The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. BUSINESS
A new report recommends easing the regulatory burden on Wall Street.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Economic Policy Fellow John Berlau on how shareholders can keep corporate managers accountable:
“There is a new group of activist shareholders who are holding CEOs’ feet to the fire. They are taking on the entrenched management of the companies they own, including big corporate names such as Wendy’s and Bally Total Fitness, and insisting they create more value for stockholders. With all the emphasis of the past few years on aggrieved investors, one would think the Securities and Exchange Commission would embrace this new class of corporate watchdogs. But instead, the SEC has taken steps to make it more difficult for these shareholders to hold management of their companies accountable.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
U.S. officials warn finance companies of a threatened terrorist cyber-attack.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President Wayne Crews and Policy Analyst Brooke Oberwetter on private solutions to data security:
“Improving information security will require a reconsideration of some of the basic features of the Internet, specifically the ease of anonymity and the open, public nature of the medium. Improvements can also be induced in the market by making individuals and companies internalize the costs of lax security practices and letting them reap the benefits of good practices through both lower insurance premiums and higher industry rankings.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Hurricane season ends quietly, with no storms making landfall in the U.S.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Steven Milloy on the flawed predictions of storm calamity:
“Despite the vast collective expertise of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists, immense quantities of atmospheric and oceanic data, and unprecedented computing power, NOAA failed miserably in predicting weather events a mere six months into the future – and reiterated those same ill-conceived predictions at mid-season. Yet global warming alarmists, including those at NOAA, expect us to unthinkingly buy into their dire forecasts of global warming – predictions that extend 100 years or more into the future. Forecasting global climate change decades into the future can only be described as orders of magnitude more complex than forecasting an imminent, six month-long hurricane season.”