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52. Bright Lines and Bailouts: To Bail or Not To Bail, That Is the Question
- Author:
- Vern McKinley and Gary Gegenheimer
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- A financial-institution bailout involves government intervention through a transaction or forbearance targeted to a financial institution or group of financial institutions. The action is preemptive as the financial institution does not fail and go out of business, but remains a going concern, benefiting creditors, shareholders, or counterparties. In the absence of a bailout, the financial institution would either be forced to go through receivership or bankruptcy in the prescribed legal form, or have its role in financial intermediation disrupted.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Political Economy, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
53. Survey of US Security Sector Reform
- Author:
- Jake Sherman
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- This report by Jake Sherman for Safer world provides an overview of the US Government's arrangement for monitoring and evaluating (M) the support it provides to security sector reform. It examines the M systems that already exist for similar types of work as well as looking at any specific treatment given to SSR, before also identifying outstanding needs, challenges and any trends and opportunities that exist for improving M in this area.
- Topic:
- Security, Government, and Intelligence
- Political Geography:
- United States
54. On Vital Systems Security
- Author:
- Stephen Collier and Andrew Lakoff
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper outlines some elements of the genealogy of vital systems security. Vital systems security is a way of “problematizing” threats to security that can be contrasted to the forms of sovereign state security and population security that Michel Foucault famously analyzed in his lectures on governmentality. Vital systems security takes up events that are uncertain and unpreventable but potentially catastrophic. Its object of protection is the complex of critical systems or networks on which modern economies and polities depend. Vital systems security is, thus, linked to the idea that the very success of industrial and social modernity in managing risks has in fact generated new risks.
- Topic:
- Security, Government, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States
55. Obamacare to Come: Seven Bad Ideas for Health Care Reform
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- President Obama has made it clear that reforming the American health care system will be one of his top priorities. In response, congressional leaders have promised to introduce legislation by this summer, and they hope for an initial vote in the Senate before the Labor Day recess.
- Topic:
- Government and Health
- Political Geography:
- United States
56. Internal Enforcement: The Political Economy of Immigration
- Author:
- Keith D. Malone
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the past several years, Americans have become more aware and more vocal regarding the number of illegal aliens who have taken up residence in the United States. While this issue—and a resolution of this issue—is still being debated, many have questioned why current enforcement efforts are so lax. The focus of this paper is on the government agency responsible for the enforcement of our immigration laws, and in particular how the actions of this agency are influenced by political interests. This paper fills a gap in the literature-to-date by examining the enforcement of immigration laws within the interior of the nation. While other studies put border enforcement efforts in a political framework, this analysis is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to place interior enforcement within the interest-group theory of government framework. Our findings indicate that pressure groups shape the pattern of enforcement that emerges. Despite polls that indicate a majority of Americans favoring stricter enforcement, government enforcement agencies charged with this responsibility apparently succumb to the wishes of those that matter most politically.
- Topic:
- Government, Political Economy, Politics, Immigration, and Law Enforcement
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
57. Confrontation or Collaboration? Congress and the Intelligence Community
- Author:
- Eric Rosenbach and Aki J. Peritz
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Intelligence is a critical tool lawmakers often use to assess issues essential to U.S. national policy. Understanding the complexities, mechanics, benefits and limitations of intelligence and the Intelligence Community (IC) will greatly enhance the ability of lawmakers to arrive at well-grounded decisions vital to our nation's foreign and domestic security.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, Government, and Intelligence
- Political Geography:
- United States
58. The Interior Ministry's Role in Security Sector Reform
- Author:
- Robert M. Perito
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Efforts to create an effective interior ministry and a community-oriented police service cannot succeed unless they take place within an overall effort for security sector reform (SSR): the highly political and complex task of transforming the institutions and organizations responsible for dealing with security threats to the state and its citizens.
- Topic:
- Security, Government, United Nations, and Law Enforcement
- Political Geography:
- United States
59. Halfway to Where? Answering the Key Questions of Health Care Reform
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Although neither the House nor the Senate passed a health care bill by President Obama's August deadline, various pieces of legislation have made it through committee, and they provide a concrete basis for analyzing what the proposed health care reform would and would not do. Looking at the various bills that are moving on Capitol Hill, we can determine the following: Contrary to the Obama administration's repeated assurances, millions of Americans who are happy with their current health insurance will not be able to keep it. As many as 89.5 million people may be dumped into a government-run plan. Some Americans may find themselves forced into a new insurance plan that no longer includes their current doctor. Americans will pay more than $820 billion in additional taxes over the next 10 years, and could see their insurance premiums rise as much as 95 percent. The current health care bills will increase the budget deficit by at least $239 billion over the next 10 years, and far more in the years beyond that. If the new health care entitlement were subject to the same 75-year actuarial standards as Social Security or Medicare, its unfunded liabilities would exceed $9.2 trillion. While the bills contain no direct provisions for rationing care, they nonetheless increase the likelihood of government rationing and interference with how doctors practice medicine. Contrary to assertions of some opponents, the bills contain no provision for euthanasia or mandatory end-of-life counseling. The bills' provisions on abortion coverage are far murkier.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, Human Welfare, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
60. Would a Stricter Fed Policy and Financial Regulation Have Averted the Financial Crisis?
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale and Peter Van Doren
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Many commentators have argued that if the Federal Reserve had followed a stricter monetary policy earlier this decade when the housing bubble was forming, and if Congress had not deregulated banking but had imposed tighter financial standards, the housing boom and bust—and the subsequent financial crisis and recession—would have been averted. In this paper, we investigate those claims and dispute them. We are skeptical that economists can detect bubbles in real time through technical means with any degree of unanimity. Even if they could, we doubt the Fed would have altered its policy in the early 21st century, and we suspect that political leaders would have exerted considerable pressure to maintain that policy. Concerning regulation, we find that the banking reform of the late 1990s had little effect on the housing boom and bust, and that the many reform ideas currently proposed would have done little or nothing to avert the crisis.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States