Whether it is the Department of Energy deciding to pull the plug on a popular type of light bulb, or the Environmental Protection Agency dictating the allowable volume of water in toilets, our vast administrative state lurks behind every corner, poised to assert itself within every nook, crevice, and cranny that presents an opportunity for regulatory interference. Last year federal agencies created over 74,000 pages of new rules and regulations to fill the perceived vacuums in our lives, and we are currently on track this year to surpass that tree-crushing total.
As frustrating — and costly – as never-ending meddling from Washington bureaucrats can be, light bulbs and plumbing are small potatoes compared to the mayhem that erupts when an agency jumps the median to rewrite the entire rulebook for an industry to which it is, at best, a casual acquaintance. Just over a year ago our organization sounded the sirens on a lawsuit by the “stone-age” bureaucracy of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against an American crypto company, Ripple Labs. In that time an overwhelming consensus has emerged among crypto industry leaders, analysts, and legal scholars that the SEC’s lawsuit is not only absurd, but extremely dangerous.
