Box Ticking

clipped from www.samizdata.net Here is a quick thought: in the aftermath of various financial crises - the 1997 Asian crisis (remember that one?), Long Term Capital Management (1998), various business blowups (Enron, etc), and of course, the latest excitements, one invariably hears from the Great and the Good that what we need to stop is the "box ticking mentality" when it comes to regulation. We need, so the argument goes, to rely a lot less on making sure the correct forms are filled in, and to require people in business and enforcers of laws to use more common sense. So true. And yet. Every time a new problem emerges, what happens? You guessed it right: more box-ticking. So the next time you hear a politician piously informing us that we are going to "get beyond the box-ticking approach", do not believe them.