Meltdown - Regulations (cont.)

Over the past few weeks I've heard and read the familiar refrain that our current financial meltdown is due to the wave of deregulation that began under the Reagan Administration. We are led to believe that Reagan swept in a laissez-faire philosophy that has created an unsustainable economy.

So I decided to look up some of the key pieces of legislation that were responsible for this wave of deregulation. What I found was interesting considering how the Left and the Right want to portray the history of the past 30 years.

• Airline Deregulation Act of 1978
• The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 to deregulate the trucking industry. When Carter signed the bill he said, "I have today signed into law S. 2245, the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. This is historic legislation. It will remove 45 years of excessive and inflationary Government restrictions and redtape. It will have a powerful anti-inflationary effect, reducing consumer costs by as much as $8 billion each year. And by ending wasteful practices, it will conserve annually hundreds of millions of gallons of precious fuel. All the citizens of our Nation will benefit from this legislation."
• The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 to deregulate the rail industry
• Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 - this was the first law to undo various aspects of Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 (the favorite of many progressives)
• Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 - this one was a Reagan initiative but it had broad Congressional support (including Democrat Charles Schumer). It was the next step in undoing Glass-Steagall.
  

Now, I don't want to get into the economic effects of these laws, either good or bad. Each particular case most likely involves subtleties that make them less than perfect free-market solutions. The point here is to show that blaming deregulation on a free-market ideology forced on the country by Reagan is just silly. Or you could just call Jimmy Carter a laissez-faire ideologue.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that all this is Jimmy Carter's fault. Nor am I saying anything about the Reagan Administration. All I want to show here is that the history of the past 30 years is not as simplistic as many "progressives" want us to believe.