It's a point that's been made to death: U.S. politics have never been polarized as much as it is polarized today.  Rhetoric has become more heated in what seems like an arms race to stoke – and capitalize on – the most outrage. Christmas came early for regulation demagogues on September 7, when Equifax, a credit-reporting agency, announced that it had suffered a catastrophic data breach.  People panicked – up to 145 million Americans had their identity data compromised.  Nobody can blame Americans for reacting this way to being exposed to identity theft.  But not so blameless are Senators Elizabeth Warrior (D-Mass.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who introduced the FREE Act.  It's regulation of an increasingly common kind: thoughtless, opportunistic legislation with bad solutions. The FREE Act and other bills inspired by it would mandate that companies provide credit freezes to consumers for free.  The rhetoric behind it...(Read Full Post)