For Gretchen Morgenson to come right out and say, at length and in detail, that the current approach to financial reform is mostly a reaffirmation of the status quo is a huge development. Morgenson is respected by everyone (she is also the single-most-quoted source in PANIC). It will be very hard to represent opposition to [...]
Republicans should not obstruct the Dodd/Frank bill and align themselves with the defenders of the megabanks. They should ask for one little thing in return for their support; better markets. President Obama in his speech lined up behind Dodd, Frank and the misguided belief that regulators can actually grasp what the megabanks are [...]
Snip: Our “proposal for tougher financial regulation…sounds interesting and is very much worth reading.” But he does quibble with our “overtoughly tough” words for Frank and Dodd.
Check it out here.
Here is our response to Nicole Gelinas:
Ok, let’s take the Dodd bill point by point, using the summary written by Dodd’s own committee staff.
1)Creates “a strong consumer protection watchdog” which though housed in the Fed will be able to “autonomously write rules for consumer protection.”
Dodd’s justification: “The economic crisis was driven by an across-the-board failure to protect consumers”
Our Take: Imprudent “pro-consumer” [...]
Forget how sleazy this is. How stupid is it than someone with this kind of access is BUYING AIG in January 2008. Just goes to show how hopeless any regulatory solution is. This woman, along with Dodd himself, has privileged access to the best information available to the government. She is chief counsel to the [...]
Andrew Redleaf and Richard Vigilante column that appeared on RealClearMarkets.
The Volcker rule is merely pointless. The Senate preference for regulatory discretion is really dangerous
In Panic we spend more than 200 pages explaining what caused the crisis: but here it is two sentence: Over the past 20 years we have had the most politicized banking system in U.S. history, with bankers more slavishly responsive to [...]
