![Regulation Winter 2025-2026 Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/serial_cover_phone/public/2025-12/regulation-v48n4-cover.jpg?itok=QSGuJRQT) # Winter 2025–2026 Vol. 48 No. 4 [Subscribe](https://store.cato.org/collections/all-products/products/regulation-magazine) ##### From the Cover ### [Just Say Nudge ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/just-say-nudge) By Jim Leitzel Discouraging drug use and promoting more careful consumption would be better than the current prohibition. ### [Comment ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/comment) By [Jeffrey Miron](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-miron) and Jonah Karafiol We agree that a legalized, “nudged” regime would, subject to the caveats below, be far better than prohibition. But such a regime would accrue its benefits in large part from legalization, and to a significantly lesser degree from any nudging. ##### Behind the Issue ### *Unintended Consequences* ##### The Podcast of *Regulation* In This Episode Handling corporate debt has long been a standardized process, but something strange has been happening with contract law in recent years. These loan agreements are like the oil that lubricates our economic engine, yet the oil is breaking down as lawyers increasingly exploit contract loopholes to pocket higher returns at the expense of investors. Paul and Peter discuss the trend as described in the [paper](https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5391281___.YXAzOmNhdG9pbnN0aXR1dGU6YTpvOmQ3ODRiODJmMzAxNjMyMjIzMTU1MjVjZjg1YzJkNzY1Ojc6OTUzNjozMTg1OWIzMjM2OTc3ZWIzMzk1ZjQxZTlkZGZiMWMxYTIxMTMxMDhkMTg0OTNjNGY5NGFiMzU2Yjg2M2RjNzlhOmg6VDpO), “Swiss Cheese Contracts: The Costs of Creative Lawyering,” (Stephen Choi et al), and why it doesn’t quite fit traditional libertarian assumptions about market efficiency. [ Download Episode ](https://feeds.acast.com/public/streams/643947a1309d10001195d3e7/episodes/69b19bf1c891dc74e83b471e.mp3)Subscribe: [ Apple Podcasts ](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unintended-consequences/id1684573879) [ Spotify ](https://open.spotify.com/show/693Xy6u85pJX42IPsUK7cE) ##### Features #### [The Rise of Post-Supremacy Federalism ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/rise-post-supremacy-federalism) By Victoria Litman What happens when the federal government stops cooperating? #### [The Supreme Court’s Job after *FCC v. Consumers’ Research*](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/supreme-courts-job-after-fcc-v-consumers-research) By [David Schoenbrod](https://www.cato.org/people/david-schoenbrod) The Court now must take the next step in restoring representative government. #### [Was Friedman Wrong about the Minimum Wage? ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/was-friedman-wrong-about-minimum-wage) By Richard B. McKenzie Why hasn’t empirical research settled the debate over this policy? #### [‘New Right’ Antitrust ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/new-right-antitrust) By Thomas A. Lambert After bemoaning the politicization of antitrust during the Biden administration, Trump officials are now politicizing it themselves. #### [How Should We Value the Future? ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/how-should-we-value-future) By [David Kemp](https://www.cato.org/people/david-kemp) and [Peter Van Doren](https://www.cato.org/people/peter-van-doren) Determining the social cost of carbon is as much a matter of ethics as it is of science and economics. ##### Cutting the Sludge #### [A Regulatory Reform Agenda ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/regulatory-reform-agenda) By [Ike Brannon](https://www.cato.org/people/ike-brannon) There are better ways to approach such reform. #### [Two Key Steps to Get Rid of the Sludge ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/two-key-steps-get-rid-sludge) By Stuart Shapiro There are two related steps that the administration could take to target sludge across the government. #### [Deregulation Based on Good Sludge ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/deregulation-based-good-sludge) By Thomas J. Kniesner and W. Kip Viscusi The economic criteria that are appropriate for deregulation parallel the tests that should be applied before enacting regulations in the first place. #### [Regulatory Gatekeepers and Their Sludge ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/regulatory-gatekeepers-their-sludge) By John D. Graham and Keith B. Belton One little-known provision in the regulatory arcana is that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is not allowed to review the work of these gatekeepers. #### [The Administrative Procedure Act’s Missing Element ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/administrative-procedure-acts-missing-element) By Ronald Bird This contemporary critique of the modern American administrative state is an implicit benefit–cost analysis that mirrors the one that Thomas Jefferson expressed in the Declaration of Independence: “The costs of colonial loyalty to the established British governing order exceed the benefits.” ##### Briefly Noted ##### [The States Remain the AI Regulatory Leader ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/states-remain-ai-regulatory-leader) By Thomas A. Hemphill With no federal legislation regulating AI technologies, state legislatures are making their own efforts to advance data privacy and security in AI tools. ##### [Trumpian Chaos as an Attempt at Central Planning ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/trumpian-chaos-attempt-central-planning) By Pierre Lemieux Of course, there is government planning and there is *government planning*. ##### In Review ##### [Book Review: *Hell to Pay: How the Suppression of Wages Is Destroying America*](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/book-review-hell-pay-how-suppression-wages-destroying-america) By E. Frank Stephenson Surprisingly, given the centrality of wages to the book’s premise, Lind offers little evidence there is a low wages crisis ##### [Book Review: *The Young Fed: The Banking Crises of the 1920s and the Making of a Lender of Last Resort*](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/book-review-young-fed-banking-crises-1920s-making-lender-last-resort) By Vern McKinley The book deals mainly with the experiences of the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. ##### [Book Review: *How Economics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity*](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/how-economics-explains-world-short-history-humanity) By Thomas Grennes Unfortunately, we have seen a backsliding in this economic liberalism over the last decade, especially in the United States. ##### [Working Papers ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/working-papers) By [Peter Van Doren](https://www.cato.org/people/peter-van-doren) A summary of recent papers that may be of interest to *Regulation*’s readers. ##### Final Word ##### [Coercion and Violence ](/regulation/winter-2025-2026/coercion-violence) By A. Barton Hinkle Even when a majority supports a justifiable policy, some people are going to oppose it. ##### Latest Issues [![Regulation - Fall 2026 - Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/serial_cover_phone/public/2026-09/regulation-fall-2026-cover.jpg?itok=4PdTh8RK)](https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2026) [Fall 2026](/regulation/fall-2026) [![Regulation - Summer 2026 - Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/serial_cover_phone/public/2026-06/regulation-summer-2026-cover.jpg?itok=mgR9E73X)](https://www.cato.org/regulation/summer-2026) [Summer 2026](/regulation/summer-2026) [![Regulation - Spring 2026 - Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/serial_cover_phone/public/2026-03/regulation-spring-2026-cover.png?itok=_E4_q18u)](https://www.cato.org/regulation/spring-2026) [Spring 2026](/regulation/spring-2026) [![Regulation - Fall 2025 - Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/serial_cover_phone/public/2025-09/regulation-fall-2025-cover.jpg?itok=J1c2GfKo)](https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2025) [Fall 2025](/regulation/fall-2025)