Yes I'm quite familiar with RoHS idiocy. I can relate my own personal experience, just a small one, but illustrates the true economic cost of all these directives from on high.
Back when manufacturers were scrambling to have their production lines RoHS certified (at risk of losing their ability to sell in the EU) many products simply became unavailable due to production delays and teething problems converting existing product lines to lead-free materials. In my office we had a few servers bite the dust and needed a specific system board to replace them. We could not get the replacements for any amount of money, because the one manufacturer in Taiwan was in the midst of converting their entire production line to RoHS. These machines were being used to render large video and animation jobs, and we were forced to use slower alternatives in the meantime (which amounted to a few months time). All of this increased production time on our side was, as you might imagine, built in to the price ultimately paid by customers downstream.
I figure you can take this small example and multiply it by who knows how many millions of other examples. Truly, the economy works in spite of these eggheads. Certainly not because of them.