Law Bubbles And Financial Regulation

Financial regulation can fail when it is needed the most. The dynamics of asset price bubbles weaken financial regulation just as financial markets begin to overheat and the risk of crisis spikes. At the same time, the failure of financial regulations adds further fuel to a bubble. This book examines the interaction of bubbles and financial regulation. It explores the ways in which bubbles lead to the failure of financial regulation by outlining five dynamics, which it collectively labels the "Regulatory Instability Hypothesis." . The book concludes by outlining approaches to make financial regulation more resilient to these dynamics that undermine law.

Financial Regulation: Law and Policy (2d Edition) introduces the field of financial regulation in a new and accessible way. Even though a decade has passed since the most systemic financial crisis in the last 70 years and eight years have elapsed since a major shift in regulatory design, the world is still grappling with the aftermath. In addition, technology innovations, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, market forces and a changing political environment all have combined to reframe and reorient public debate over financial regulation. The book has kept up to date with all of these changes. The book analyzes and compares the market and regulatory architecture of the entire U.S. financial sector as it exists today, from banks, insurance companies, and broker-dealers, to asset managers, complex financial conglomerates, and government-sponsored enterprises. The book explores a range of financial activities, from consumer finance and investment to payment systems, securitization, short-term wholesale funding, money markets, and derivatives. The book examines a range of regulatory techniques, including supervision, enforcement, and rule-writing, as well as crisis-fighting tools such as resolution and the lender of last resort. Throughout the book, the authors note the cross-border implications of U.S. rules, and compare, where appropriate, the U.S. financial regulatory framework and policy choices to those in other places around the globe, especially the European Union.

At the height of the 1990s boom, Jack Grubman, one of the most successful analysts in Wall Street proclaimed ‘what used to be conflicts of interest are now synergies’. This myopia contributed dramatically to the elevation of a culture in which greed was deified, oversight denigrated and misfeasance justified. Since the fall of the markets and the implosion of confidence in the American corporate business model, one man has proved instrumental in deconstructing the rhetoric of the 1990s: Eliot Spitzer, the combative Attorney General of New York. In the process, his innovative application of state law has reconfigured the governance of Wall Street. Over the past three years the pursuit of transparency and accountability in the structure of the markets has propelled Spitzer to the forefront of regulatory policy. His investigations into tainted analyst research, the mutual funds industry, the governance of the New York Stock Exchange and the insurance industry have focused attention not just on corrupted individuals but also the complicity of the financial structure itself. Spitzer exploited the inherent conflicts of interest to the full, forcing regulators to adopt a much more proactive approach and creating a national platform for his own wider political ambitions. Now holding the Democratic nomination for the Governorship of New York, Spitzer has begun a path for higher national office. This groundbreaking book features exclusive access with many of the key actors in these changes to the governance of Wall Street. It examines how Eliot Spitzer exploited gaps in the regulatory framework to capture the corporate reform agenda and explores the implications of his actions on policy formation and recalibration. Key incidents include: changing the terms of reference governing analyst research; the defenestration of Dick Grasso’s tenure over the NYSE (which is now being heard in state court in New York); and the battles for control between the former Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt, and Spitzer. The book details not only the contested, contingent and interdependent connections between the American political and financial systems but reveals how Spitzer’s manipulation of those connections have proved instrumental in enhancing his own wider political ambitions.

This book brings outstanding expertise and provides insightful perspectives from nineteen authors with diverse backgrounds, including officials from international organizations, national regulators, and commercial banking, as well as academics in law, economics, political economy, and finance. The authors not only shed light on the causes of the financial turmoil, but also present thoughtful proposals that contribute to the future policy debate, and discuss opportunities that financial services can offer in funding activities which raise standards of living through initiatives in microfinance, renewable energy, and food distribution. The contributions to this volume tackle several of the thorniest issues of financial regulation in a post-crisis environment, such as: the mechanics of contagion within the financial system and the role of liquidity; moral hazard when large financial institutions are no longer subject to the disciplinary effects of bankruptcy; bank capital requirements; management compensation; design of bank resolution schemes; a function-centric versus institution-centric regulatory approach; subsidization and compatibility of stimulus packages with EU rules on state aid; trade finance and the role of the GATS prudential carve-out; and the role of financial services in promoting human rights or combating climate change.

Newly expanded and revised, this book explains why informal standards are used to coordinate global financial rules.

Published in association with the Bank of England, this volume presents an important restatement of the purposes and objectives of financial regulation.

The Changing Landscape of Global Financial Governance and the Role of Soft Law provides interdisciplinary perspectives on the changing landscape of global financial governance by exploring the impact and role of soft law, directly or as a precursor of hard law, pertaining to financial governance.

What will deregulation and globalization of financial markets mean for the future of US financial regulation? This book argues that the uniqueness of US regulation derives from its success in promoting four principles of competitive fairness that US players demand from financial markets. The peculiar US notion of a 'level playing field' provides a novel approach to understanding the evolution of US regulation, including recent reform, and to predicting US attitudes toward questions of global financial market supervision.