Posted by
Andrews on Saturday, July 11, 2009 6:58:02 AM
I found
an interesting article this morning, arguing that economic justification for regulation of insurance is rarely an accurate description, and that regulatory measures usually are not designed to remedy the problems alleged. I will write on this later, as it fits well with both of my arguments, that regulation is rarely in response to actual market failures and that the free market responds well, even when information is imperfect, so I will be returning to this one. However, for now, I just wanted to point it out.
POSTSCRIPT
Thanks to
pointoflaw.com for this link.
Point Of Law and
Overlawyered are great sources for writing on legal topics, for those interested. They are usually not terribly technical, and they present a very even handed perspective, though they obviously have very definite beliefs.
UPDATE
Actually,
this article is even more interesting, especially as it relates to my argument for medical deregulation. More interesting is the thought, not stated in the article, that modern improvements in information delivery, largely through private ventures such as CarMax, provide the information needed to remove asymmetrical conditions. Just as I argued technology removed a lot of natural monopolies in "
The Endless Cycle of Intervention", it appears improvement over time is removing the few remaining situations where asymmetrical information is used to justify (disproportionate) government involvement. (Not that the previous asymmetry really argued for such massive intrusions as existed.)