Over the years, many industries have been regulated by the federal government. But one by one, they became "de-regulated" over time. The banking and airline industries were once heavily regulated, as was the telephone business. In exchange for federally-approved rates of service and a set return on investment, companies were given exclusive franchises, or service territories. Today, the de-regulation of formerly regulated businesses has spurred-on competition and stimulated new products and services. The natural gas and crude oil businesses followed behind but eventually became de-regulated as well. The chain of events leading up to that, and the current regulatory status of these industries, is presented in this lesson.
At the successful completion of this lesson, students should be able to:
This lesson will take us one week to complete. The following items will be due Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
If you have any questions, please post them to our General Course Questions discussion forum (not e-mail), located under Modules in Canvas. The TA and I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.