The law of unintended...

[Yonivore]

...consequences is probably the most frequently enacted statute in Congress.

Sen. Dick Durbin’s ill-considered attempt to crack down on credit card “swipe fees” on behalf of retailers has backfired. Turns out the bank card companies have eliminated the discounts they used to give small retailers (http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/08/how-durbins-debit-card-fee-cut-backfired-on-small-merchants/) and small amounts. Predictably, many small retailers are finding that their swipe fee costs are soaring.

Nice going, Dick.

[Winehole23]

the credit card companies decided to take it out on small retailers. this is Dick Durban's fault how?

[boutons_deux]

the banks will always fuck the rest of us,while buying off legislators to protect them.

They'd all be big losers if it weren't for usurious fees for overdrafts. $38B in 2009.

[Yonivore]

In the same vein as unintended consequences.

Why CAFE changes could lead to larger cars, not smaller ones (http://green.autoblog.com/2011/12/13/why-cafe-changes-could-lead-to-larger-cars-not-smaller-ones/)


A study by the University of Michigan shows that auto manufacturers could meet tougher fuel economy standards (http://green.autoblog.com/2011/07/29/official-2025-cafe-target-set-at-54-5-mpg-everyones-apparentl/) simply by increasing the size of the vehicles they sell. A "footprint-based" formula for calculating mileage targets was adopted when Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards were revised in 2007 (http://www.green.autoblog.com/2007/12/18/its-official-congress-passes-35-mpg-cafe-standard/). Researchers now think this could lead to bigger vehicles on the road rather than increases in fuel economy for our nation's fleet.

"It's cheaper to make large vehicles, and meeting fuel-economy standards costs [manufacturers] money in implementing and looking at what consumers will purchase," one of the researchers told Automotive News.
Oops.

[Winehole23]

that's a proleptic oops. the results aren't in yet.