Hostile regulators can still be right
Channeling my inner Megan McArdle: 737 MAX, VW Diesel, and plagiarismgate
The Chinese government grounded the 737 MAX, which at the time was seen by some as being motivated by “trade war” concerns rather than purely safety ones. In retrospect, the Chinese authorities were right, whatever their motivations.
For years, European car manufacturers faked their Diesel emissions data. Volkswagen then tried the same trick in the US, and was quickly caught. American regulators were naturally more skeptical of a foreign car maker selling a foreign technology (Diesel was a huge EU success story at the time).
Right-wing activists pointed out that the President of Harvard had committed some light plagiarism. Frankly, I think in this case, the issue was small and should not have led to a resignation; but the repeated denial that there was anything to reproach in copying whole paragraphs was wrong. Again, the accusations came from a hostile player.
Adversarial regulation is not the ideal scenario, but sometimes it may be better than the alternative.
