Market Rules: Bankers, Presidents, and the Origins of the Great Recession. ByMark H. Rose. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019. xiv + 258 pp. Notes, index. Cloth $39.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-5102-9 (original) (raw)

Regulation and the Evolution of the Financial Services Industry

Challenges for Central Banking, 2001

This paper provides a foundation for evaluating recent changes in regulatory design in light of the increasingly competitive and dynamic environment of banking. Intrusive, control-oriented direct and indirect approaches to regulation have become very costly. Regulation that focuses on setting minimum requirements will become dominant. Supervision would then primarily aim at verifying compliance.

The Repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Advent of Broad Banking

2000

Enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) in November 1999 effectively repealed the long-standing prohibitions on the mixing of banking with securities or insurance businesses and thus permits "broad banking." Since the barriers that separated banking from other financial activities have been crumbling for some time, GLBA is better viewed as ratifying, rather than revolutionizing, the practice of banking.

Banking regulation in the United States after the world economic crisis of 2007/2008: economic immunity or false hopes

Brazilian Keynesian Review

Based on the Post-Keynesian approach, we argue that commercial banks, through the financial reforms of 1980 and 1999, which made financial institutions more flexible, increased their capacity to operate in the capital market by becoming Banking Financial Holding Companies. The 2007/2008 crisis is understood as a consequence of financial deregulation and financial innovation process that weakened the Federal Reserve's capacity to restrain banking activity. Initially, we discuss the new institutional context that emerged from these changes in the financial regulatory framework between 1980 and 1999. Then, we focus on how financial deregulation allowed banking business to advance in financial markets, how this process contributed to the economic crisis of 2007, characterized both as a liquidity crisis and a solvency crisis, safeguarded by the National States. Finally, we analyze the Dodd-Frank Law (2010), which is interpreted as the reaffirmation of this endogenous process of finan...

Financial markets in transition; or, the decline of commercial banking

The 1980s was the most revolutionary decade in U.S. financial markets since the Great Depression. The thrift industry collapsed, necessitating a massive government bailout; commercial banks suffered an unprecedented loss of market share; households sharply reduced their direct participation in securities markets; pension funds and other institutional investors became financial powerhouses, and for the first time took an active role in the governance of corporations; trading in foreign securities soared to new heights; and there was an explosive growth in derivative markets, both on and off regulated exchanges. These changes, moreover, are just the beginning of a process that will eventually result in an entirely new landscape for the financial service industry. However, precisely what kind of financial structure we will have in the future is still not clear.

Financial Modernization Legislation in the United States. Background and Implications

2000

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act went into effect in the United States in1999. The Act establishes a new framework for affiliations among commercial banks, insurance companies and securities firms through "financial holding companies" and "financial subsidiaries", and establishes guidelines for entry into merchant banking. It moves financial institutions in the United States towards a system of conglomeration that has long existed in continental Europe and elsewhere in the world. This paper reviews important provisions of the new law, provides some comparisons with other countries, and draws some implications for future developments. The immediate effects of the law are not likely to be great, either in the United States or elsewhere. With respect to the integration of financial activities, it merely supports recent trends. At the same time, it requires a continued "separation of banking and commerce", precluding the establishment of t...

Bank Regulation in the United States -super-1

Cesifo Economic Studies, 2010

There have been major changes in the banking system structure and several new banking laws over time that have had major impact on banks in the USA. In response to the 1980s and early 1990s crisis, and the more recent mortgage market meltdown that began in the summer of 2007, the banking industry and regulations governing banks changed profoundly and rapidly with even more changes likely to take place. It is therefore important to delineate the nature of these changes, particularly in comparison to the pre-crisis character of the US banking system and regulatory environment. In particular, this article discusses the regulatory changes that have emerged in response to the decline in the role of banks in firms' external financing, and the rise in noninterest-generating activities; the blurring of distinctions between banks and other depository institutions, and between banking companies and other financial intermediaries; the growing complexity of banking organizations, both in a corporate hierarchy sense, and with respect to the range of activities in which they can engage; the more intense globalization of banking; and the subprime mortgage market meltdown that triggered a credit crunch and liquidity freeze that led to the worst recession in the USA since the Great Depression.

Politics & Society Financial Deregulation in the United States Paving the Road to ''Too Big to Fail'': Business Interests and the Politics of

The debate over the political power of business has witnessed a revival after the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. We begin by arguing that business political fragmentation or unity has important consequences for policy outcomes. The structure of the U.S. government is conducive to incremental policy changes, often in response to business pressures. In turn, these changes shape the political interests and alliances of business. We illustrate this dynamic through an analysis of the political processes leading to the enactment of the Financial Modernization Act (FMA) of 1999, which repealed Depression-era regulations and allowed commercial banks to enter the securities and insurance business and vice versa. The FMA condoned the emergence of largely unregulated diversified financial institutions, which proved "too big to fail" during the crisis. Several factors contributed to the FMA: political institutions, international competition, the ideological convergence of the Republican and Democratic parties, and the political interests of financial industry actors.