The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. SCIENCE
The American Meteorological Society holds a congressional briefing, “Is Global Warming Impacting, or Expected to Impact, Hurricanes?”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on the link between climate change and extreme weather events:
“There is no provable link between weather events like Hurricane Katrina and global warming. For example, research by German scientists has demonstrated that the devastating floods in central Europe in 2002 were perfectly normal events when compared against the historical record. Allegations that extreme weather has been more damaging recently do not take into account the fact that mankind is now living and investing resources in more dangerous areas. Moreover, the World Meteorological Organization has acknowledged that increases in the recorded number of extreme weather events may be due to better observation and reporting.”
2. FINANCE
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce holds a meeting to assess how regulation affects the efficiency and transparency of financial institutions in the U.S..
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Economic Policy Fellow John Berlau on how federal regulation like Sarbanes-Oxley Act have hurt American businesses:
“The Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance act is one of the biggest expansions of government regulation in 70 years—and businesses say it’s more costly and complicated than ever imagined. Defenders counter that the 2002 law is still needed to protect the public from corporate abuses. Yet recent news has made it harder to argue that Sarbanes-Oxley, hastily passed in response to corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom, has benefited the ‘little guy.’”
3. AUTOMOBILITY
Black Enterprise magazine presents the African-American Empowerment Weekend conference in Washington, D.C.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Alan Pisarski on the role cars have played in creating economic opportunities for members of minority groups in the U.S.:
“The percentage of African-American households having no cars is nearly five times as great as that of white households. Long-distance travel by African-Americans and Hispanics is only half that of whites. These disparities have declined in recent decades, and the indications are that they will continue to decline. … But automobility is under increasing attack, on grounds ranging from resource and environmental concerns to arguments over ‘urban sprawl.’ Calls for restrictions on car use are becoming increasingly common. If such restrictions are imposed, their impact across our national landscape will be far from uniform. Their most severe effects will fall on those groups that either have recently attained mobility or are just now on the verge of attaining it. By undermining the ‘democratization of mobility,’ such restrictions would weaken a key attribute of the American Dream.”
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