The Wall Street Journal is required reading for investment advisors, but its editorial page is so predictable that I seldom read it.  However, something piqued my interest yesterday about excessive regulation.  It cited a study by a professor at George Mason University, who analyzed “major new regulations,” i.e., rules that impose more than $100 million in new costs.  It found Obama has issued 84, compared to Bush at 62 and Clinton at  a mere 56.

Should I believe that?  Bloomberg News (which is also owned by a Republican) found that “the Obama Adminstration has not reviewed or issued significantly more rules than its predecessors.”  In addition, the World Bank just published its report on “Doing Business,” which ranked the U.S. as the 4th easiest market to do business in.  And, the annual analysis by the World Economic Forum ranked us in 5th place.  (Those nations ahead of us are smaller countries, like Singapore or Finland, that are largely irrelevant.)

Maybe, all the new regulations mentioned in The Wall Street Journal apply only to investment advisors . . . and the rest of the economy is doing just fine??