Barry Ritholtz argues that it was regulatory exemptions that contributed to the current crisis, "You read that right - the events of the past year are not a mere accident, but are the results of a conscious and willful SEC decision to allow these firms to legally violate existing net capital rules that, in the past 30 years, had limited broker dealers debt-to-net capital ratio to 12-to-1." The exemption was for five firms to leverage to 40-1, three of them are now defunct and the other two have issues. (reply)
When I read through the Workchoices legislation a while ago it was a brain dulling experience. The bill was long, boring and complex. It recently received a one hundred and eleven page amendment [PDF warning] to add to the Workplace Relations Amendment Act, the Workplace Relations Amendment Bill, the Explanatory Memorandum, the Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum and the Second Reading Speech. Human Resources just got job security in the same way accountants do with the complex tax system. (more)
Harold Feld asks an interesting question on wetmachine;
Do we really need to regulate space travel?
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