Making Financial Regulation Work

One of the major political battles shaping up for the rest of this year is the fight over how to regulate the financial sector. There is a virtual consensus that the regulatory scheme must be overhauled; even before the peak of the crisis hit, the Bush Administration was already drafting a new regulatory plan (which was largely rendered obsolete by the crisis, however).

In addition to our day-to-day coverage and analysis of events in Washington, we are beginning an occasional series of articles on various regulatory topics and proposals for new regulation. Our goals are to give you additional insight into the issues at stake and to make sure that all good ideas get a hearing. Most of these articles will be written by guest contributors from a wide variety of backgrounds. The series kicks off today with an article by Lawrence Baxter and Joel McPhee, who bring together careers in the financial sector with academic perspectives.

Please let us know what specific ideas or proposals you would like to see discussed, or what people you would like us to include in this series.