Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FEATURED ARTICLES
5
BY WAYNE CREWS
The Only Way Washington
Can Be Smaller In Four Years
publish my arguments against Internet regulation in the regulators use to manipulate American companies,
name of privacy. Solveig Singleton and I co-wrote With landowners, and small businesspeople.
a Grain of Salt: What Consumer Privacy Surveys Don’t Energy and environment is another area where CEI
Tell Us in 2001 to caution against Internet regulation work is paying off big time. Myron Ebell and colleagues
based on abstract consumer fears. have helped create the circumstances for policy change
History has shown that consumers prefer the big, in this area. Let’s make it so that the United States can
rollicking, and challenging commercial Internet we’ve use all of its energy and material resources and to build
got to the small, tightly controlled Internet that federal our strong and productive, free society. Let’s protect
bureaucrats were pushing for in the early 2000s. the environment through non-coercive means using the
CEI continues to give young analysts a chance. ideas of R.J. Smith, who recently celebrated his 80th
Former intern Daniel Press, whom we recently hired as birthday with us.
a research associate, has an excellent article out, co- Of course, litigation is a CEI specialty. Lately, CEI liti-
authored with Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray. gators have had to fight for the organization’s own—and
Press and Murray point out how secure property rights, your—free speech rights.
institutional reform, and affordable energy can unlock When Kent Lassman first joined CEI as president,
prosperity in Africa. he was greeted by a subpoena asking for information
But international bureaucrats are fighting to keep the about CEI advocacy and donor information going back
world’s people contained within their ideological and over 10 years. Because of a stiff challenge led by CEI’s
bureaucratic systems. That’s why I think a recent paper general counsel, Sam Kazman, a group of state attor-
by Angela Logomasini is so important. Two recent World neys general calling themselves “AGs United for Clean
Health Organization reports have made a hash of the Power” has lost a lot of energy.
issues around pollution and development. By intermin- CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness is leading the
gling the challenges of less developed nations with fight against bogus class action settlements that reward
those of more developed ones, they argue against the attorneys far more than they should for the small benefits
pro-growth, free market policies that would let people they bring to plaintiffs.
in developing nations enjoy higher living standards and In the background of all this work, I see a better
longer lives. vision for organizing society.
It often takes years, but works like these and many The fight for freedom at CEI rests on the vision of a
others lay the groundwork for policy change that will free people deciding for themselves, through billions of
move our country and world further in the direction personal and marketplace decisions, what their society
of prosperity and liberty for all. There are no better is going to look like. When the restraint or corrective of
examples of those payoffs than what we’re seeing in the law is needed, it’s the common law of contract, prop-
policy areas that are particular CEI strengths. erty, and torts, anti-fraud and harm-based criminal law.
The regulatory reforms happening in Congress If I can help make this vision more explicit at CEI and
would be smaller, more timid efforts if it hadn’t been for nurture the growth of freedom in the United States and
Wayne Crews’s years of toil in the regulatory trenches. around the world, I’ll be one happy CEI warrior.
The Good: Court Criticizes The Bad: Glass-Steagall The Ugly: House GOP
Schneiderman’s Evasion of May Return Abandons Repeal of
Open Records Law Payment Card Price Controls
A new court ruling criticizes New York On May 1, President Trump told In May, House Republicans gave up
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s Bloomberg News that he was consid- efforts to repeal a provision of the 2010
illegal stonewalling of public records ering breaking up America’s biggest Dodd-Frank financial law that imposes
requests. At issue in the case is the banks. “I’m looking at that right now,” caps on the fees that banks and credit
key document related to a coalition he said. “There’s some people that want unions place on debit card purchases.
orchestrated by Schneiderman last to go back to the old system, right? So The provision, known as the Durbin
year that was aimed at shutting down we’re going to look at that.” It was the Amendment, for its sponsor, Sen. Richard
the climate science debate. The State latest rumbling from this administration Durbin (D-Ill.), enjoys the support of
of New York Supreme Court handed about government action against banks. large retailers—including Walgreens,
down a ruling on April 19, which Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary which is based in Sen. Durbin’s home
awarded attorney’s fees to CEI in our D. Cohn, has previously talked about state of Illinois.
successful legal challenge to obtain bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act, “All the evidence suggests the cap on
an official copy of Schneiderman’s a Depression-era law that separated debit card interchange fees resulted in a
“Common Interest Agreement,” the investment and commercial banks but windfall for retailers who failed to pass
document behind his multi-state, anti- was partially repealed in 1999 by the on savings to consumers,” said CEI Vice
free speech campaign. Even after the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. President for Strategy Iain Murray. “The
agreement became available on the “Whatever one thinks about ‘break- result has been a net loss of around $25
Internet, Schneiderman’s office refused ing up the big banks,’ that’s not what billion a year for American consumers,
to release an official copy of it. bringing back Glass-Steagall would most of it born by low-income house-
In the ruling, the court character- do,” warns CEI financial policy expert holds. The House had a chance to right
ized Schneiderman as having “stone- John Berlau. “Re-imposing Glass- this wrong, and they blew it.”
