The Players

The role of Government in the world of business is best conceived as referee between competitive entities, leveling uneven playing fields (via regulation) and punishing practices that tend towards oligarchy (via anti-trust and other legal measures).

Unfortunately, this pollyanish view of Government ignores the invitable outcome when frictions between Government and Business are high.

And at this moment they are very, very high in the United States, to say nothing of the rest of the world.

Throughout history, we have seen countless examples of the eventual outcomes of this phenomenae.

Eisenhower called this the Military-Industrial complex, even Adam Smith warned "whenever competitors gather, conversation invariably turns to price fixing". This same impetus is magnified where the process of legislation is insular and complex.

Justic Brandeis once stated "sunlight is the best disinfectant" and our Government would be well-advised to introduce strict term limits, greater transparency measures, and much less legislation, both in number and complexity.