Economic and Financial

Mercatus Center, George Mason University (2009). A series of articles on these topics are available from this conservative research organization. List of articles.

Finance:

GAO (2008). Disaster Recovery; FEMA's Public Assistant Grant Program Experienced Challenges with Gulf Coast Rebuilding. GAO-09-129; Dec. 2008. ( 61 pp.) This is an in-depth look of one of the key components of the recovery process. (Another key component is housing.)

Congressional Research Service (2008). Financing Recovery From Large Scale Natural Disasters. CRS Report # 34749.

Homeland Security Institute (2007. Financing Recovery From Catastrophic Events. 74pp. Significant report on an important topic.

Wharton (UPenn)and GA State University. Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes: Insuring, Mitigating and Financing Recovery from Natural Disasters in the U.S. (2008) Full report is 488 pp. Executive Summary is 28 pp.

Post-Disaster Waste, Corruption, and Abuse:

See the two articles posted on the homepage, as of 2/9/09

Leeson, P and Sobel, R. (2008) Weathering Corruption. Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 51.

Point to Ponder: three recent news clips discussing the need for recovery from the catastrophic economic decline in the U.S. make comparisons with the process of recovery from catastrophic disasters. Examples follow:

Wash. Post (feb. 25). With Stimulus Contracts, Let's Avoid Another Katrina. Mentions report done by the Professional Services Council. Calls for "Tiger Teams," rapid-response teams that would include experts in program mgmt, financial, legal, acquitisiton, human resources and audit functions; also would include industry reps. Their job would be to conduct rapid reviews of existing cpabilities and develop rapid response plans for impelementing the stimulus. Author adds need for excellent acquisition staff.

In a Business Week article (Feb. 16, 2009) titled "An Independent Eye on Stimulus Spending" the author recommends that a new organization be created to assist with financial recovery. The essence of his idea is a commission made up of non-elected experts as the best way to keep influence or favoritism out of the huge spending package. This concept could also be used for major disaster recovery efforts after a major-to-catastrophic disaster, in my opinion.

Washington Post (feb. 9, 2009. If Spending is Swift, Oversight May Suffer; Planned Pace Could Leave Billions Wasted. Article re the likely wasteful outcome of the stimulus package, drawing a comparison with the huge cost of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal outlay after Hurricane Katrina(2005).