So what numbers DO you put into your spreadsheet?

Was a question asked by an El Paso CFO.  For the economy to grow businesses must invest in new projects.  To invest in new projects they need to be able to reasonably project cash flows which means they must be able to project both costs and revenues.  With the regulatory tsunami, they can't.  Even if the regs don't turn out to have a negative impact, the sheer scale and capriciousness of the Federal Regulatory State is freezing them in their tracks.  It's called a capital strike and it replicates what happened in the 30s.  The only silver lining?  The Obami look like they are working themselves out of jobs.  Fortunately, actions still have consequences.

One doesn't have to look far for an explanation of why the economy grew at an anemic 1 percent rate during the last quarter.

Businesses large and small face more uncertainty today about the federal regulatory environment than at any point since the New Deal radically increased the role of the government in the nation's economy. Thanks to Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, plus President Obama's decision to use bureaucratic regulation to start major initiatives like cap and trade that Congress refused to pass, the federal bureaucracy has been drafting new regulations at an unprecedented pace. Seeing this tsunami of red tape flooding out of Washington, company owners and executives wisely opt to delay new hires and investments until they have a clearer idea how much their already huge compliance costs will increase and how the markets will be warped by changes mandated by the bureaucrats.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/08/obamas-regulatory-flood-drowning-economic-growth#ixzz1WQUnA2qL