Regulation articles from September 2003

Regulation archives from September 2003

EU chemicals policy.(Mercatus Reports)
September 22, 2003... STATUS: Legislation under review; comment period closed July 10. The European Commission recently drafted legislation for a new European chemicals policy governing the manufacture and import of chemicals in the European Union. The...

8-Hour ozone standard.(Mercatus Reports)(national ambient air quality standard )
September 22, 2003... STATUS: EPA examining options. In this proposal, the Environmental Protection Agency requests comment on alternative approaches to implementing the 8-hour national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for ozone that it promulgated amid...

Dietary ingredients and supplements.(Mercatus Reports)
September 22, 2003... STATUS: FDA comment period closed May 19. The Food and Drug Administration is concerned that some consumers mistakenly believe it currently regulates manufacturing practices for dietary ingredients and supplements. It is also concerned that...

A new watchdog for Freddie and Fannie?(Mercatus Reports: Commentary)(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.)(Federal National Mortgage Association)
September 22, 2003... THE CASUAL OBSERVER MIGHT BE EXCUSED for wondering about the recent fuss surrounding Freddie Mac, the 600 lb. gorilla of the secondary mortgage market. After all, if industry observers are right, Freddie might have to restate its recent...

Is CEO certification credible?(Briefly Noted)(Chief Executive Officers)
September 22, 2003... IN THE WAKE OF THE COLLAPSE OF ENRON AND WorldCom, investors began to reevaluate the integrity of the financial statements issued by publicly listed firms. It became clear that there were systemic abuses of accounting standards at all...

The benefits of mandatory auditor rotation.(Briefly Noted)
September 22, 2003... THE RECENT DRUMROLL OF CORPORATE scandals has cast the spotlight on a glaring defect in traditional accounting practice: audit firms that get too cozy with the companies whose books they are supposed to review accurately and honestly. Public...

A mid-term grade for the Bush Administration: the administration has shown a strong commitment to developing more cost-effective regulations, but its commitment to federalism appears mixed.(Regulatory Review)(George W. Bush)
September 22, 2003... CHANGING THE DIRECTION OF FEDERAL government policy is no simple task, even if you focus just on the executive branch, and even if you are the president, in whom all executive power is constitutionally vested. In addition to making wise...

Tracking the value of regulation: can government reporting help bring rationality to regulation?(Regulatory Review)
September 22, 2003... REGULATION IS PLAYING AN INCREASingly important role in the United States and world economies. For example, U.S. regulations aimed at protecting health, safety, and the environment alone are estimated to cost over $200 billion annually, or...

More lonely numbers: regulations should be decided a political process, not more benefit-cost analyses.(Regulatory Review)
September 22, 2003... BOB HAHN AND ERIN LAYBURN WOULD have the federal government produce more lonely numbers--numbers whose fate would be like that of wallflowers at a high school dance, waiting by the punchbowl in the hope that someone would notice them. All of...

The case againts plea bargaining: government should not retaliate against individuals who exercise their right to trial by jury.(Law )
September 22, 2003... PLEA BARGAINING HAS COME TO DOMinate the administration of justice in America. According to one legal scholar, "Every two seconds during a typical workday, a criminal case is disposed of in an American courtroom by way of a guilty plea or nolo...

In defense of plea bargaining: the practice is flawed, but not unconstitutional.(Law)
September 22, 2003... PLEA BARGAINING, LIKE ALL GOVERNment activities, is liable to abuse. Defendants, often too poor to afford their own attorney, unfamiliar with court proceedings, and threatened by the full force of the prosecutor's office, are likely to be very...

Letting environmentalists' preferences count: why do free-market thinkers turn to scientific risk analysis instead of markets to set environmental policy?(Environment)
September 22, 2003... ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY QUESTIONS often result in dueling scientific studies. Typically, articles are published in scientific or medical journals that claim exposure to pollution results in increased morbidity or mortality. Critics then respond in...

'Green' firms bearing gifts: will "voluntary" initiatives by business and regulators improve the environment?(Environment)
September 22, 2003... CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTALISM--environmental improvement not required by law--has become increasingly prominent in recent years. From McDonalds voluntary switch to paper for sandwich packaging to the chemical industry's "Responsible Care" program,...

Between- vs. within-patent competition: name-brand drug competition may have more effect on innovative returns and prices than generics competition.(Medicine)
September 22, 2003... ECONOMISTS HAVE LONG APPRECIATED the importance of research and development (R&D) for economic progress. Accordingly, researchers have scrutinized the effects and desirability of stimulating various forms of research and innovative activity...

Beyond GAAP: much of today's business world evolves around values that do not appear on balance sheets.(Accounting)(Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
September 22, 2003... OPEN MOST CORPORATE FINANCE textbooks and look for the discussion of how stocks are valued, and this is what you are likely to find: The price of a stock at any given time is the market's forecast of the present discounted value of the firm's...

Corporate reporting enters the information age: XBRL will produce more effective reporting through market-based standards.(Accounting)(eXtensible Business Reporting Language)
September 22, 2003... NOW MORE THAN EVER, DECISION makers across the corporate reporting supply chain recognize the need for accurate, reliable, timely, and accessible business information. In the age of Sarbanes-Oxley, executives in particular have a critical...

A growing technology ecosystem.
September 22, 2003... Despite a hesitant global economy and the burst of the dot-com bubble, the information technology market is poised to exceed $1 trillion this year and is expected to grow another 40 percent by 2005. With millions of people employed at...

New technology can help avoid a second Enron: the SEC needs reporting processes for the information age.(Accounting)(Securities and Exchange Commission)
September 22, 2003... TO SUGGEST THAT ENRON WAS JUST about a Houston company's accounting fraud is like suggesting the Cold War was just about the shooting down of Francis Gary Powers; it misses the big picture. Enron was about accounting and securities fraud, and...

Poverty and pollution.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... THE REAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: Why Poverty, not Affluence, Is the Environment's Number One Enemy By Jack M. Hollander 251 pp., Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2003 In his new book The Real Environmental Crisis,...

The imperial bench.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... DEMOCRACY BY DECREE: What Happens When Courts Run Government By Ross Sandier and David Schoenbrod 274 pp., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003 In the American political system, the three branches of government have their...

Calming news on minerals.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... ON BORROWED TIME? Assessing the Threat of Mineral Depletion by John E. Tilton 160 pp., Washington, D.C.: RFF Press, 2003 John Tilton's excellent short work On Borrowed Time outlines the distinguished professor's views, as refined...

Politicians and magicians.(The Final Word)
September 22, 2003... I'VE BEEN A PROFESSIONAL MAGICIAN FOR 28 YEARS. I'm not the best magician in the world--I'm not even the best magician at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, or the best magician in Penn & Teller. All of those "bests" are the same guy, my...