Re: Uchitelle on jobless recovery

[Eubulides <paraconsistent@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jurriaan Bendien" <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

> Even so, the Bush administration has in reality regulated a lot. As
> mentioned in a previous PEN-L post, regulations governing US business
> reached an all-time high in 2002, according to the Cato Institute; more
than
> 75,600 pages were recorded in the official Federal Register in the
second
> year of President George Bush's administration, up from 69,591 pages in
> Bush's first year. The cost to consumers and businesses of regulation in
> 2002 was estimated at $860bn.
>
> The real question is what prospects there are for a new round of
> protectionist policies.
>
> J.


================

A couple of quick points:

1) It is far from apparent that all the stuff published in the Federal
Register is primarily directed at regulating business and consumers. Pages
and pages are simply meeting announcements, calls for public input and
stuff like the following:

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

14 CFR Part 71

[Docket No.FAA-2003-15299; Airspace Docket No. 03-AWP-9]


Modification of Class E Airspace; Window Rock, AZ

Correction

    In rule document 03-15526 beginning on page 36743 in the issue of
Thursday, June 19, 2003 make the following correction:


Sec.  71.1  [Corrected]

    On page 36744, in Sec.  71.1, in the first column, under the
heading ``AWP AZ E5 Window Rock, AZ [Revised] '' in the tenth line,
``VARTAC'' should read ``VORTAC''.

[FR Doc. C3-15526 Filed 7-21-03; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 1505-01-D


2)The Cato Institute reports overlook all the stuff that goes under the
heading of regulatory capture theory. Who do they think asked for the
following regulation?:

[Federal Register: July 22, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 140)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 43295-43298]
>From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22jy03-8]

=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Minerals Management Service

30 CFR Part 250

RIN 1010-AC89


Oil and Gas and Sulphur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf
Documents Incorporated by Reference--API RP 14F and API RP 14FZ

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service (MMS), Interior.

ACTION: Final rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: MMS is publishing this final rule to incorporate by reference
into our regulations the 4th edition of American Petroleum Institute
(API) Recommended Practice (RP) 14F (API RP 14F), ``Recommended
Practice for Design and Installation of Electrical Systems for Fixed
and Floating Offshore Petroleum Facilities for Unclassified and Class
I, Division 1 and Division 2 Locations.'' The updated document, 4th
edition, will replace the 3rd edition of API RP 14F, which is already
incorporated by reference into MMS regulations. The final rule will
also add another document to be incorporated by reference for the first
time into our regulations. The new document, API RP 14FZ, 1st edition,
is titled ``Recommended Practice for Design and Installation of
Electrical Systems for Fixed and Floating Offshore Petroleum Facilities
for Unclassified and Class I, Zone 0, Zone 1 and Zone 2 Locations.''
These revisions will ensure that lessees use the best available and
safest technologies while operating in the Outer Continental Shelf
(OCS).

EFFECTIVE DATE: This rule becomes effective on August 21, 2003. The
incorporation by reference of the publication listed in the regulation
is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of August 21,
2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Nedorostek, Operations Analysis
Branch, at (703) 787-1029.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We use standards, specifications, and
recommended practices developed by standard-setting organizations and
the oil and gas industry for establishing requirements for activities
in the OCS. This practice, known as incorporation by reference, allows
us to incorporate the provisions of technical standards into the
regulations without increasing the volume of the Code of Federal
Regulations. The legal effect of incorporation by reference is that the
material is treated as if it were published in the Federal Register.
This material, like any other properly issued regulation, then has the
force and effect of law. We hold operators/lessees accountable for
complying with the documents incorporated by reference in our
regulations. The regulations, found at 1 CFR part 51, govern how MMS
and other Federal agencies incorporate various documents by reference.
[snip]


There are thousands of similar regs. produced every year [I get the FR
everyday, such a joy to peruse...]

The lost $ amounts published by Cato are no more to be trusted than the $
amounts declared lost to pirating of intellectual property by Hollywood
and the Music conglomerates.......


"...the issue is not more versus less government [or big government versus
small government], but rather to whose interests the government gives
effect. Thus, a movement from more to less stringent requirements for the
emissions of polluting firms is not a move from more to less government
['deregulation'], but a change in the structure of rights from pollutees
to polluters. The big versus small government arguments are rhetorical
devices, persuasive mechanisms reflective of and reinforcing traditional
Western liberal ideology. The terms 'regulation' and deregulation' are
rhetorical reflections of this ideology, since whenever rights are being
changed, one party is being 'regulated' and the other 'deregulated.'
[Steven Medema "Another Look at the Problem of Rent Seeking" JEI vol. xxv
#4, 1050]