Regulation

In the last two weeks, President Obama finally proposed tough new restrictions on the big banks, and then he underlined them in his State of the Union speech. It's a start. The one thing economists agree on is that incentives matter. Unless incentives and constraints are changed through regulation, it is unlikely that behavior on Wall Street will change. And once again, our financial system, our economy and the taxpayer will be in jeopardy. "Too big to fail" banks have a strong incentive to gamble: If they win, they walk away with the profits; if they lose, the taxpayer picks up the tab. The bailouts blindly saved big banks while smaller banks went bankrupt -- 140 in 2009 alone -- leading to an even more concentrated banking system.

In an effort to clean the air along the nation's choked highways, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a major regulation to control nitrogen dioxide, a key factor in respiratory illness. The new EPA rule will be the subject of a public hearing today in Los Angeles, a region where the air is among the unhealthiest in the nation. Imposed under court order, it is the first to address the dangerous gas in 35 years.

Mikko Koivu and Owen Nolan scored in the shootout after Minnesota scored four unanswered goals in the third period, leading the Wild past the Chicago Blackhawks, 6-5, on Saturday night. Trailing, 5-1, with less than 14 minutes left in regulation, the Wild got goals from Kim Johnsson, Mikko Koivu, Marek Zidlicky and Guillaume Latendresse to send the game to overtime. Patrick Sharp, Jonathan Toews, Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer and Marian Hossa scored in regulation for the Blackhawks, who had surrendered only 27 third-period goals before Saturday.

The agreement reached between the wireless industry and federal regulators to rein in cellphone bill shock sounds good for customers, but it has a potential drawback: It's voluntary. Consumer advocates who support the self-regulation plan nevertheless worry that the new standards to avoid sudden and unexpected spikes in cellphone bills may end up being largely ignored, as companies in many industries have done with plans for voluntary guidelines. Attempts at self-regulation to protect online privacy, for instance, have fallen woefully short, said Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America.

Today's question : Does the Food and Drug Administration have too much regulatory power or not enough? Paul Roberts and Jacob Grier debate the new food economy . Yesterday, they discussed food panics . Later this week, they'll cover food shortages and other topics. Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour Point: Jacob Grier "I blame Milton Friedman," Paul Krugman wrote in a column about America’s food safety problems last year, perversely blaming the late free-market economist for the failures of government regulation.

It's tough to admit, but I made a big mistake. I put all my eggs in one basket, and that basket was Time Warner Cable. As a result, when the company's system went down last week, my family lost not only all our television service, but our Internet connection and home telephones too. This may be the 21st century, but Chez Hiltzik was reduced to a dark uncivilized island, bereft of all communication with the outside world. No Netflix. No "Curb Your Enthusiasm. " No email.

Recently unveiled legislation that seeks to avert the risk created by complex financial firms that are too big to fail might itself be too broad and complicated to survive without significant changes. The 253-page bill is one of the most controversial provisions of the Obama administration's overhaul of financial regulations because it directly addresses the future of government bailouts. The legislation drafted by the Treasury Department and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would give federal officials power to regulate, seize and dismantle large financial firms whose failure would pose a risk to the economy.

Still nipping out of your workplace or a restaurant to cop a cigarette out on the sidewalk? You are public health hero, and a grateful nation salutes you. Workplaces and eating and drinking establishments that are free of second-hand smoke have shored up Americans' health even in the face of rising levels of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, says a new study. Published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the latest research focused on Olmsted County in Minnesota, and tracked the rate of heart attacks and sudden heart attack deaths in the wake of smoking bans that cleared Olmsted County's restaurants, bars and workplaces of tobacco smoke.

The Bush administration Thursday announced plans to implement a controversial regulation designed to protect antiabortion healthcare workers from being required to deliver services against their personal beliefs. The rule empowers federal health officials to pull funding from more than 584,000 hospitals, clinics, health plans, doctors' offices and other entities that do not accommodate employees who refuse to participate in care they find objectionable on personal, moral or religious grounds.

Re: "Reading Reagan's Rights" (Editorial Pages, July 3): Surely you jest if you are suggesting or implying that James Madison and the Federalists would feel at home in today's unfathomable maze of bureaucratic regulation. They were addressing the critical issue of their day, which was the lack of any focus or control which would truly define the newly independent nation as just that--a nation. Common currency, taxation for defense and public welfare, ground rules for interstate commerce, and means to pay off the public debt were areas of need in search of a solution which would better define the thirteen colonies as a nation.