreover, the court established a precedent that attorneys should not be the “primary beneficiary” of class action settlements, a principle we have fought for since our founding and successfully applied to many other cases. Now the merger will give CCAF the freedom to take on many cases we couldn’t have litigated otherwise, and we look forward to our renewed focus. I will continue to lead the CCAF team and its pro bono advocacy against unfair class action procedures and settlements. When plaintiff classes receive tiny sums or worthless discount coupons while their attor-neys reap multi-million dollar windfalls, CCAF intervenes to fight for fair-ness and against such exploitation.
Ted Frank
(ted.frank@cei.org )
is a Senior Attorney and Director of CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE CEI.ORG
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