Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: grusum who wrote (259963)	7/11/2010 1:13:02 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

Not true. Free markets do not self-regulate. That is exactly the kind of myth that was proven incorrect in the most recent downturn. Where have you been the last couple of years? Hiding under a rock?

To: grusum who wrote (259963)	7/11/2010 1:56:56 PM
From: marcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

"...the very crime you seek to eliminate gets enabled..." Regulation limits market fundamentalism (those who don't want to be limited) as attempt to provide for the greater good (car safety, air quality, fair banking, etc.). The "criminals" are the market fundamentalists who use various strategies to avoid legal requirements. Tactics formalized in Chicago, of course: "...George Stigler...won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982, and was a key leader of the Chicago School of Economics, along with his close friend Milton Friedman. ...Stigler is best known for developing the Economic Theory of Regulation, also known as capture, which says that interest groups and other political participants will use the regulatory and coercive powers of government to shape laws and regulations in a way that is beneficial to them..." en.wikipedia.org

To: grusum who wrote (259963)	7/11/2010 10:30:33 PM
From: Reilly Diefenbach	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

I've been researching the 1930s lately with regard to the railroads and the ICC. The ICC was heavily involved in all areas of the railroad business. Its rules were complex, it acted in a heavy handed manner and it was, it seems to me, fairly unaccountable. It was a bad regulator, possibly in part because its mandate was never updated to match the times. "Regulation" in the form of simple, straight-forward rules that are easy to enforce, say like "Thou shalt not mix investment and commercial banking" ala Glass-Stegall easily accomplish their intent. It makes it a lot easier for both an industry and the regulators themselves when rules are kept simple. We aren't likely to get simple rules with the level of regulatory, legal and bureaucratic capture we currently have in Washington. The best we can hope for is a couple of thousand pages of legislation that no one understands and no one reads before it gets voted on.