TPMTV: Holding the Regulators Accountable

Looming on the horizon is a complete rewrite of the financial regulatory system, the kind of fundamental change that comes along only once every few generations. How that shapes up will depend in part on how quickly the economy emerges from the acute phase of this crisis — and to a large extent will be shaped by the “lessons” we supposedly learn from this train wreck. Oftentimes, we learn the wrong lessons, at least initially, and (no surprise here) the conventional wisdom about what those lessons are is heavily influenced by those with a stake in the outcome. So I talked this week with Jerry Caprio, professor of economics at Williams College and co-author most recently of Rethinking Bank Regulation: Till Angels Govern, about how the debate over regulatory reform should be framed: