I have removed my post from earlier today, quoting and discussing a New York Times story about Obama’s speech about Wall St. I read the article to be saying that Obama wasn’t very specific about what he hoped to do with new regulation, instead leaving the details up to Congress. He probably will leave the details up to Congress. but he was pretty specific in the actual speech. He said that new regulation will
- Establish a Consumer Finance Protection Agency
- Start regulating hedge funds
- Create some sort of umbrella organization to close gaps in regulation and look out for systemic risks
- Raise capital requirements on large institutions
I view the last point as the only one that can really make a difference and that it’s unlikely to be better than previous capital requirements were at preventing the current crisis.
