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Is This What Deregulation Looks Like?
It is often said that deregulation, especially during the last eight years, is one of the central causes of the financial crisis. In large part, this perception stems from the rhetoric of the Republicans in power at the time and their emphasis on the costly burdens that regulation places on business. However, sometimes appearances are just that: appearances. In fact, during the last eight years, federal spending on regulation in the category of finance and banking has gone up notably. This trend is similar to the one we have seen in the last 50 years....

...So what does the data say? The graph below shows inflation-adjusted federal spending on finance and banking regulations between 1960 and 2010. As we can see, with very few exceptions, regulatory spending on finance and banking has gone up for the last 50 years from to $190 million in 1960 to $2.3 billion in fiscal 2010. Also, real expenditures for the finance and banking regulation category have risen 45.5 percent from 1990 to 2010, with a 20 percent increase in the last ten years. It rose by 26 percent during President George W. Bush’s administration....