Monday, November 3, 2008

Should financial markets be more strongly regulated?

This debate is conducted by the Economist magazine. 59% of readers are in of stronger regulation. Read the arguments:

http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/225/print

Prof Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University (who obtained 59% support) said,

Part of a new regualtory system must be a financial products safety commission, to make sure that no products bought or sold by commercial banks or pension funds are "unsafe for human consumption". Ideally, such a commission would try to encourage the kind of innovation that would protect homeowners and make our economy more efficient.

Prof Stiglitz was referring to subprime mortgages. His remarks can also apply to mini-bonds and credit linked notes.