Is the current financial crisis the result of too little regulation? People asking that question often seem to suppose the total quantity of regulation at issue. If more regulation were always better, then North Korea should have one of the best economies in the world, because surely it is among the most regulated. If it is not that the maximum amount of regulation is best, then it may be that an intermediate quantity produces an optimum. Perhaps too little regulation allows chaos and too much produces strangulation, so that in between there is just the right amount.