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After stalling earlier in the week, the U.S. House followed the Senate in passing $700 billion in relief for the U.S. financial system -- though Cato Institute scholars point out that the price tag for this one package could ultimately sail past the trillion-dollar mark. Cato economist Daniel J. Mitchell comments: "The political insiders from both parties have come together to bail out their friends on Wall Street. This is bad news for taxpayers and will not solve the problems created by bad policy at the Federal Reserve and the corrupt subsidies at Fannie and Freddie. The best outcome now is to hope that the market is able to adjust before the politicians come back and ask for another big chunk of taxpayer money."
These issues will be dealt with in more detail at the Cato Institute's 26th Annual Monetary Conference: Lessons from the Sub-Prime Crisis, on November 19, 2008
In the current issue of Regulation, Jason Scott Johnston takes a critical look at climate change economics and science, and Patrick J. Michaels corrects some misconceptions about global warming. In the same issue, Gillian K. Hadfield examines a cost of the modern system of professional regulation of lawyers. Also, Elizabeth Kopits, Virginia McConnell, and Margaret Walls look at real estate "clustering" rules.
Absent current official money supply and inflation data, it is difficult to quantify the depth and breadth of the still-growing crisis in Zimbabwe. To overcome this problem, Cato scholar Steve H. Hanke has developed the Hanke Hyperinflation Index for Zimbabwe (HHIZ). This new metric is derived from market-based price data and is available for January 2007 thru the present. As of September 26, 2008, Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate was 531 billion percent.
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New Frontiers in Free Trade
"Razeen Sally's restatement of the case for unilateral liberalization is powerful and could not be timelier. His reflections on the prospects for trade policy are lucid and entirely persuasive. This short book is the best and most important volume on trade in years."
––CLIVE CROOK, Columnist, Financial Times
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism
A compilation of and introduction to libertarian scholarship, this comprehensive book includes more than 300 succinct, original articles on libertarian ideas, institutions, and thinkers.
Global Tax Revolution
In the increasingly integrated global economy, nations are waging a battle between governments to attract investment and skilled workers by overhauling their tax codes to create a more attractive business environment. The authors challenge the U.S. government to lead the tax competition battle in the international marketplace.
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