States Flex Prosecutorial Muscle...Weak Federal Enforcement Localizes Regu

[Rose Siding]

Are drug companies using deceptive marketing? Connecticut is investigating.

Did mortgage financing giant Fannie Mae mislead investors? Ohio has filed suit alleging securities fraud.

Did mutual funds make improper payoffs to brokers? California brought a complaint against giant broker Edward D. Jones & Co. last month.

Are power plants contributing to global warming? Eight states have combined to sue to force big utilities to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide.

Americans once relied primarily on an alphabet soup of federal agencies -- SEC, FTC, EPA -- to protect investors, consumers and the environment. But state regulators and attorneys general are bringing legal action and launching investigations in these and other areas where they say federal regulators have fallen down on the job.

"Our action is the result of federal inaction," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has brought actions against drug companies, polluters and the Environmental Protection Agency. "The administration has not just failed to enforce the law, it has sought to undercut it and gut it. . . . States are filling the vacuum."

The trend is likely to accelerate in Bush's second term, analysts said, as Democratic state officials attempt to counter market-oriented approaches to issues such as drug safety, antitrust enforcement and the environment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2107-2005Jan11.html

[MisterP]

1. unfortunately, there are a lot of states derelicting their duty on top of

Washington, take the "business-friendly" states, which Gov. Nipples wants to emulate

[shraby]

2. By the state's actions to fill the vacuum

created by the federal government, the states are weakening the power of the federal agencies. Wonder if the feds have realized it yet, or if they will?

[bemildred]

3. Hard to say.

The devolution of power is normal in imperial decline, and is
precisely the filling of the vacuum left by incompetence and
neglect from the central government.

There are a bazillion cities that have passed resolutions against
the "Patriot Act", and some here and there that have taken similar
steps against the Drug War and other things.

I does not appear to me at this point that the inside the beltway
crowd is really that aware though, they live in their own world and
like it that way.