Books in Brief: The Regulated Consumer

The Regulated Consumer, by Mary Bennett Peterson (Nash, 271 pp., $7.95).

The notion that consumers would benefit from less regulation of business rather than more seems rather heretical in this day of Ralph Nader, Truth in Lending and a host of other institutions which seem bent on using the offices of Big Government to “protect” the consumer. But Mary Bennett Peterson has marshaled a convincing case that government regulation on behalf of the consumer frequently turns out to have the opposite effect, and benefits instead established business interests and the government bureaucracy. She examines the history behind the birth of seven major regulatory agencies (including the Civil Aeronautics Board, Federal Trade Commission and National Labor Relations Board) and their decisions over the years to document her conclusions. What the book sorely lacks, and what Milton Friedman attempts to provide in his short introduction, is a rigorous and consistent framework for explaining why regulatory agencies are established and why they function as they do. Unfortunately, Friedman’s essay and Mrs. Peterson’s essentially descriptive study fail to provide the needed antidote to the confusion and misinformation which people such as Nader and Mintz and Cohen (America, Inc.) are sowing with such abandon. But at least The Regulated Consumer is a respectable Start.

JB

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James Burnham

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The Regulated Consumer, by Mary Bennett Peterson (Nash, 271 pp., $7.95).

The notion that consumers would benefit from less regulation of business rather than more seems rather heretical in this day of Ralph Nader, Truth in Lending and a host of other institutions which seem bent on using the offices of Big Government to “protect” the consumer. But Mary Bennett Peterson has marshaled a convincing case that government regulation on behalf of the consumer frequently turns out to have the opposite effect, and benefits instead established business interests and the government bureaucracy. She examines the history behind the birth of seven major regulatory agencies (including the Civil Aeronautics Board, Federal Trade Commission and National Labor Relations Board) and their decisions over the years to document her conclusions. What the book sorely lacks, and what Milton Friedman attempts to provide in his short introduction, is a rigorous and consistent framework for explaining why regulatory agencies are established and why they function as they do. Unfortunately, Friedman’s essay and Mrs. Peterson’s essentially descriptive study fail to provide the needed antidote to the confusion and misinformation which people such as Nader and Mintz and Cohen (America, Inc.) are sowing with such abandon. But at least The Regulated Consumer is a respectable Start.