US businesses may soon find that deregulation comes with risks

 

Chief executives love to blame their struggles on bureaucratic red tape. If only time-consuming and pointless regulations could be removed, they say, their companies would be much more efficient and profitable.

In the US, that wish is on the brink of coming true. Late last month, six conservatives on the Supreme Court handed corporate America a scythe. The high court majority shredded a 40-year-old precedent known as the “Chevron deference” that required judges to defer to government experts when laws were ambiguous. They also ruled in a separate case that even long-settled rules can be challenged by new industry players. But CEOs should be careful what they wish for...more

Gotta love that headline. Risks are present in an unregulated or less regulated market? The main risk is someone will produce a better product. That of course creates competition, which benefits the consumer.

Compare that with the risks of ever-changing, more burdensome set of government regulations that change with the political winds.

See how the author either scolds the court or scares industry. We have been handed a "scythe" that "shreds" the current regulatory regime. All because the court now says judges should do their job and not automatically defer to government agencies.

Federal regulations impose a cost of just over $3 billion on our economy, with the cost higher for small firms than for the larger ones:

Considering all federal regulations, all sectors of the U.S. economy and all firm sizes, federal regulations cost an estimated $12,800 per employee per year in 2022 (in 2023 dollars). Small firms with fewer than 50 employees incur regulatory costs of $14,700 per employee per year – 20% greater than the cost per employee in large firms ($12,200). 

It is time to swing those scythes and begin shredding those regulations.