The problem is that regulations often interfere with the efficient operation of markets. For instance, reforms passed in the wake of the Enron scandal had the unintended effect of driving lucrative public offering business overseas.
So you see, free markets—and capitalism itself—can thrive only when corporations and individuals exercise moral restraint. When those restraints fail, government regulation is sure to follow, which in turn makes free markets less free.
Of course, moral restraint requires a set of morals, beliefs that some things are wrong, regardless of what the law says—or, put more simply, the biblical worldview. Otherwise, who can trust people to do what is right when they can make a killing by doing what is wrong? That’s a lesson that Goldman’s clients and millions of homeowners have learned the hard way.
Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson was the Chief Counsel for Richard Nixon and served time in prison for Watergate-related charges. In 1976, Colson founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, which, in collaboration with churches of all confessions and denominations, has become the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, crime victims, and their families.
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