President Obama probably feels he has had a bad week. But it may prove to have been a good one for world welfare!
The new plan is well conceived to reduce banking conflicts that the market has shown itself unable to self-regulate, and indirectly to create natural curbs on excessive remuneration.
All institutions with a balance sheet of significant size need to be regulated… that principle applies as much to market-making by investment banks as deposit-taking institutions.
The lack of international coordination has been lamented in some quarters. But it was always a chimera.
A strong lead from a man like Volcker is so obviously vastly superior…
Close policing… should ensure that the development of bubble-like excesses is spotted and thwarted a little earlier than has been typical in recent years.
The Epicurean Dealmaker says “the assertion that large, multi-line financial conglomerates provide customers with services no smaller institutions can deliver is pure poppycock. The mid-1990s concept of globe-striding financial supermarkets has been completely discredited, most notably by their sad-sack poster child, Citigroup.”