Government

[Editor's Note: On February 10th BCLC executive director Stephen Jordan and AccountAbility director Steve Rochlin will cover this topic during the next "Conversations with Stephen" discussion. Register now for the free webcast and join the tweetchat at #BCLConCSR.]

In Economics 101, economists make an important distinction. What an individual business does and how it behaves is a vastly different field of study than what businesses do in aggregate. They call this mass behavior macro-economics.

Government and the environment: Put those two thoughts together and many conjure an anti-business attitude and the specter of over-regulation. Remember snail darters? Now the Illinois Cave amphipod requires protection; and in Iowa there is a legal battle over regulation of storm water discharge. These are examples of well-meaning environmental initiatives that can prove expensive to implement and of questionable environmental versus economic tradeoff.