Abstract

In 2007, the nation entered its greatest financial downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. What followed was a period of national introspection. Although prescriptions for financial rescue varied widely in the details, a surprisingly broad consensus emerged as to the underlying pathology of the crisis. This Article explores three principal contributing factors and the lessons associated with each that make up this pathology. These factors include: rejecting rules through deregulation, trivializing risk through overly optimistic analyses, and overconsumption supported by reckless borrowing and lending practices.

The powerful lessons from this pathology, considered by a stunned nation in the midst of financial collapse, apply with equal force to the growing environmental deficit, which this Article defines as the unsustainable spending-down of natural resource assets. This Article argues that the environment could benefit from a dose of the same medicine that has been suggested for the economy: enforcing rules through re-regulation, abandoning inaccurate models of cost-benefit analysis that trivialize risks, and limiting consumption to sustainable levels.

This Article tells two parallel stories of fiscal and environmental unraveling, capturing the cultural moment through the often frank admissions of political and intellectual leaders amidst crisis. It features a Section (Part II.A) on the curious phenomenon of "midnight regulations," including an Appendix showing the most recent enactments in table format.

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