The Federal Government and the states have customarily applied cleanup standards case by case, which industrialists and regulators acknowledge can be slow and expensive.

The regulators themselves acknowledge that their examiners are being tougher, but they argue that in economically weak areas that is appropriate and to be expected.

But until recently, manufacturers and regulators barely acknowledged them.

The regulators also acknowledged that it was impossible to know what other assets Mr. Keating and his family might be concealing.

Furthermore, both regulators and their critics acknowledge that the performance of most propane haulers is never reviewed.

Mr. Bostwick questioned whether the difference between four and five stars would influence customers; regulators acknowledge that the difference is sometimes small.

The danger, regulators acknowledge, is that the disclosures are so overburdened with descriptions of possible negative outcomes as to make all the warnings seem irrelevant.

"I was floored," the former regulator acknowledged.

Prosecutors and regulators acknowledge the difficulties of policing the international penny-stock market at a time when the concepts of market deregulation and globalization are all the rage.

Polish regulators acknowledge they are being overwhelmed by a horde of scam artists who bribe officials, bend Poland's antiquated business laws and outsmart the understaffed police.