16 April 2013 - regulatory capture 1

Frequently in the policy wars that rage in every land a powerful unit on the side of Not Messing People Over crosses to the side of Doing What We Want and works for the enemy. Because it is an unregulated escape, economists call it regulatory capture. But these secret agents are not skilled at long-term strategy. The nuclear regulators in Japan tried to work for the nuclear industry, and saved the industry a lot of money for a while but in the end got hit with Fukushima.