Government regulation can be social or economic in nature. Social regulation aims to correct market failures while economic regulation controls business entry and pricing. There are many regulatory agencies in the US across industries like finance, transportation, communication, food/drugs, and environment. Pros of regulation include protecting consumer safety, public health/environment, and economic stability. Cons are large bureaucracies that stifle growth, high costs to taxpayers of over $55 billion annually, and difficulty measuring regulatory success. Government regulation has significantly increased over the past 50 years and now costs American businesses over $700 billion annually to comply with regulations.

2. Types of Government Regulation
Social: "refers to the broad category of rules governing how any business or individual carries out its
activities, with a view to correcting one or more market failures.
Economic: "refers to rules that limit who can enter a business (entry controls) and what prices they may
charge.“
Examples of Government Regulation Agencies
The Securities and Exchange Program
Federal Reserve
Office of Comptroller of the Currency
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The National Credit Union Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
The Federal Communication Commission
Food and Drug Administration
Environmental Protection Agency

3. Pros of Government Regulation
It looks out for the safety of consumers.
It protects the safety and health of the general public as well as the environment.
It looks after the stability of the economy.
Keeps in mind the well being of the people.
Cons of Government Regulation
It creates a huge government bureaucracy that stifles growth.
It can create huge monopolies that cause consumers to pay more.
It squashes innovation by over-regulating.
Is extremely costly to the tax payers
Ex: U.S. tax payers pay nearly $55 billion per year to fund the 300,000 regulatory staff and their various activities.
Difficult to calculate success of operations.

4. Is Government Regulation on the Rise?
Yes. Over the past 50 years Government Regulation has gone from less than 5 billion dollars a year to over 55 billion.
More than 5,000 new federal and state regulations are added each year. It is also predicted that by the end of
President Obama's term government regulatory spending could top over 73 billion dollars annually.
How Costly is Government Regulation?
Government regulation cost American $55 billion per year.
Annual expenditures that U.S. business must comply by cost $700 billion per year, and this only takes into account
explicit cost.
Additional cost could amount to almost $300 billion per year
Aside from the money aspect of government regulation, there are several other vital cost. Many people find it difficult
to run a successful business with such harsh regulations. It can be difficult to follow one government regulation with
out breaking another.