Regulation in the market

[Berserker]

I think sometimes regulation is necessary. The more difficult it is for a person to be able to detect fraud through their own means, the more it is needed. This article talks about how 4 of 5 herbal supplements sold at wallmart, target, etc, are fake. In this case the market pulled one of the consumers because it is very difficult for a consumer to detect this type of fraud.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update ... upplements

[MorGrendel]

Two thoughts:
This is one reason to shop at CVS. They have stopped selling cigarettes, thus forfeiting truckloads of money and are working (it appears) to be a health/medical-conscience business. I hope it works for them.

As far as regulation, if these supplements are full of asparagus, wheat powder, and nuts, shouldn't the FDA get involved?

[Berserker]

Indeed, I like it when businesses take it upon themselves to be a better business, to look beyond profit.

As for the pills, I would hope the FDA gets involved, but likely these are in some sort of category that is not under the jurisdiction of the FDA (I don't really understand what FDA can and cannot regulate). Likely new regulations would need to be create by Congress to add these pills to the FDA jurisdiction. And of course, that costs money. Adding this whole new class of items to the FDA's testing means they need to hire more people to do the testing.