>> And Now, On to Financial Reform . . . Posted By Barry Ritholtz On March 22, 2010 @ 7:26 am In Bailouts, Credit, Regulation
With Health Care now out of the way, we can get to what I consider to be the more important issue: Reforming Wall Street and the banking sector. As I noted 6 months ago, the White House emphasis on Health Care over Finance was a significant tactical error [1]. I would imagine with their weekend health care victory, the White House might push for finance reform. I expect they will see some significant traction. I do not know what the political fall out from being for or against health care will be. But I can tell you that it will be much harder to oppose re-regulating banking. While the banks have succeeded in buying Congress, I think their attempts to stop a major overhaul of financial regulation will be far more difficult. Political opponents will paint anti-reformers as pro-banks and anti-family. Ideally, what should that overhaul look like? I can identify at least six areas that need total overhaul: 1. The Ratings Agencies: The prime enablers of the crisis, their pay-for-play business model is a debacle. Their status as Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) shoul;d be stripped, and the space opened up for real competition. 2. Derivatives Must Be Regulated like all Financial Products: Put derivatives on exchanges; require counter-party disclosure and transparent open interest reporting. Capital requirements for trading is needed; Like other insurance products, reserve for losses Repeal the CFMA. 3. Regulate Non Banks lenders like Banks: The unregulated non-bank lenders were at the heart of this crisis. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t a depository institution, if you loan money, you must be regulated like any other bank PERIOD. 4. Reinstate Net Cap Leverage Rules: Over turn the SEC Bear Stearns exemption via Congress. Reinstate the former 12-to-1 leverage rules. 5. Eliminate Too Big To Fail: Nixon Treasury Secretary George Shultz famously said “If they are too big to fail, make them smaller.” Put caps on percentage of total US assets allowed. I suggest 1%. Break up insolvent, incompetent megabanks — like Citi and Bank of America. And I would carve up JPM as well. Separate the Depository Banks from the investing houses. (restoring Glass Steagall will do that). 6. Do not give the Federal Reserve MORE Authority: The Fed should focus on monetary policy. They can work closely with whoever is ultimately the bank regulator — but I do not believe having them be be the prime over seer of banks can work. 7. Stop Regulatory Forum Shopping: The alphabet soup of various bank regulators OTS, FDIC, OCC, etc. should be replaced with one regulator. The FDIC is the only office that did a good job this entire crisis, put all regulatory responsibility under Sheila Bair’s office. 8. Overhaul the SEC: They need to have numerous improvements: Start by making them less of a law firm and more of a finance shop. Expand the hotline/whistleblower division, offer bounties for discovering and reporting fraud. Add a quantitative division to look for issues mathematically. 9. Reform Compensation: The system of privatized gains, socialized losses must be thwarted. Exec compensation is totally disconnected from their performance. Major overhaul from shareholders is needed. Require custodians — Mutual funds, pension plans, etc. — to vote their holdings (shares) as a fiduciary. ~~~ Essentially, I am advocating a “Do Over.” Reverse the past 3 decades of radical deregulation. The alternative is an even bigger financial crisis, and sooner than you imagine. << It doesn't seem likely that any of the above will pass. So it's time to start thinking of how to short the next world-shattering U.S. bubble. ;-) -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
