Regulation articles from March 2003

Regulation archives from March 2003

For the record.
March 22, 2003... Challenging Kleit PROF. ANDREW KLEIT'S ASSERTION that CAFE standards shift revenue away from U.S. automakers to foreign firms is nonsense ("CAFE Changes, By the Numbers," Fall 2002). Kleit's article appears to be based on a General...

Regulatory analysis guidelines. (Mercatus Reports).
March 22, 2003... STATUS: New draft guidelines released In February, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released new draft guidelines to agencies for conducting regulatory analysis. In most cases, the...

CAFE standards for light trucks. (Mercatus Reports).
March 22, 2003... STATUS: New standard proposed The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed in December to establish a new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard for light trucks. (See "CAFE Changes, by the Numbers," Fall...

Union financial disclosure rule. (Mercatus Reports).
March 22, 2003... STATUS: New rule released The Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration is proposing to revise the financial disclosure requirements for labor unions. For over 40 years, since the enactment of the Labor-Management Reporting...

First, do no harm. (Mercatus Reports: Commentary).
March 22, 2003... WHEN CONGRESS PASSED THE OCCUpational Safety and Health Act in 1970, then secretary of labor James Hodgson heralded it as the "most significant legislative achievement" for workers in a decade. The agency created to implement the provisions of...

Can a libertarian accept the ATSB? (Briefly Noted).
March 22, 2003... ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2001, PRESIDENT Bush signed into law the "Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act" (ATSSSA). The Act provides for up to $10 billion in federal loan guarantees to assist air carriers who suffered losses in the...

Why law school costs so much. (Briefly Noted).
March 22, 2003... ACCORDING TO A RECENTLY RELEASED report, the high cost of attending law school is making it hard for government agencies and public interest organizations to recruit good, new lawyers. The report -- "From Paper Chase to Money Chase," released...

Breathing life into the funeral market: are state regulations impeding innovation and harming consumers in this very meaningful sector of the economy? (Deregulation).
March 22, 2003... MANY OF THE ARTICLES THAT appear in this magazine describe how government regulation in various "high-profile" sectors of the economy can act as a barrier to innovation and an impediment to consumer choice. But regulatory-protection of rents...

The benefits of biotech: as the world's population grows, environmental stewardship will require science to find ways to produce more food on less land. (Agriculture).
March 22, 2003... EVER SINCE THE PUBLICATION OF Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, environmental activists have warned of a slowly developing but widespread ecological catastrophe stemming from humankind's release of synthetic chemicals into the environment --...

The creeping federalization of corporate law: the Saroanes-Oxley Act extends Washington's oversight of corporate governance practices but offers questionable benefits to investors. (Securities & Exchange).
March 22, 2003... THE NEW MILLENNIUM HAS NOT BEEN kind to Wall Street. In 2000-'01, the stock market recorded back-to-back years of losses for the first time since 1973-74. With a further loss in 2002, the market fell for three consecutive years for the first...

Self-regulation and securities markets: securities exchanges can police market abuses if government provides them the needed tools. (Securities & Exchange).
March 22, 2003... ENRON, ARTHUR ANDERSEN, TYCO, ImClone, WorldCom, Adeiphia -- as American investors reel from accounting scandals and self-dealing by corporate insiders, the question of trust in the securities markets has taken on a new urgency. Securities...

Paying to keep the peace: is military intervention abroad necessary to protect U.S. economic interests? (Defense).
March 22, 2003... THE UNITED STATES MILITARY IS VERY busy these days battling rogue states and hunting down terrorists. But another U.S. military mission demands even more resources than the operations that grab headlines. The U.S. military spends most of its...

Allowing the states to innovate: does much-maligned, oft-reformed workers' compensation offer a promising model for unemployment insurance restructuring?. (Labor).
March 22, 2003... THE VERY NOTION THAT UNEMPLOYment insurance reformers should look to workers' compensation as a model for reform may sound absurd. Workers' compensation systems around the nation have been the subject of business criticism, "crisis" reports in...

A road policy for the future: with the Interstate Highway System now almost complete, is it time for the federal government to remove self from roadway funding? (Transportation).
March 22, 2003... ON FEBRUARY 5, 1926, SIR EDGAR Harper, economist and Chief Valuer to the Inland Revenue (the U.K. tax authority), wrote in The Times of London about the "Road Fund" that had been set up in 1909 to provide money for improving Britain's road...

Mismeasuring electricity market power: by studying average variable costs, researchers examining the California energy crisis were sure to find examples of "market power" even if that power may not have really existed. (Energy).
March 22, 2003... OPENING WHOLESALE ELECTRICITY markets, in which energy is purchased for subsequent delivery to those who use it, has been accompanied by concerns that such markets fail to be competitive. The California electricity market "meltdown" in the...

A Somewhat Powerful Overview. (In Review).
March 22, 2003... POWER SYSTEM ECONOMICS: Designing Markets for Electricity by Steven Stoft 496 pp., Piscataway, N.Y.: IEEE Press (with Wiley-Inter5cience), 2002 IN HIS NEW BOOK, STEVEN Stoft presents a textbook for those concerned with power...

One of the things we're saying--is give peace a chance. (The Final Word).
March 22, 2003... I DO A COMEDY MAGIC SHOW IN A CASINO IN Las Vegas. It's the toppermost of the poppermost for a juggler/magician/comedian. "Toppermost of the poppermost" is the phrase the Beatles used to cheer- lead themselves on to fame and fortune. It was a...