Against the cartel: how to reform higher education.
CONSIDER two fast-growing sectors of the U.S. economy that are in the political spotlight this year: health care and higher education. Both employ highly paid professionals and mix government and private money and institutions. Both are plagued by the inevitable consequences of third-party payment, such as wasteful consumption, burgeoning...

Mexican police fleeing drug cartel assassins.
The escalating violence by Mexico's various drug cartels has taken a heavy toll on Mexico's police forces in recent months, with the month of May proving especially brutal. At least four high-ranking police officials were gunned down in May, along with many other police and soldiers. "Drug cartels are...

Bush plan rewards corruption, shorts border protection.
In March 2007, President Bush joined Mexico's President Calderon in Merida, Mexico, for a three-day visit aimed at advancing the economic and political convergence agenda of the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). In October, President Bush announced his "Merida Initiative," a scheme to give $1.4 billion in...

Cartels, agency costs, and finding virtue in faithless agents.
ABSTRACT Although price-fixing conspiracies are inherently unstable, many cartels manage to endure, often for long periods. Many successful cartels have hierarchical structures made up of high-level executives (principals) and lower-level managers (agents). For these cartels, agency cost theory could provide some insights as to how to destabilize...

Pimentel assails diversion of NFA rice in N. Mindanao.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) denounced yesterday the illegal diversion of 120,000 sacks of subsidized rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) to grains cartels and the sale of the grains at the retail market at commercial rates in Northern Mindanao. Pimentel said...

Rice subsidy urged to go with palay price increase for farmers.
Byline: EDMER F. PANESA Former two-time agriculture secretary now Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III yesterday said President Arroyo's order to increase palay prices from P12 to P17 was laudable but it should be coupled with an increased subsidy for milled rice to keep the prices at its...

Gang busters: states respond to rising gang violence.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Early this year in Los Angeles, 17-year-old Jamiel Andre Shaw, a high school football star, was walking down the street and talking on his cell phone to his girlfriend when someone came up and asked what gang he was in. When he didn't answer, he...

Female drug smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico border: gender, crime, and empowerment.
Introduction Rosa Maria had never seen marijuana before. She only picked up the package of "green fibers" from the El Paso motel because her sister said the police were coming to get her nephew and it was necessary to hide the evidence. On the bus home she...

Sabotaging border security from within.
While the Bush administration continues to insist that American citizens must accept increased inconveniences at airports and more privacy intrusions under the Real ID Act, it is waiving security checks for tens of thousands of new immigrants, including many who are being hired as Border Patrol officers. ...

Airline Finance News - Europe.
Mar 17, 2008 European Commission officials on Tuesday raided the offices of several international airlines operating long-haul scheduled flights to Japan in an investigation into suspected cartel activity. The Commission, Europe's top competition regulator, issued the confirmation after Lufthansa said it had been searched in a probe...