Example 77,402,349 of Why Never Let Government Regulate

If true, VW has been exceptionally sober and clever about the state of regulation in USA.  Their diesel engines were programmed to perform to spec when tested by the sinecurial emission testing crew.

Suffice to say, regulators were livid once they caught on. Last Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that Volkswagen had very flagrantly violated the Clean Air Act. Not only did the EPA order the German firm to fix the affected vehicles — which include diesel TDI versions of the Golf, Jetta, Beetle, and Passat — but the agency could end up levying fines as high as $18 billion. The Department of Justice is also contemplatingcriminal charges.

Livid. "Once they caught on."  VW was scamming the regulators for ten years, and they never caught on.  (Sound familiar, can you say Madoff?)

It was of course, a private group, nosing around on their own, that sniffed out the mischief.  There are no cases in which USA regulators have found wrongdoing.  They only wake-up when private entities make enough noise to drive the media form its comatose state.

Now groggy and cranky, they will fine VW, which will raise prices to cover the cost, and since the best (everyone agrees, VW) will be priced higher, welfare-queen USA diesel producers at Ford and GM will also raise prices and be as competitive as yesterday.  As usual, when the regulators get busy, the consumer is harmed.

If we care about holding entities to standards, to that degree it is work too important to trust to the hegemon, which fails at everything, by choice.  Free markets keep businesses honest, and government protects malefactors.

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