List of U.S. Governmental Regulatory and other Intervention Systems upon the Market

Economics Political Theory
1

The socialists argument tends to come back to how the free market caused this current economic crisis and more regulation is needed. I recently had a discussion with a self-declared socialist in which he stated there is not enough government regulation to stop these economic crisis’ from occurring. We’ve heard this same socialist position ad nauseam. So I searched on the internet and compiled a list of governmental regulatory systems. If anybody has anything to add to the list I’ll continue to update this compilation for the record.

The following were sourced here and source includes further descriptions of their role in regulating the market:

  • Federal Reserve System [Thomas DiLorenzo’s post here (scroll down in his post to find) provides a ‘short’ list of what this institution regulates also]

A. Board of Governors

B. Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC)

C. Reserve banks

  • Department of the Treasury

A. Office for the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

B. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)

  • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

A. Subdivisions

  1. Corporate Finance

  2. Trading and Markets

  3. Investment Management

  4. Enforcement (can bring civil charges, but criminal charges are recommended to and enacted by the Justice Department)

  5. Consolidated Supervised Entities (shutdown in 9/2008 as it oversaw investment banks such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and was considered flawed due to events that transpired, including these firms collapsing.)

  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
  • Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC)
  • National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)

Some more that I can think of:

  • Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Freddie and Frannie Mac
  • Department of Energy
  • Food and Drug Administration
  • Department of Agriculture
  • U. S. Environmental Agency
  • U. S. Department of Labor (a huge agency in and of itself see here)
  • Department of Commerce

Due to the numerous laws and regulatory overlap in the Federal, State, and Local jurisdictions there is a professional field devoted to knowing all the detailed nuances called Regulatory Affairs, also known as Government Affairs, has positions in the industries of “…pharmaceuticals, medical devices, energy, and banking.”

Here is a “List of regulation titles” of the Code of Federal Regulations that is published by the Office of the Federal Register (list quoted from link given):

  • Title 1: General Provisions

  • Title 2: Grants and Agreements

  • Title 3: The President

  • Title 4: Accounts

  • Title 5: Administrative Personnel

  • Title 6: Homeland Security

  • Title 7: Agriculture

  • Title 8: Aliens and Nationality

  • Title 9: Animals and Animal Products

  • Title 10: Energy

  • Title 11: Federal Elections

  • Title 12: Banks and Banking

  • Title 13: Business Credit and Assistance

  • Title 14: Aeronautics and Space (also known as the Federal Aviation Regulations, administered by the Federal Aviation Administration)

  • Title 15: Commerce and Foreign Trade

  • Title 16: Commercial Practices

  • Title 17: Commodity and Securities Exchanges

  • Title 18: Conservation of Power and Water Resources

  • Title 19: Customs Duties

  • Title 20: Employees’ Benefits

  • Title 21: Food and Drugs (administered by the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Drug Enforcement Administration)

  • Title 22: Foreign Relations

  • Title 23: Highways

  • Title 24: Housing and Urban Development

  • Title 25: Indians

  • Title 26: Internal Revenue

  • Title 27: Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms

  • Title 28: Judicial Administration

  • Title 29: Labor

  • Title 30: Mineral Resources

  • Title 31: Money and Finance: Treasury

  • Title 32: National Defense

  • Title 33: Navigation and Navigable Waters

  • Title 34: Education

  • Title 35: Reserved (formerly Panama Canal)

  • Title 36: Parks, Forests, and Public Property

  • Title 37: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

  • Title 38: Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans’ Relief

  • Title 39: Postal Service

  • Title 40: Protection of Environment (administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency)

  • Title 41: Public Contracts and Property Management

  • Title 42: Public Health

  • Title 43: Public Lands: Interior

  • Title 44: Emergency Management and Assistance

  • Title 45: Public Welfare

  • Title 46: Shipping

  • Title 47: Telecommunication

  • Title 48: Federal Acquisition Regulations System

  • Title 49: Transportation

  • Title 50: Wildlife and Fisheries

  • And there’s more for what I’ve provided so far are generalizations. Here’s a detailed overview of what the U.S. government does with taxes. This link provides the 2009 budget of the U.S., which more bills will surely add to this. So on top of this there are other years and plenty of other Congressional Bills that spend tax money including bailouts and stimulus packages.

anything else?

