Financial Regulation
Commentary
Why #OccupyWallStreet?
History Repeats Itself on Financial Reform
Cry Wolf Quotes
Facing a possibility of 20 years in jail and $5 million fines, executives are going to spend lots of time going over financial statements, and less time creating, innovating and leading,”
Today’s competitive markets, whether we seek to recognise it or not, are driven by an international version of Adam Smith’s "invisible hand” that is unredeemably opaque. With notably rare exceptions (2008, for example), the global “invisible hand” has created relatively stable exchange rates, interest rates, prices, and wage rates.
No rule of thumb method ... can be devised which will fit all securities in all situations....It would produce even greater injury than the Federal Securities Act in retarding or preventing the follow of securities into new and refunding issues, which are indispensable if employment is to be maintained and increased and the huge burden on the Treasury is to be relieved.
I submit, however, that no man who himself has any practical acquaintance with business processes and methods who is not utterly blinded by partisan political considerations can examine the Securities Act, the Stock Exchange Act, the successive revenue acts in recent years, the Social Security Act, the Public Utilities Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act and many of the arbitrary regulations devised under a dozen other recent acts and arrive at any verdict other than they cripple and retard business rather than help revive it. The fact is even so clear that it is hard to keep from wondering if such a result were not actually intended.
Related Laws and Rules
Backgrounders & Briefs
Industry Repeats Itself on Financial Reform
As the nation approaches the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, opponents are claiming that the new measure is extraordinarily damaging, especially to Main Street. But industry’s alarmist rhetoric bears striking resemblance to the last time it faced sweeping new safeguards: during the New Deal reforms. The parallels between the language used both then and now are detailed in a report released today by Public Citizen and the Cry Wolf Project.
Resources
Political Economy Research Institute is a think tank focused on a variety of subjects such as diverse financial regulation, living wages and environmental protection.
Consumer Federation of America defends the consumer interest in fields ranging from housing and financial services to food safety.
The Service Employees International Union represents workers the public sector and a variety of industries in the United States.
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition works against unfair lending and banking practices, particularly those targeted towards low and middle income families.
