[lmm]

> The point is that we can't take a market with N regulations, see what happens with (N-1) regulations being followed, and then say "see, that's what would happen without any regulations!"

That seems like the sort of evidence that's actually useful when making policy decisions about whether we should increase or decrease regulation. Abolishing all regulations is not practical, so what political theorists think would happen in a complete absence of regulation is irrelevant to any real-world issues.

[icebraining]

It's only relevant when making policy decisions about that particular rule. Regulations aren't commodities, and the fact that eliminating a certain regulation would destabilize the system is no evidence that removing any other regulation would do the same.

But in any case, if you think what would happen by abolishing all regulation is irrelevant to the real world, then you should be replying to RivieraKid, who was the one drawing such irrelevant (and, in my opinion, unsupported) conclusions.