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The Environmental Deficit: Applying Lessons from the Economic Recession

University of Florida Levin College of Law Research Paper No. 2009-18
2009
  • 0
    Citations
  • 2,239
    Usage
  • 2
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Usage
    2,239
    • Abstract Views
      2,125
    • Downloads
      114
  • Captures
    2
    • Readers
      2
      • SSRN
        2
  • Ratings
    • Download Rank
      487,008

Paper Description

In 2007, the nation entered a financial downturn unprecedented since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A period of national introspection followed, including memorable moments such as Federal Chairman Alan Greenspan's gut-wrenching admission that his "whole intellectual edifice" had collapsed during the summer of 2007. Although prescriptions for financial rescue varied widely in the details, a surprisingly-broad consensus began to emerge as to the underlying pathology of the crisis. This Essay focuses on three underlying errors: rejecting rules through deregulation, trivializing risk through overly-optimistic analyses, and recklessly borrowing and lending money. Those powerful lessons, accepted by a stunned nation in the midst of financial collapse, apply with equal force to the growing environmental deficit - the unsustainable spending down of natural resource assets. I argue that the environment could benefit from a dose of the same medicine that has been prescribed for the economy: enforcing rules through re-regulation, abandoning inaccurate models of cost-benefit analysis that trivialize the risks of environmental degradation, and making a commitment to sustainable use of the country's natural capital. This Essay tells two parallel stories of fiscal and environmental unraveling, seeking to capture the cultural moment by reporting the often-frank admissions of political and intellectual leaders as they confront the crisis. The Essay features a section (Part II.A) on the curious modern phenomenon of "midnight regulations," including an Appendix showing the most recent enactments in table format.

Bibliographic Details

Christine A. Klein

environmental deficit; recession; deregulation; risk; cost-benefit analysis; sustainability; midnight regulations; thrift

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