A head of the game

Alert the media -- I'm going to say something nice about Jimmy Carter. And a normally libertarian-baiting writer actually has something nice to say (in an offhand way) about deregulation. The subject of both our departures: the deregulation of beer, which has given us such an explosion of brands and styles and tastes:

Obviously not all deregulation is going to work this way, nor are all matters of regulation as relatively unimportant as beer. But this is a good example of how regulation can crowd out small businesses and local economies in favor of big corporations with ties to powerful legislators.

That was E.D. Kain, who somehow stumbled across one of the great truths of regulation.

In 1979, there were just 44 breweries in the country, churning out cheap, filling and pretty tasteless beer. But Jimmy Carter in 1978 signed Senate Amendment 3534, a portion of which extended the home-made wine provisions to beer. Each household had permission to produce up to 200 gallons of tax-exempt beer a year. Now we have 1,463 breweries, including 975 brewpubs.

(via hit & run. Check out all the links for a fascinating overview of this important milestone in modern history.)