Government Regulations News

Soon, the skies over Disney World will be aglow with spectacular displays of LED lights brought to consumers through new drone technology. Flixels, one of Disney’s newest innovations, allows a computer to simultaneously operate and coordinate multiple drones equipped with LED lights to imitate fireworks and other light displays. This system will eventually allow Disney…

A general economic principle is that any law or regulation that restricts market entry tends to impose the greatest burden on those who can be described as poor, latecomers, discriminated against, and politically weak. The president of the NAACP’s St. Louis chapter, Adolphus Pruitt, has petitioned a circuit court judge to reject the St. Louis…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued its long-awaited rule proposal to regulate small-dollar lenders such as those who provide payday loans. Formally, the CFPB’s proposal applies to payday, vehicle title, and certain high-cost installment loans. While it’s impossible to analyze all the details in this piece—because the proposed rule is more than 1,300 pages—it…

A recent study by The Heritage Foundation revealed that President Barack Obama has created a whopping total of 20,642 regulations during his presidency. Now that he’s in his final year in office, we face an additional 2,000 proposed rules he intends to push through to complete his tarnished legacy. Businesses cannot be expected to thrive and…

On May 9, residents of Austin, Texas, accomplished what many New York City regulators and legislators have tried in vain to achieve: they forced Uber and Lyft out of their city. Over the weekend, a mere 17 percent of the voters went to the polls and a majority voted in favor of retaining restrictive and…

When Congress and the Obama administration passed and implemented extremely strict fuel economy regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed that it would save consumers a few thousand dollars on gas and add only $948 to the price of a new car. The most modest of the independent estimates works out to $3,800 per vehicle,…

Two events from last week exemplify federal officials’ refusal to let people live their own lives and earn money as they see fit. One deals with the Department of Labor (DOL)’s new fiduciary rule, the other with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s new rules for crowdfunding. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act required the SEC to study the…

It was one of the largest prisoner re-entry programs ever undertaken. RExO (Re-Integration of Ex-Offenders) aimed to help ex-cons find jobs, thereby reducing recidivism. Over the years, the U.S. Labor Department poured almost $743 million into the program. Only one problem: it didn’t work. And there are plenty more federal programs whose effectiveness has never been demonstrated. In some cases,…

Why is housing so expensive in some cities, and relatively cheap in others? Place the blame on land-use restrictions put in place by local governments. During the housing boom of 2000 to 2005, the cry often went up from Washington that housing wasn’t affordable anymore. From 2000-2005 the median sales price of American single-family homes…

The number and cost of government regulations continued to climb in 2014, intensifying Washington’s control over the economy and Americans’ lives. The addition of 27 new major rules pushed the tally for the Obama administration’s first six years to 184, with scores of other rules in the pipeline. The cost of just these 184 rules…