A Boston Globe report ought to interest Canadians because the Massachusetts experience improves understanding of how regulators who do not believe in regulation work hand-in-hand with industry…
When regulators don’t believe in regulation
When a new government takes office, there is often a significant change at senior levels of the civil service and among OIC political appointments. One person still employed by the Horgan government may surprise more than a few people.
Profits before quality and safety
From RossK, The Gazetteer, A New Market For A New White Powder: …it has become religion among conservatives to denounce regulation, saying it stifles business and hinders economic growth. But consider: At […]
Corporate crime and failure of oversight
With the death toll at 35 42 47 and rising, Quebec’s Lac-Mégantic oil train disaster is not just tragedy, it is corporate crime. At the root is eagerness of big business to take ever […]
The smartest guys in the room got it wrong
According to The Guardian’s George Monbiot, after each of the richest 100 people gained an average of $2.4 billion in 2012, they now hold wealth near equivalent to the United Kingdom’s GDP. […]
Association precludes effective regulation
When governing parties are controlled by big business, agents shuffle back and forth between the regulated and the regulators. Now, faux capitalists are so confident in their right to rule, they drop […]
Deregulation and privatization – a cautionary tale
Terrance Heath writes a story of frequent and ruinous power outages in territory served by The Potomac Electric Power Company, a utility supplying electricity to Washington, D.C. and surrounding communities in Maryland. […]
Deregulation and death
Government Press Release, January 2012: Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has won the Canadian Federation of Independent Business Golden Scissors award for cutting red tape for business by more than 40% … I […]
Public land with full access now privatized
Liberals have been bulldozing barriers and slashing red tape for more than a decade. Who can forget: “Red Tape Reduction Task Force” of 2001 to recommend priorities for the elimination of regulations […]
The drug Canada is peddling
Dr. David Schindler, University of Alberta: Every year that you can get away with lack of regulation, is a few billion more bucks in your pocket. After 40 years, I’m pretty sick […]
The master of red tape reduction
Humanists associate Dick Cheney with war crimes but his legacy of malevolence is broader. In 2005, the U.S. Congress passed legislation exempting hydraulic fracturing from oversight under the Safe Drinking Water Act. […]
Spreading prosperity or spreading dust all over the world
Several years ago the Fraser Institute spearheaded a drive to deregulate Canadian banks so they could act more like U.S. banks. That potential disaster was in line with the Fraser Institute objective […]
Regulating deregulation
American news writer Michelle Chen, in Washington’s Anti-Regulatory Crusade, notes, “. . . politicians in both parties, including the White House, have claimed that scaling back regulations would unleash economic growth, suggesting […]
More reasons to question
Whether Gas is Cleaner than Coal, Abraham Lustgarten, ProPublica: In January, a ProPublica investigation found that large amounts of “fugitive” emissions were left out of common comparisons between coal and gas and […]
USA gas industry trying to catch BC’s gas industry in self-regulation
From the Center for American Progress: The oil and natural gas lobby is working hard to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from establishing safeguards to protect the public from chemicals used to […]
Auditor General: oil and gas production oversight needs improvement
The Auditor General of BC today reinforced warnings raised repeatedly at In-Sights about the inadequacies of oversight and regulation in the northeast oil and gas industry. Mainstream media in this province have […]
One dirty secret of industrial food
Paul Kamon‘s foodie site Urban Diner is great for news about local dining. At the UD Forum, most participants are professionals, including owners, chefs, servers and other industry insiders and suppliers. There are […]
Socialism for big investors, capitalism for everyone else
Risk, Radiation and Regulation, by Nancy Folbre, Economics Professor, University of Massachusetts The New York Times, March 18, 2011 Early warnings about potential nuclear dangers in Japan and about Wall Street’s propensity […]
Older does not guarantee wiser
Before Patrick Moore bills himself as “the sensible environmentalist” and claims to have been a leader of the international eco movement for more than 30 years. Others say that when Moore exhausted […]
Regulation or no regulation, you decide
The libertarians and erzatz capitalists won’t publish this sort of headline but it’s the truth: “Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and government building codes.” Friday’s quake was the fifth-largest recorded […]
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