The Fives Taxes Index Update - Regulation BABY
Here it is.
Not a whole lot, but thought it would be interesting to those following it. It's a year by year chart of the number of pages in the Federal Register - the total embodiment of every rule, code, and law that the Federale's imposed during the year.
Play a little game with yourself: Stop reading right now, go to the link above and, without looking at the years, guess the presidential administration.
Done? Good. How'd you do? My guess is that even the slightest political junkies can tell who was in the big house when.
Three observations: Another reason Nixon was one bad dude, Reagan said what he'd do and did it, Clinton wasn't all that bad.
First Nixon, I can't think of much that this guy did that was good. Wage & Price controls, off the gold standard, etc, etc, etc, and now I can see the massive build up of regulations. Can't establish an EPA and not file pages with regs now can you? Is it any wonder that we had malaise during this time. Plus it was the 70's and everything was just ugly. I know someone's going to e-mail, "Yeah, but he went to China." I'm truly undecided about that. If president, I would hate for my finest accomplishment to be open dialoge and hence endorsement with a murdurous totalitarian regime. Maybe that's just me.
Second Reagan, he said in his inaugural that government is the problem and it's reflected in the federal register. A net decrease by my eyeballing. Hate him or love him - he did what he said he would do.
Finally, Mr. Clinton. Let me first say that I hate this leacherous raping Hillbilly. But on the economic front his lack of commitment to any idealogy whatsoever and his scandals preventing the things he'd like to get done were a godsend. The Federal Register grew slower under him that I'd expected. Add that to NAFTA, welfare reform, the clumsy handling of his tax hikes that went down to defeat. Not bad. Could I even say probably better that Bush I or Dole would have done? Yes, I think I could. Also, if Bush or Dole won, we probably wouldn't have a presidential endorsement of the "eatin' ain't cheatin'" defense.
Stay you.
Not a whole lot, but thought it would be interesting to those following it. It's a year by year chart of the number of pages in the Federal Register - the total embodiment of every rule, code, and law that the Federale's imposed during the year.
Play a little game with yourself: Stop reading right now, go to the link above and, without looking at the years, guess the presidential administration.
Done? Good. How'd you do? My guess is that even the slightest political junkies can tell who was in the big house when.
Three observations: Another reason Nixon was one bad dude, Reagan said what he'd do and did it, Clinton wasn't all that bad.
First Nixon, I can't think of much that this guy did that was good. Wage & Price controls, off the gold standard, etc, etc, etc, and now I can see the massive build up of regulations. Can't establish an EPA and not file pages with regs now can you? Is it any wonder that we had malaise during this time. Plus it was the 70's and everything was just ugly. I know someone's going to e-mail, "Yeah, but he went to China." I'm truly undecided about that. If president, I would hate for my finest accomplishment to be open dialoge and hence endorsement with a murdurous totalitarian regime. Maybe that's just me.
Second Reagan, he said in his inaugural that government is the problem and it's reflected in the federal register. A net decrease by my eyeballing. Hate him or love him - he did what he said he would do.
Finally, Mr. Clinton. Let me first say that I hate this leacherous raping Hillbilly. But on the economic front his lack of commitment to any idealogy whatsoever and his scandals preventing the things he'd like to get done were a godsend. The Federal Register grew slower under him that I'd expected. Add that to NAFTA, welfare reform, the clumsy handling of his tax hikes that went down to defeat. Not bad. Could I even say probably better that Bush I or Dole would have done? Yes, I think I could. Also, if Bush or Dole won, we probably wouldn't have a presidential endorsement of the "eatin' ain't cheatin'" defense.
Stay you.
posted by Howard McEwen, CFA at Monday, July 12, 2004
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