Why is it more moral for a federal bureaucrat in a state-supplied SUV to shut down an offshore oil rig on grounds that it is too dangerous for the environment than for a private individual to risk his own capital
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Gibson Guitars has been raided for allegedly using woods from endangered sources. From the Wall Street Journal Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement Leaves Musicians in Fear by Eric Felten 8/26/11: Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and
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Beyond the issue that regulations that add complexity are part of the problem they seek to solve, regulations are often used as competitive leverage of one corporation over another. While limited debit card fees to 12 cents may create a
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In the June 2011 Commentary Wiliam Voegli writes Why Corporations Love Regulations (requires subscription- also in hard copy) The industrial policy of Japan was once heralded as the epitome of the success of central planning, government by the experts. Now
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The natural reaction to market breakdown is to add layers of protection and regulation. But trying to regulate a market entangled by complexity can lead to unintended consequences, compounding crisis rather than extinguishing them because the safeguards add even more
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Much of the talk about the fairness of the tax code and the extension of the Bush tax cuts is just thinly veiled class warfare. By focusing on billionaires and millionaires we lose sight of the far more mundane reality.
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There are two particular targets of American progressive political ideology: special interests and the curse of bigness, primarily in business. But the preferred solution of the progressives, central planning and regulation, only serve to make these matters worse. The proliferation
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What is certainly clear is that again and again, countries, banks, individuals, and firms take on excessive debt in good times without enough awareness of the risks that will follow when the inevitable recession hits. Many players in the global
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A driver was bringing a load of scrap in a small ¾ ton truck. He was stopped by a State Trooper who is now authorized to enforce DOT regulations. The driver was charged with 7 violations, including: No Medical certificate
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We clearly need financial reform. Yet Obama’s reckless, populist, anti-business pronouncements only serve to harden the prevailing attitude that business growth and job generation is just too risky. Financial reform should be thoroughly vetted and discussed in the appropriate House
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In politics, as in comedy, timing is everything. A program that works in one time or place may not work in another. Unions were able to raise wages and benefits in our major manufacturers after World War II largely because
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Regulatory Competitive Advantage
Beyond the issue that regulations that add complexity are part of the problem they seek to solve, regulations are often used as competitive leverage of one corporation over another. While limited debit card fees to 12 cents may create a