40 years later, this book by Stephen Breyer is unfortunately more relevant than ever, as many countries and sectors are jumping from decades of deregulation to a sudden revival of haphazard regulation. Not to mention the problem of climate change...

Breyer manages to handle very technical examples with admirable clarity and understandable prose. The proper role of the legislative, executive and judicial branches becomes much clearer. Unfortunately in the USA any trace of reason is being eliminated from the system by the Supreme Court, but we can still learn in the rest of the world.