America dragged down - harmful economic effects of government regulation; includes related article on specific regulation cases - Cover Story

National Review, Oct 15, 1990 by Warren T. Brookes

The enthusiastic applause he received from that audience at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington indicates how far the anti-growth forces of the 1970s have recaptured the policy levers in the 1990s. George Bush's predilection for regulation has replaced Ronald Reagan's conviction of the need for deregulation and privatization.

Bush's trust in the bureaucratic and political process has restored to government the momentum that Reagan had slowed, and in so doing has braked the economy that Reagan had stimulated. In the quantum economy, where idea is more important than structure and policy more vital than process, the American Prometheus is slowly being wrapped in kinder, gentler shackles.