This
paper explains that, from the beginning of the 20th
century, the size of the
government increased, especially when Franklin Delano Roosevelt seized all privately owned
gold and introduced other sweeping legislation that encroached on the private sector. The author
points out that, after the Second World War and the Cold War, the rate of government intrusion into business slowed. The paper concludes that, currently, businesses in the United States suffers less under regulations and tax burdens than at other points in the 20th century.