2

Wow…

I think I am going to steal this and post it…

3

Nice. Also I remember seeing a summation paragraph somewhere on these forums, the socialist would blame the markets… and then you’d post a big paragraph containing / listing all the legislation that affects it and is interventionist.

Has anyone got that anywhere? [:)]

4

Conza88,

Did you mean this list written by Thomas DiLorenzo and posted 5/13/09 the following quote is taken from his post here:

In a Fed publication entitled “The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions,” it is explained that “The Federal Reserve has supervisory and regulatory authority over a wide range of financial institutions and activities.” That’s the understatement of the century. Among the Fed’s functions are the regulation of

  • Bank holding companies
  • State-chartered banks
  • Foreign branches of member banks
  • Edge and agreement corporations
  • US state-licensed branches, agencies, and representative offices of foreign banks
  • Nonbanking activities of foreign banks
  • National banks (with the Comptroller of the Currency)
  • Savings banks (with the Office of Thrift Supervision)
  • Nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies
  • Thrift holding companies
  • Financial reporting
  • Accounting policies of banks
  • Business “continuity” in case of an economic emergency
  • Consumer-protection laws
  • Securities dealings of banks
  • Information technology used by banks
  • Foreign investments of banks
  • Foreign lending by banks
  • Branch banking
  • Bank mergers and acquisitions
  • Who may own a bank
  • Capital “adequacy standards”
  • Extensions of credit for the purchase of securities
  • Equal-opportunity lending
  • Mortgage disclosure information
  • Reserve requirements
  • Electronic-funds transfers
  • Interbank liabilities
  • Community Reinvestment Act subprime lending requirements
  • All international banking operations
  • Consumer leasing
  • Privacy of consumer financial information
  • Payments on demand deposits
  • “Fair credit” reporting
  • Transactions between member banks and their affiliates
  • Truth in lending
  • Truth in savings

That’s a pretty comprehensive list, the result of 96 years of bureaucratic empire building by Fed bureaucrats. It gives the lie to the notion that there has been “too little regulation” of financial markets. Anyone who makes such an argument is either ignorant of the truth or is lying."

This list, though, is only what the Federal Reserve regulates. And what is listed here is “among”, as DiLorenzo states, what they do, so, I assume this is not all of what they do.

5

stealing…lol [:P]

Just take it. [:D]

6

No. More like a block of text in a paragraph.

7

This 2009 budget outline is severely flawed, but you can easily list half the departments as regulatory.

8

I bet Obama has a poster of this in his bathroom so he can stare at it while he throws off a batch of knuckle children…

9

Thanks hashem I added that to the OP.[Y]

10

I did, the results are as expected…

11

What do you mean?[:)]

12

People crying that government regulation is necessary, or that getting rid of the programs is fine if they can keep the government…

13

Yeah, as expected, I agree…

14

sarbanes oxley, and didn’t they ban all kinds of speculation including short-selling in 2008?

15

“The SEC administers the body of financial law established through seven major acts governing the financial industry, including most recently the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002and the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006 (PDF). As a means of regulating market behavior, the SEC polices and licenses stock exchanges, and is responsible for regulating credit ratings agencies, which also have taken criticism during the current crisis.”

This was in the SEC section in the first link I gave that provides more details of those first generalities (Federal Reserve, SEC, etc..) that is on the list.

I’m not sure if the Sarbanes Oxley Act banned short-selling or not. Good question. That link that I reapplied here in this post provides another link through the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002”. It probably links to a description of that Act.

Thanks[:)]

16

oh, i meant-banning short selling as something exclusive from SOX, bad punctuation

17

What’s wrong with short-selling?

18

I think the government felt it was driving the stock market crash or some such rubbish?

Btw-- great idea with this list of government intervention! I think I may print this list out and hang it up at work next to the constitution (lol).

19

I know what the government thinks. However, fezwhatley seemed to imply that the banning of short selling was a good thing. I think I misread him though. I blame his bad punctuation.

20

Cool!! [:D][Y]