Peter Gordon is a clever professor in the University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development and in its Department of Economics and is director of USC’s Master of Real Estate Development program. Professor Gordon also runs a smart blog called Peter Gordon’s Blog, which explores “the intersection of economic thinking and urban planning/real estate development and related big-think themes.”
In this post, Professor Gordon addresses the L.A. City Council’s recent decision to require more impact studies of possible harm before large centers such as Wal-Mart are allowed to be built in Los Angeles. With brevity and razor sharp insight, Professor Gordon points out the unintended consequences of such governmental action:

I imagine that the 13 of 15 L.A. City Council members who voted for this measure also dream of requiring studies of the “possible harm” before anyone can legally file to compete with them at the polls.
For now, the professional harm detectors have a windfall. The influence of politicians and their acolytes is extended. Inefficient retailers get a pass. The poorest customers have to travel further for lower prices and more variety. Entry level jobs are foreclosed, etc., etc., etc.
Conventional measure of the size of government understate the harm that politicians do. The full consequences of this stuff are not so easily detected.