Reasonably free markets with transparent financial information, where government regulation is sensibly designed and impartially administered (without political favoritism), are necessary for a country to achieve its economic potential and compete successfully in the world economy. Ill advised, excessive and overly complex regulation can cripple an economy as easily as corruption and can also foster corruption.
Government regulation always gives relative advantage to the larger, more powerful companies in any industry because they can more easily afford the internal bureaucracy to comply with the regulation and shape legislation to favor them over their less politically influential competitors.
Excessive regulation retards the growth of productivity, and productivity growth is the only way individual income levels can be increased in real terms.
Improper and excessive regulation usually results in a large informal (black market) sector in the economy. Excessive regulation increases both the temptation and the opportunity for bribery.
Notes:
Administrative law – Instead of continuing to follow the Chevron decision the Supreme Court should reign in the federal administrative agencies by restricting their latitude to make law and by requiring Congress to write its laws with more specific guidelines so that the administrative agencies have a narrower scope within which to interpret them. Because of the difficulty of agreeing on the details Congress often writes legislation so vaguely that the administrative agencies are left to work them out. Since by doing this Congress avoids much of the blame for making law that is unpopular with a significant group of voters the temptation is hard to resist.
The administrative agencies have their own judges so a defendant is at a disadvantage with judges biased in favor of the agencies they work for. Judges in such cases need specialized knowledge but would be less biased if they didn’t work for the agencies themselves.
Legislation requiring 3 year and 5 year reviews of the costs and effects of new regulations with mandatory modification/kill provisions for those that prove to be counterproductive would be highly beneficial.