walled” and as having “completely Steagall restrictions would just prevent “A Home Depot executive bragged
failed” to explain his “conclusory” banks of any size from dealing in on a stock analysts’ conference call that
reasoning for withholding the docu- securities through an affiliate, hurting price controls could add up to $35 mil-
ment. It noted that the fee award was their bottom line and denying consumer lion per year to the chain’s bottom line,”
“particularly appropriate” to promote choice. Regional and community banks said CEI Senior Fellow John Berlau. “If
the purpose of the state’s Freedom couldn’t supplement their income with the Durbin amendment explicitly bars
of Information Law. CEI sought the other financial services, which is espe- banks and credit unions from recouping
agreement after having successfully cially important during hard times, and the full cost of a debit card transaction
fought off a wide-ranging subpoena consumers couldn’t receive brokerage from a retailers, who pays these costs?
from U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney and insurance services from their com- Consumers. The costs have been shifted
General Claude Walker, a member of munity banks. Bringing back Glass- to them in the form of reduced benefits,
Schneiderman’s anti-speech coalition. Steagall would be destructive but for like free checking, and higher fees at
small banks more so than big ones.” their banks and credit unions.”
...END NOTES
If You Build It, Taxpayers Will Pay for It Part I D.C. Transit Agency Making Delays More Aromatic
The National Football League hates gambling so much The Washington, D.C.-area Metro subway system—
that it recently approved the Oakland Raiders’ move to Las which The Washington Post called “a national embarrass-
Vegas. But it’s a winning bet for Raiders owner Mark Davis, ment” last year—has its share of well-known troubles. From
who is essentially gambling with “house money”—except service interruptions to fires so frequent they led a local
this time the house is the taxpayer. “At $750 million, it’s the resident to create the website ismetroonfire.com, transit
largest direct public subsidy for a stadium ever granted, agency officials have their work cut out for them. So in an
and Clark County will soon be floating a bond to raise effort to improve riders’ experience, Metro is installing …
all that money and raising hotel room taxes on the Strip air fresheners. The fresheners, installed on Metro’s green
by 0.88 percent in order to pay back their debt hold- line, come in two scents: cucumber melon and mango. The
ers over the next 30 years,” notes Deadspin writer T. M. results? Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said that customer
Brown. Worse, this isn’t an isolated case. Mercatus Center surveys found an increase in rider satisfaction with the level
researcher Michael Farren finds that by 1992, 77 percent of railcars’ cleanliness. On social media, rider reaction has
of all professional sports stadiums in the U.S. had been been mixed. While some have said they like the “new train
financed by taxpayers. Within a decade, nearly half of all smell,” one rider wrote to the Post, asking, “Why not just
professional sports franchises were once again request- clean the trains really well with nontoxic cleaning agents
ing public funds for new facilities or were already in the and get rid of the moldy, mildewed, smelly carpeting on
construction or renovation process. many trains?”
If You Build It, Taxpayers Will Pay for It Part II Excuses, Excuses
Local politicians often tout municipal broadband as key On May 24, Vermont Governor Phil Scott became the
to their region’s economic development. Yet, the results to first state executive to veto a bill to decriminalize marijuana.
date are less than stellar. In a new study, Christopher Yoo His reason? The supposed lack of a reliable roadside test to
and Timothy Pfenninger of the University of Pennsylvania find determine driver impairment from THC, the intoxicant found
that few city- and county-owned broadband networks in the in marijuana. But the absence of a reliable roadside sobriety
U.S. are earning back predicted revenue, and many threaten test for THC is a poor excuse for striking down the legisla-
to jeopardize other local spending priorities because of tion. Reason magazine columnist Jacob Sullum recently
cost overruns. Examples include the Minnesota city of reviewed several Automobile Association of America (AAA)
Monticello, which established a municipal fiber network in reports that looked at THC-related traffic incidents. One
2009, expecting it to eventually turn a profit. Instead, the report was based on THC-related traffic incident data in
network, known as FiberNet, has lost millions of dollars, Washington State between 2005 and 2014 (Washington
suspending payments to bondholders in 2012. The service is and Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012).
still operating it at a loss, running a $100,000 operational While AAA reported a 30-percent increase in THC-related
deficit in the last half of 2016 alone. Today the network costs traffic incidents events over that period, 66 percent of drivers
$5,549 per household, or $16,875 per subscriber. who tested positive for THC in fatal accidents also tested
positive for other substances. Irresponsible behavior, it
seems, doesn’t depend on access to any one substance.