Does government regulation really kill jobs?
Economists say overall effect minimal.

From the Washington Post:

The critique of regulations fits into a broader conservative narrative about government overreach. But it also comes after a string of disasters in recent years that were tied to government regulators falling short, including the financial crisis of 2008, the BP oil spill and the West Virginia mining accident last year.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that very few layoffs are caused principally by tougher rules.

Whenever a firm lays off workers, the bureau asks executives the biggest reason for the job cuts.

In 2010, 0.3 percent of the people who lost their jobs in layoffs were let go because of “government regulations/intervention.” By comparison, 25 percent were laid off because of a drop in business demand.

More here.

That's the thing: I'd bet a Kennedy fifty cent piece that the same businessmen who reported in this specific study that they didn't lay off employees because of government regulations would answer in the abstract that regulations do cause layoffs. That is, there is actual economic data that comes from the real world, and that reports what people actually do with their money, and then there is what people believe about economics. Especially businessmen, who think they have a firm grasp of economics, when really all that they understand is their own business or industry. Especially conservatives, who think they've got economics down pat, when really all they know are slogans and anecdotes they've absorbed over the last three decades.

And what's really sad is that the Democrats either believe conservatives when they say they get it better than anyone, or are too afraid to alienate their wealthy campaign donors by speaking the truth. Consequently, a lot of bullshit passes for economics in the public discourse.

Tax cuts, for instance, are supposed to have all kinds of economic healing powers. Just cut taxes, especially for the wealthy, and the economy will boom. Never mind that multiple studies have shown that people tend to put their tax cut money into savings instead of spending it on things that expand the economy. The myth prevails. Or consider the mania for cutting government spending. The idea is that the economy cannot grow when so much of it is tied up in government hands. So we have to cut, cut, cut, and only then will we grow. Never mind the fact that most economists assert, and have reams of data to back it up, that austerity during a recession does nothing but deepen the recession--when consumers aren't spending, when there is no demand for products, only the government can get people to spend again. But again the myth prevails. For Republican and Democrat alike.

I have no idea how to change such lock-step ignorance, but I hope that Occupy Wall Street, at least, will force the establishment to confront their long-held and cherished, but totally false, notions of macroeconomics. You know, I haven't had hope in quite a while. This OWS thing is pretty amazing.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$