What do you do on any given day that is not somehow regulated by government in some way? There really isn't much. In point of fact, there are well over one hundred thousand pages of federal regulations alone, to say nothing of state and local regulations. We have government-mandated guidelines for everything from space exploration to how your dog can behave in a city park. While many people concede that there is an acceptable minimum level of government regulation, and others maintain that there is no such thing as an unregulated market, even in the absence of government guidance, it's clear that as things currently stand, we are a highly overregulated nation. So if there is, indeed, a legitimate purpose for regulation, what is it? What are we trying to accomplish with these regulations? Who benefits? And how far is too far? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

 

Quick Hits

Police killed in the line of duty

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/28/number-officers-killed-2017-hits-nearly-50-year-low/984477001/

26 year-old gives birth to 24 year-old

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/record-baby-26-year-old-gives-birth-daughter-frozen-24-years-ago/

Alcohol

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/28/how-many-alcoholic-drinks-too-many-per-week/822604001/

Venezuelan cryptocurrency

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/29/venezuela-oil-backed-cryptocurrency-to-launch-in-days.html

Foolishness of the Week http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pew-trump-media-three-times-more-negative-than-for-obama-just-5-percent-positive/article/2644448 This Week’s Topic

Magnitude of regulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNPjC0gVSo

What regulations did Trump eliminate?

https://cei.org/blog/so-what-regulations-did-trump-eliminate

Regulation of social media http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/354006-regulate-social-media-just-like-other-media

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/its-time-to-crack-down-on-facebook-and-twitter-commentary.html

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/twitter-egyptian-journalist-ban.php 

Regulating florists because dirt might be infected

https://goldwaterinstitute.org/article/protection-racket-occupational-licensing-laws-and/

 

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