CEI Today: Assault on Intrade, new leadership at the Bank of England, and the importance of guest workers

INTRADE - JOHN BERLAU

Openmarket.org: Intrade Is Only The Latest CFTC Outrage

Every so often, a government agency will do something so outrageous it will shock even even everyday critics of “big government,” as well as draw criticism even from advocates of so-called “good government” intervention.

For the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), that moment was yesterday when it filed a civil lawsuit against the respected Intrade online prediction market and its parent company the Trade Exchange Network (TEN) Limited, accusing them — according to a CFTC press release – of being “in violation of the CFTC’s ban on off-exchange options trading.” Intrade and TEN responded in kind by closing off participation by U.S. residents. > View the full commentary at Openmarket.org

 

> Interview John Berlau

BANK OF ENGLAND - MATTHEW MELCHIORRE Openmarket.org: The Bank Of England Breaks With Tradition, Only To Continue It U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s selection for the new governor of the Bank of England (BOE) is a strong break with tradition. But ensuing policy for the BOE will likely not be. Governors are usually well-to-do Britons, which makes Mark Carney — a Canadian and the current head of Canada’s central bank — an especially unusual choice. But Osborne’s new recruit is unlikely to make any substantial changes to the BOE’s low interest rate policy, as Carney’s claim to fame is his early action in 2008 to cut Canada’s interest rates “as low as they could go” and his pledge to maintain them there. > View the commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview Matthew Melchiorre

IMMIGRATION - DAVID BIER Openmarket.org: Guest Workers Can Help End Illegal Immigration Last August, the Republican Party adopted a plank in its national platform arguing for “a new guest worker program.” Critics have derided this permission to relocate temporarily without a guarantee of citizenship as either mere crumbs for the workers or corporate welfare for their employers. In fact, a workable guest worker program would expand the market’s ability to accommodate the natural flow of labor, which has been distorted by government policy for too long. > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview David Bier

More in the news... The Real Thanksgiving Turkey? SEIU’s Failed LAX Demonstration Regulatory Uncertainty Drives A Fish Farmer To Foreign Waters

I, PENCIL The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce a new ambitious film project: an animated adaptation of I, Pencil by Leonard Read. > View the I, Pencil short film > Tweet about I, Pencil

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.