Regulation is not a simple matter, either in our existing industrial economy or in a future green economy. Regulation becomes more complicated in complex economies, and economic and technological development are inevitably expressions of increasing complexity. This chapter will provide a concise overview of general regulatory tendencies and of current contentious issues in regulation, before moving on to consider progressive product policy for building materials. In the early, or classical, industrial capitalist economy, regulation was a simple matter, at least in theory. The state was to stay out of the way and let capitalist markets do their job. In practice, such laissez-faire economic policies could really only work for the first or leading industrial powers, like Britain, followed by the United States. Catch up development always seemed to require strong state action, at very least in temporarily protecting vulnerable but vital sectors from the market power of stronger competitors. Nevertheless, while the theory wasnt perfect, there was something about the nature of early industrial economies that shaped a pervasive separation between politics and economics, state and markets. This something had to do with the material character of early industrialism, and also with the role of routine (cog-) labour in