"The Free Market" is frequently characterized as a market or free enterprise economy operating in economic activities with minimal government intervention. The power of corporations to manipulate and control markets is now enormous and, because of the handcuffs placed on governments by trade deals, it is growing exponentially. In the today's western political economy, however, the role of regulation has become a vital intervention to co-exist with the free market principle.

Society aims to achieve economic and social performance goals. Economic performance goals include such things as low unemployment, efficient productivity and optimal relationships among prices, costs and profits. Social performance goals are based on the common values of well being such as ethics and morals. Our economy has become more integrated and international over time, and to achieve such economic and social performance goals, regulations need to be drafted and enforced ap

propriately to allow the modern business to thrive in a global environment.

We must decide whether the power to govern will be in the hands of living people or will reside with corporate entities, each driven by a different agenda. To regain control of our future and bring human societies into balance with the planet, we must reclaim the power we have yielded to corporations. This can only be achieved through regulation. Governments are responsible for reclaiming the power that was given to these corporations. More regulations should come in place and enforced in areas where political and economic well being, environmental protection, and cultural identity are often being abused. This does not mean to stifle the free market, but to have a more efficient market mechanism to better achieve the economic and social performance goals.

In the past, regulations such as controls over price, transportation entry, and wage and working conditions amongst others existed before Adam Smith's eighteenth century notion of the "Wealth of Nations." One might say, therefore, that regulation is actually the "natural" state of affairs, and that there is a disproving presumption against this concept of a "Free Market." Indeed, with no government intervention, there would be significant performance shortcomings: consumers would be served unwholesome food, breathe polluted air, and pay unreasona

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Approximate Word count = 937
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)