Obama's Regulatory Siege Holds Back the Economy

Well, in light of my last entry, "Can Robust U.S. Economy Lift Global Markets?"

(Keep in mind, the recent phenomenal U.S. economic performance is in spite of the Obama administration's FUBAR economic policies.)

At IBD, "Obama's Regulatory Siege Holds Back the Economy":

When it comes to costly regulations, Barack Obama is without presidential peer. We believe it's a big reason why the economic recovery from the financial crisis has been the worst ever.

According to data toted up by Competitive Enterprise Institute Fellow Wayne Crews, 2014 ended with 78,978 pages in the Federal Register, the government's regulatory bible. That's the fifth-highest ever. An improvement? Hardly.

As Crews notes, of the "six all-time-high Federal Register page counts, five belong to Obama." Counting the number of pages in the Federal Register is key, since it reflects the general level of regulation in the U.S. economy. In Obama's case, it indicates he's the most regulating president ever.

During the five years of his regulatory siege, the annual average of regulatory pages in the Register has increased by 8% over the preceding five years.

We're not picking nits here. Every rule that goes into effect has an economic impact. And many, if not most, have a negative economic impact — that is, costs outweigh benefits. It's an enormous cost to our economy.

Americans like to wonder why so few new businesses and new jobs are being created these days. Regulation is a big reason.

Still more.