credit

Battle begins for new financial products regulator

Thursday 25 June 2009 21:56 | Managing Editor | 279 comments

The first salvos have been fired in what promises to be one of the major battles of the administration’s regulatory reform program – the creation of a new agency to focus on consumer protection in financial products.

Approaches to Improving Credit Rating Agency Regulation

Tuesday 19 May 2009 | Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises | 28 comments

The rating agencies must face tougher disclosure and transparency requirements. The financial crisis has illustrated the danger flawed methodologies pose to the system. Congress proposed establishing an office dedicated to the regulation of rating agencies within the Securities and Exchange Commission, oversight aimed intently on surveillance of outstanding ratings.

Ten Reasons Why the Stress Tests Are “Schmess” Tests

Monday 11 May 2009 15:03 | Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics, Stern School at NYU | 192 comments

What shall we make of the results of the stress test and the “muddle-through” approach to the financial crisis? They may accelerate the creeping partial nationalization of the US financial system, exacerbate moral hazard distortions, not resolve the too-big-to-fail problem, increase fiscal costs, make the credit crunch last longer and lead near-insolvent financial institutions to become zombie banks. -- Nouriel Roubini, from Global EconoMonitor blog