In recent years, I’ve made the point that the economy has long been entangled with regulation that’s much like kudzu, an Asian plant introduced to the United States in the 1930s by the Department of Agriculture in an effort to help farmers retain eroding topsoil. Like kudzu, well-intentioned regulation has flourished to the point of seeming nearly uncontrollable.

Ultimately, kudzu planting was so successful that the government program supporting it came to a screeching halt. Kudzu had to be yanked up. Today, also perhaps as a result of too much of a good thing, our government is finally cutting back the regulatory vines. But of course, it’s a big job.