This paper estimates the impact of corruption on growth of output per worker in U.S. states. The authors find that corruption plays a significant and causal role in lowering growth and investment across the States.

“If you don’t know who the sucker is at the table, it’s probably you,” runs an old poker saying. At the poker table of the current financial crisis, “We are the suckers.” Professor Russ Roberts writes his paper Gambling with Other People’s Money, “And most of us didn’t even know we were sitting at the table.”

Federal regulations are mandated by the executive branch of the federal government and are used to implement, in some cases to finely tune, laws from Congress. They reach most aspects of American life and touch every single individual in some way. The U.S. federal government creates an average of about 4,000 final regulations each year with about 500–700 reviewed by the White House (the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs).

The recent financial crisis has prompted policy makers to reassess the guidelines and structures of corporate governance and shareholder rights. The authors discuss how new shareholder powers may unintentionally affect the efficiency of corporations.

Veronique de Rugy discusses the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan program.

Before the House Financial Services Committee, Mercatus Center's Financial Markets Working Group member Anthony Sanders highlights that the combined debt load for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank stands at $8 trillion. Prof. Sanders recommends that we need to take immediate action to get the financial institutions and the investment community back in the game and wind down the Federal government’s involvement.

This public interest comment provides suggestions to the SBA in response to the Regulatory Review and Reform Initiative, which is designed to identify and address existing federal regulations that should be revised because they are ineffective, duplicative, or out of date.

Jerry Ellig presents before the Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security in the Visiting Speakers Program about regulation in high reliability organizations, such as telecommunications, airport security and finance.