Many government policies are developed and implemented based on little data or understanding of how they impact businesses or consumers. Over the years, my firm has examined hundreds of policy proposals, documenting how they impact not only the economy, but consumers, businesses, and the general public.

More often than not, we find that even the most well-intentioned regulations have serious and costly consequences, many of which are far worse than the problem that the regulation was initially supposed to address. In fact, much of the regulatory burden coming out of Washington DC and state capitals is due to panic policymaking, which is defined in the literature as the speedy creation of new laws and regulations or new duties for governmental and private institutions in a situation of sudden, unreasoning, and excessive fear or anger.

http://eidmarcellus.org/marcellus-shale/the-problem-of-panic-policy...