Please Sir, May I Build a House? By Francis Turner.

I recall many years ago reading about the guy in the Philippines who decided he was personally going to legally import a car … even after a year he still couldn’t actually register it and drive it legally. Mind you every single bureaucrat he dealt with pointed out that a little cash being spread around to grease palms would lead to immediate resolution of all problems.

It seems to me that in the developed world we’re getting to a similar place regarding regulations but the little people simply can’t bribe their way around them, you have to be a large corporate entity to buy up the politicians to do so. …

The President took time to mention the problem in his recent speech in Warsaw:

Finally, on both sides of the Atlantic our citizens are confronted by yet another danger; one firmly within our control. This danger is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles: the steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people. The West became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies.

The entire speech seems to have gone down like a cup of cold sick with the sneering classes so this part probably didn’t really register.

However it strikes me that it is something that Trump actually knows about (as a property developer and founder of multiple businesses he must have done a lot of kowtowing to self-important jobsworths) and something that he is aware will improve economic growth so it seems highly likely that in the US we’ll continue to see regulations cut.