Trump’s ‘Unheralded’ Deregulation Agenda Divides Economists
A study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers concluded that federal regulations cost the manufacturing sector about $350 billion a year.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergUS Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said sweeping away the extensive regulatory burdens hampering domestic manufacturing is an “unheralded” part of Donald Trump’s agenda that would start paying dividends in the third quarter that just ended last week.
US economists, as a group, aren’t quite so sure. The broad effects of Trump’s other two key policy initiatives — tax cuts and tariff hikes — are quantifiable. Deregulation, however, takes longer and is tougher to assess. Figuring out the cost and benefit of striking out, say, a series of pollution rules poses a greater challenge.