There have been some pretty outrageous storms in Memphis over the last few days, and our Congressman has asked the Governor to ask FEMA for money. I found this interesting since I recently wrote a report for AIER on the economics of natural disasters. Particularly interesting in this regard are Russell Sobel and Peter Leeson's papers on FEMA and corruption; they're all available on Pete's website. This one is especially interesting; if their results are correct, we can expect a rash of corruption prosecutions over the next few months.