I'm really tired of people trying to set an equivalence between free markets and lack of regulation. I don't know if that's exactly what you're trying to do but:

A free market is a very specific definition, there are things like atomicity of actors and whatnot. Loads of regulations can help meet that, for example:

-Governments handing out tax credits to new companies helps free markets

-Governments setting in anti-trust laws helps free markets

-Governments setting disclosure regulations helps free markets

Some regulations harm free markets (namely things like entry controls), but others protect it. We need to learn to make the distinction

i don't really agree. other than some deregulation (power, cable, etc), for the most part i'd say the government today is more intertwined with lobbyists/big corporations' interests at heart than they used to be...

Car franchise laws and taxi medallions didn't exist in the 70s?