Rand Ghayad, PhD, questions which is adding to the depressed U.S. labor market more, regulations or a lack of demand for goods and services? Writing in the Huffington Post, Dr. Ghayad cites Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures pointing to only 0.3 loss due to “government regulations/intervention,” vs. “25 percent were laid off because of a drop in business demand.”

A deeper dive by MHProNews into Ghayad’s statements reveals this quote:

“The bottom line is an old story: regulation has raised costs and made business opportunities to sell goods and services insufficiently profitable. The new twist is that these fears are suppressing current investments and hiring, and are thus a major cause of our long-term unemployment problem.”

Ghayad also acknowledges that too big to fail, something Dodd-Frank was supposed to help ‘fix,’ has actually resulted in larger financial institutions, not smaller ones. “The U.S. largest banks have grown only bigger since the financial crisis — by as much as a third.”

Ghayad’s survey fails to ask about the impact of other regulatory burdens on business and the economy, such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA a.k.a. ObamaCare). “Blaming” lower employment on Dodd-Frank alone would be an overstatement. But as veteran manufactured housing professionals know, Dodd-Frank is suppressing some loans which where previously being made, which in turn reduces sales and thus the ability for would be financing sources to fill demand. To learn more, see the Industry in Focus report on HR 1779. ##

(Rand Ghayad, PhD photo credit: The Brattle Group)