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The Three Or Four Approaches To Financial Regulation: A Cautionary Analysis Against Exuberance In Crisis Response, Lawrence A. Cunningham, David T. Zaring

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Unprecedented interest in financial regulation reform accompanies the nearly-unprecedented scale of financial calamity facing the world. Dozens of elaborate reform proposals are in circulation, most determined to revolutionize financial regulation. No doubt, the crisis makes reevaluation essential, but we contribute a cautionary analysis amid the exuberant atmosphere. Reforms should not discount the value of traditional financial regulation, overlook the functional regulatory reform that has already occurred, or overstate ultimate differences between contending reform proposals. Despite proliferation of dozens of reform proposals, our analysis leads us to conclude that there are ultimately only three or four principal alternatives: (1) the traditional …