I am looking for a real answer here. It may sound ridiculous, but looking at countries that have little, if any regulations, and they have terrible environments for business. Look at Russia or Mexico which both have far fewer regulations than the US and the prospects for opening a successful business in either country are not in the same league as in the US. Other countries like Sweden or Germany have a lot of regulations on business (far more than the US in most cases) and they are both great places to invest.

In fact, at a superficial level, more regulations seem to lead to a better economy. Is there any correlation? I read an article in The Economist a few years ago and they talked about the biggest factor holding back economic development in Central American countries being the lack of law surrounding property rights.

Do regulations have much effect on business and if so, is that positive or negative?