One of the most significant problems with cost-benefit analysis is its tendency to "dwarf soft variables." These "soft variables" are things that have value to all of us but are not typically traded in markets and are therefore difficult to quantify in any rigorous way. A good example of a soft variable is the value of the aquatic organisms that are not directly consumed by humans but will, along with those that are consumed by humans, be destroyed under the technology that EPA approved under the cost-benefit test that it employed. Full text
Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholar Thomas O. McGarity, joined by CPR Policy Analysts Margaret Clune Giblin and Matthew Shudtz, blog on the Bush Administration's push for last minute rulemaking. Full text
Thomas McGarity of the Center for Progressive Reform and the University of Texas Law School blogs on the Wyeth case before the Supreme Court, on preemption and the FDA. Full text