• Government agencies regulate everything from the quality of the food you eat to how products are advertised.

• Their job is to protect both businesses and the public from unfair, unsafe and unethical business practices.

• One of the government's roles is to foster economic success.

• The economic health of a nation depends on the success of individual businesses.

• To promote this economic growth, local, state, and national government pass laws to both promote and regulate businesses.

• There are three different levels of government-federal, state, and local.

• The federal government runs the country, state governments run individual states, and local governments run cities and countries.

• Since a monopoly doesn’t have to compete with other companies, it can charge anything it wants for a product.

• Rival companies can also form a monopoly by banding together into a trust and agree not to compete with each other.

• To prevent monopolies and promote competition, the U.S. government passed a series of antitrust laws.

• The government created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate interstate trade.

• It’s job includes setting standards for honest advertising.

• One of the most basic ways the government protects businesses is by enforcing contracts.

• A contract can be written, verbal, or even done with a handshake.

• A contract protects all the parties that agree to it.

• The government has laws protecting the right to own creative properties. (Like inventions and artwork)

• If you own the copyright to a story you wrote, anyone who wants to use it has to get your permission.

• Some familiar trademarks are: Lay’s Doritos, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats, and VISA.

• This is the 4th way the government intervenes with economic activity.

• The government tries to stop industrial pollutants with regulations.

• As a result of federal budget cutbacks, environmental regulations are often not enforced. Then it is up to the state and local communities to take responsibility for regulating pollution to the water and air.

• The government provides important services, conducts business itself, and acts as a partner to business.

• Most government funds come from taxes that people and businesses pay.

• Incomes are effected indirectly when the government decides where to make expenditures.

• The government is the single largest provider of services in the country.

• It spends the most on transfer payments, like welfare and unemployment compensation.

• The government’s main source of revenue is taxes (which is money collected from businesses and the public)

• Each level of government collects different kinds of taxes for different kinds of services.

• Federal income tax is used to pay for national highways, defense, and social security.

• Local taxes are used to pay for streets, libraries, and parks in your community.

• All three levels of government (state, local, and federal) fund public education.

• The government is the single largest employer in the country.

• Everyone from the local mayor, the President, teachers, fire fighters, trash collectors, police and bus drivers are government employees.

• It pays the members of the army, navy, and the air force. Also provides unemployment insurance for those temporarily out of work.

• The government is also the single largest consumer of goods and services.

• The Small Business Administration offers different kinds of loans to aspiring small-business owners.

• The government sets up trade barriers to protect businesses from unfair foreign competition.