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Hardly anyone has actually read Dodd-Frank, besides the Chinese government and our correspondent in New York (see article). Those who have struggle to make sense of it, not least because so much detail has yet to be filled in: of the 400 rules it mandates, only 93 have been finalised. So financial firms in America must prepare to comply with a law that is partly unintelligible and partly unknowable.

Flaming water-skis

Dodd-Frank is part of a wider trend. Governments of both parties keep adding stacks of rules, few of which are ever rescinded. Republicans write rules to thwart terrorists, which make flying in America an ordeal and prompt legions of brainy migrants to move to Canada instead. Democrats write rules to expand the welfare state. Barack Obama’s health-care reform of 2010 had many virtues, especially its attempt to make health insurance universal. But it does little to reduce the system’s staggering and increasing complexity. Every hour spent treating a patient in America creates at least 30 minutes of paperwork, and often a whole hour. Next year the number of federally mandated categories of illness and injury for which hospitals may claim reimbursement will rise from 18,000 to 140,000. There are nine codes relating to injuries caused by parrots, and three relating to burns from flaming water-skis.
Two forces make American laws too complex. One is hubris. Many lawmakers seem to believe that they can lay down rules to govern every eventuality.

A. 어휘
mandates 명령하다, 위임하다. comply 응하다, 따르다.
unintelligible 이해할 수 없는, 難解(난해)한. Flaming 타오르다.
stacks 무더기, 낟가리, 더미. rescind 廢棄(폐기)하다. thwart 훼방 놓다.
ordeal 호된 시련. prompt 재촉하다. legions 다수, 無數(무수), 보병군단.
brainy 머리 좋은. migrant 이주자. expand 확장하다.
welfare state 복지국가. virtues 미덕, 장점. universal 보편적인.
reduce 감소시키다. staggering 비틀거리는, 당황하게 하는.
complexity 복잡성. paperwork 서류작업.
federally mandated categories 연방정부에서 명령한 範疇(범주).
reimbursement 辨償(변상), 賠償(배상). codes 법전, 규약.
burns 火傷(화상). flaming water-skis 불타는 수상스키.
hubris 오만, 자만. lawmakers 입법의원. govern 다스리다.
eventuality 일어날 수 있는 모든 상황, 우발적 사건.