Deregulation Under Reagan

Reagan wanted to deregulate several parts of the government, including environmental laws and S&Ls. He thought that environmental laws that had high standards for air and water pollution. Without these and other measures that improved safety in workplaces, businesses would not have to spend so much on keeping with the regulations and could spend more in their services to boost the economy. He also got rid of some environmental regulations that protected certain areas of land so businesses could drill more oil or mine, thus creating more jobs. In the case of S&Ls, or savings and loan associations, they were restricted before Reagan so they could only give low-risk and low-cost loans, mostly for buying homes. But once they were deregulated, they started to give high-risk loans in the hopes of making more money, but it left thousands of S&Ls bankrupt, which led to there being less loans, so less houses were bought, hurting the economy and making another recession, which was the opposite of what deregulation was supposed to do.