Regulation articles from September 2006

Regulation archives from September 2006

Tort reform.(MERCATUS REPORTS)
September 22, 2006... The court system is generally transparent--perhaps a little too transparent for those whose dirty laundry gets aired in public court documents. But the courts are only the very small public tip of the mostly concealed tort iceberg. While...

Nanotech.(MERCATUS REPORTS)
September 22, 2006... In 1992, nanotechnology pioneer K. Eric Drexler described the mechanics of a nanocomputer. More than a billion times more powerful than a Pentium and the size of a standard six-sided die, this nanocomputer would run on only 100 watts. Later...

Public safety interoperability.(MERCATUS REPORTS: COMMENTARY)
September 22, 2006... The Shreveport, La., Fire Department's radio system allows it to communicate with police, emergency medical services, and 50 other agencies in its region. But when the Shreveport firefighters traveled to New Orleans to lend a hand in the...

'Folk' international economics.(BRIEFLY NOTED)
September 22, 2006... THE BATTLE OVER IMMIGRATION reform is a recent manifestation of a long debate over the relationship between the United States and other counties. It is a continuation of earlier debates over outsourcing, and of even earlier disputes regarding...

Much Ado about MB.(BRIEFLY NOTED)(methyl bromide)
September 22, 2006... THE MONTREAL Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which took effect in 1989, is an international agreement to limit or phase out various chemicals that deplete the ozone layer. One such chemical is methyl bromide (MB), an...

The war on plastic: the push to regulate the payment card industry threatens consumers.(ANTITRUST)
September 22, 2006... THE VAST EXPANSION IN THE USE OF payment cards of all sorts counts as one of the unnoticed marvels of the modern age. Think back 35 years, and no one left home without a wad of cash and American Express Travelers checks. Foreign travelers would...

A license for protection: why are states regulating more and more occupations?(LABOR)
September 22, 2006... ONE WOULD BE HARD-PRESSED TO think of a major labor market institution that is growing faster than occupational regulation. Unlike unions, which have declined from about one-third of the workforce 60 years ago to about 12.5 percent in 2005, the...

Reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: how can we control the mortgage giants' interest rate risk?(SECURITIES & INVESTMENT)(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.)(Federal National Mortgage Association)
September 22, 2006... FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC (F&F) ARE government-sponsored enterprises that dominate the U.S. mortgage market. In a 2003 Journal of Financial Services Research article, I documented that the mortgage related securities directly held by F&F in...

Abuse or protection? "Opportunistic" debtors appear to have little to fear from the 2005 bankruptcy reforms.(BANKRUPTCY)
September 22, 2006... LAST FALL, AFTER YEARS OF EFFORT AND more than $100 million in lobbying expenditures by the large credit card lenders, Congress passed the "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005" (BAPCPA). The new bankruptcy law...

The EPA Faustian bargain: can the agency reclaim its soul?(ENVIRONMENT)(Environmental Protection Agency)
September 22, 2006... PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON CREATED THE Environmental Protection Agency and Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1970 because the public demanded protection. The pollution that worried voters most was lead in gasoline and its effects on children....

Pork for the Vaterland.(Homeland Security Scams)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... HOMELAND SECURITY SCAMS by James T. Bennett 218 pages; Piscataway, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2006 Politicians are known for their proclivity to overreact. They often react excessively to imaginary or highly doubtful problems (think of...

A wonderful opportunity.(The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... THE SARBANES-OXLEY DEBACLE By Henry N. Butler and Larry E Ribstein 135 pages; Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 2006 I judge high school debates. Those debates often go something like this: The affirmative side presents a...

Leviathan? try pufferfish.(THE FINAL WORD)
September 22, 2006... I WAS SURFING THE INTERNET THE OTHER DAY, when I came across a page dedicated to political philosophy. There it all was--Hobbes's social contract, Locke's state of nature, Rousseau's general will--all the names and concepts I'd dutifully spat...