1. BUSINESS

Lehman Brothers files
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for
Entrepreneurship Director John
Berlau on why bankruptcy isn’t
a dirty word:

“Business
failure is not only a permissible outcome of capitalism, it’s a necessary one.
As the great economist Joseph Schumpeter has written, the process of “creative
destruction” is essential for the market to function. For innovation to
flourish and the standard of living of the populace to improve, the market must
be free to reward success and punish failure.

2. CONSUMER

Members of Congress consider reforming the National
Flood Insurance Program.

CEI Expert Available
to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli
Lehrer on one suggested change that would make the
program worse:

“The
real threat, however, is the house-passed provision that would add wind
insurance to the National Flood Insurance Program. For all intents and
purposes, this would replace homeowners’ insurance in much of the country with
a government program. It would cost a fortune and wouldn’t work well even on a
modest scale. Congress needs to renew the program but, with luck, it can pass
legislation that will contract it rather than making it bigger and more
burdensome.

3. ENERGY

Democrats and Republicans debate U.S. offshore oil
drilling in hopes of reducing prices and achieving “energy independence.”

CEI Expert Available
to Comment: Director of Energy Policy Myron Ebell on the problem with energy independence:

“We
can produce much more oil and natural gas domestically, which means that we
won’t have to import as much. Reducing our trade deficit and creating thousands
of high-paying jobs is a good thing. But achieving energy independence would
require replacing much of the oil that we import with higher-priced
alternatives. That would put our economy at a competitive disadvantage versus
countries that continued to rely on cheaper oil imports. Politicians of both
parties can talk all they want about the need to stop buying Mideast  But
the fact is that Saudi
Arabia is the lowest-cost producer and will
still be selling oil when every other producer has been put out of
business.  If we really did stop importing oil, the producers that would
go out of business would be our two largest suppliers—Canada and Mexico.”

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