Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Tag: regulation

  • How to Avoid Regulation: Smart Regulation

    Every economist agrees that regulation has the potential to stifle economic growth. But every economist also agrees that we need regulation to make markets efficient (and relatively stable). Given those two givens, free-market advocates should be jumping into the fray, proposing smart, targeted, easily manageable, surgical regulation, that obviates the need for heavy-handed, clunky, hard-to-manage…

  • The Problem Was Not Deregulating. The Problem Was Not Regulating.

    Most economists agree: deregulation is not what caused today’s problem. (The repeal of Glass-Steagal, for instance–the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowing commercial banks to act as investments banks, and vice-versa–wasn’t the cause. It might even be one of the reasons things aren’t worse than they are.) What’ they’re not saying: not regulating is what caused the problem.…

  • Regulating the Ratings Agencies: Low-Hanging Fruit?

    Among all the furious post-almost-apocalyptic discussions of financial industry regulation (i.e. here, here, here, here, and here), I'm stunned how rarely people mention the single biggest leverage point: regulation of ratings agencies. If Moody's et al had rated mortgage-backed securities properly, we simply wouldn't be in the fix we're in now. Those securities would have…