Environmental reformers often seek to impose partial, market-like mechanisms into costly, complex new environmental statutes. These mechanisms are likely to offset only a small fraction of the loss in economic welfare created by the rest of the legislation. A far better approach is to write...

During the past 20 years, the U.S. telephone industry has undergone a remarkable evolution from a set of government-enforced monopolies to a much more competitive environment. Long-distance service, private-line service, data communications, and terminal equipment once were available only from...