Regulation articles from December 2006

Regulation archives from December 2006

Colorado's sunrise review.(FOR THE RECORD)(Letter to the editor)
December 22, 2006... I read with great interest "A License for Protection," by Morris M. Kleiner in the Fall 2006 issue of Regulation. Your readers may be interested in Colorado's experience with occupational licensing. In 1985, Colorado established a process...

The uncle of rational expectations.(FOR THE RECORD)(Letter to the editor)
December 22, 2006... Ike Brannon's portrait of John Muth ("Remembering the Man behind Rational Expectations," Spring 2006) was fitting and appropriate. But it is worth pointing out that Jack was not the only excellent economist in his family. My (now retired but...

The wrong prescription.(BRIEFLY NOTED)(Food and Drug Administration)
December 22, 2006... At a time when the American population is aging and more seniors are suffering from chronic diseases, the pharmaceutical pipeline is drying up. In spite of increasingly more powerful and precise technologies for drug discovery, purification,...

Should congress mandate audit firm rotation?(BRIEFLY NOTED)
December 22, 2006... Prior to the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), it was commonly believed that it was more economical for firms to retain the same auditors year after year rather than periodically change auditors in order to get a different...

The forest fight.(BRIEFLY NOTED)(roadless rule)
December 22, 2006... A recent California district court decision highlights the havoc that bedevils the U.S. national forest system. In President Bill Clinton's final days in office, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) promulgated a midnight regulation that permanently...

Why illegal drugs?(BRIEFLY NOTED)
December 22, 2006... The world is not libertarian, and libertarians and economists with a libertarian bent disagree with average citizens on many issues. One of the areas of strongest disagreement is the best policy for illegal drugs such as marijuana, heroin,...

Paying for bodies but not for organs: the results of the cadaver market imply that prohibiting any kind of payment for transplant organs is killing a lot of people.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)
December 22, 2006... A recent series of scandals at medical schools and funeral homes has revealed that people handling dead bodies are removing organs and tissues without the knowledge or consent of family members. Cadavers donated to medical schools in...

Healthcare intermediaries: medical care organizations can, but do not, improve healthcare quality.(HEALTH & MEDICINE)
December 22, 2006... Medical care organizations (MCOS), such as health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations, have become popular in recent decades because of their ability to lower consumers' healthcare costs while increasing providers'...

A new season? : The 2007 farm bill provides Congress another opportunity to reform federal crop insurance.(AGRICULTURE)
December 22, 2006... Federal crop insurance began in 1938 as a focused program to correct certain perceived market failures. It has transformed into a massive wealth transfer scheme that is frequently the subject of supposed legislative reforms. Yet each wave of...

The case against smoking bans: despite their popularity, government-mandated smoking bans are not justified.(RISK)
December 22, 2006... In recent months, dozens of localities and a number of states have enacted sweeping smoking bans. The bans generally forbid smoking in "public" places, which are defined to include not only publicly owned facilities but also privately owned...

A critique of the stern report: is there a case for aggressive, near-term mitigation of greenhouse gases?(ENVIRONMENT)(Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change)(Report)
December 22, 2006... Economists usually present a rather gloomy view of climate change. They argue that efficient policies should only slow climate change this century, not stop it. Aggressive near-term policies lead to abatement costs that outweigh the avoided...

Is it time to wind up the Securities Act of 1933? strict liability makes no sense in today's capital markets.(SECURITIES & EXCHANGE)
December 22, 2006... Mandatory disclosure rules are often perceived as a no-lose quick fix. After all, what is the harm in simply requiring, say, a seller to give a prospective buyer information that the seller already has in her possession? It appears to promote...

A global overview, but not enough analysis.(Electricity Market Reform: An International Perspective)(Book review)
December 22, 2006... ELECTRICITY MARKET REFORM: An International Perspective Edited by Fereidoon S. Sioshansi and Wolfgang Pfaffenberger 654 pages; Amsterdam, NL: Elsevier, 2006 This year's entry into the electricity reform literature is Electricity Market...

Road to the future.(Street Smart: Competition, Entrepreneurship and the Future of Roads)(Book review)
December 22, 2006... STREET SMART: Competition, Entrepreneurship, and the Future of Roads Edited by Gabriel Roth 564 pages; Somerset, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2006 Suppose the United States government had a monopoly on the production of clothing. Given...

Net Neutering?(Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated?)(Book review)
December 22, 2006... NET NEUTRALITY OR NET NEUTERING: Should Broadband Services Be Regulated? Edited by Thomas M. Lenard and Randolph J. May 225 pages; New York, N.Y.: Springer Publishing, 2006 In 2004, New Republic editor Franklin Foer published a book called...

Bet on the politicians.(THE FINAL WORD)(bill for gambling on foreign websites )(Column)
December 22, 2006... I don't blame Congress for passing a bill that will stop Americans from gambling on foreign websites. I often think to myself what a chaste and wholesome place the Internet would be if only someone would get rid of those filthy animated slot...