Is regulation right?

Most of us think it proper to study regulation but it is harder to say how regulation can be carried out properly. Regulators, indeed, seem to be on a hiding to nothing - they are routinely savaged in the press, they are seldom informed that they have got it right and hardly ever told what a balanced or successful regime of regulation would like. It is accordingly worth pausing to consider why regulators have such a rough ride, whether they can ever get it right, what sort of future they can look forward to.