Regulation articles from December 2004

Regulation archives from December 2004

America's real vulnerability to terrorists.(For The Record)(Correction Notice)
December 22, 2004... I wish to comment on Dim Mueller's "A False Sense of Insecurity?" (Fall 2004). With terrorist attacks now a proven reality, it is terrifying to realize just how vulnerable America really is. Just a few drops of the gasoline additive MTBE added...

The right answer to Coase's first question.(spectrum and broadband trade)
December 22, 2004... After reading Larry Lessig's "Coase's First Question" (Fall 2004), I finally understand the argument that the "commons" proponents have been making. A commons for goods such as spectrum and broadband is the same as free trade, and we all know...

The Bush administration regulatory record.(Mercatus Reports)
December 22, 2004... The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is an education, research, and outreach organization that works with scholars, policy experts, and government officials to bridge academic theory and real-world practice. The center's Regulatory...

Wine wars: uncorking e-commerce?(Mercatus reports: commentary)(cases)
December 22, 2004... THE U.S. SUPREME COURT'S DOCKET THIS term includes three cases, which will be heard together, concerning the sale of wine directly to consumers. The cases challenge laws in New York and Michigan that permit in-state wineries to sell and ship...

Suppressing volunteer firefighting.(Briefly Noted)(Occupational safety and health)
December 22, 2004... IN 1980, THE OCCU PATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH Administration first issued safety regulations for fire brigades, mandating the use of such equipment as self-contained breathing devices and fire-retardant clothing. From 1979 to 2002, there was a...

NAAQS's 'Where's Waldo?' Problem.(Environmental Protection Agency's National Ambient Air Quality Standard)
December 22, 2004... WHEN WEIGHING the costs and benefits of government regulation of some pollutant, it is helpful to first identify the people who are exposed to harmful levels of that pollutant. That is not so easy in the case of the Environmental Protection...

Auctioning pollution rights.(Briefly Noted)
December 22, 2004... IN THE PAST 15 YEARS, CAP-AND-trade programs have become the preferred means of regulating air pollutants. A cap-and-trade program establishes the annual number of allowable emission permits (the "cap"), which is set below the existing...

Options are an expense, but mandatory grant-date expensing is bad accounting.(Briefly Noted)
December 22, 2004... LAST JULY, THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPREsentatives passed the Stock Option Accounting Reform Act (H.R. 3574). The legislation would effectively prohibit the expensing of stock options awarded to company employees, except for the firms' chief...

Incentives askew? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's executive pay arrangements may be inappropriate.(Banking & Finance)
December 22, 2004... FINANCIAL ECONOMISTS HAVE LONG advocated tying top executives' pay to the performance of their firms. Michael Jensen and Kevin Murphy summarize the results of years of intensive academic study of the managerial agency problem in a 1990 Harvard...

The collapse of a noble idea: the failure of the L.A. Community Development Bank epitomizes how good intentions often become bad policy.(Banking & Finance)
December 22, 2004... IN MARCH 2004, THE ONCE-HERALDED LOS Angeles Community Development Bank (LACDB) closed its doors because of insolvency. The government-created bank's demise should come as no surprise. Credit officers at the not-for-profit bank lacked...

The FDA:s antibiotic resistance: if bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to current antibiotics, why is the FDA discouraging the development of new antibiotics?(Food and Drug Administration)
December 22, 2004... ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE OCCURS WHEN bacteria evolve under selection pressure from antibiotic use and become resistant to the medication. Because a generation for a bacterium is extremely short (no more than one day, and often less than an hour),...

Conservation cartels: competition policy can conflict with environmental protection.(Antitrust)
December 22, 2004... IN THE 1930s, FRANK MANAKA SOUGHT WORK as a fisherman off the coast of Monterey. California. He chartered a boat but was unable to market his catch. Local canneries would not purchase fish from him. In 1940, he filed suit against the Monterey...

Growing pressures on farm policy: criticism at home and abroad may push U.S. agriculture policy back on the path to reform.(Agriculture)
December 22, 2004... THE 2002 FARM ACT, FORMALLY TITLED the "Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002" (FSRIA), achieved little progress in the liberalization of U.S. firm policy. Funding for the legislation over its expected life from 2002 to 2007 represents...

Holding Internet Service Providers accountable: would indirect liability reduce costly cyberspace externalities?(Telecommunications & Technology)
December 22, 2004... INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPS) ARE LARGELY immune from legal liability for the various forms of online malfeasance to which they contribute. America Online, for example, paid Matt Drudge $3,000 a month to write an online gossip column; but...

What is a life worth? Despite its prima facie callousness, determining the value of a human life is necessary for good public policy.(Risk)
December 22, 2004... AN UNPLEASANT BUT NECESSARY JOB of policymakers is to place a value on saving a human life. Because society has limited resources that it can spend on health and safety improvements, it should obtain the greatest benefit for each dollar spent,...

MOME in hindsight: how has "The Mechanisms of Market Efficiency" fared over the past 20 years?(Securities & Exchange)(Cover Story)
December 22, 2004... Two decades ago, the Virginia Law Review published our article "The Mechanisms of Market Efficiency" (MOME), in which we tried to discern the institutional underpinnings of financial market efficiency. We concluded that the level of market...

Three downloadables from Hoover.(Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty )(Book Review)
December 22, 2004... LEVIATHAN: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty By Clint Bolick 208 pages; Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 2004 CLINT BOLICK, A LONGtime practitioner against and critic of intervention by state and local...

I've got mail.(analysing letters to the editor)
December 22, 2004... ONE OF THE PERKS OF WORKING AT A NEWSpaper is that I get to read all the letters to the editor in their pure, unadulterated form. I'm not talking about the restrained, edited sort of letters that you usually see printed in the paper, which tend...