Finance and the Regulatory Environment — An Introduction

The pace of new regulation has been quite rapid in the United States during the past fifteen years. Consider the number of major pieces of legislation that have been passed during this time span and you immediately gain insight into this fast‐paced regulatory climate. It has been argued by some that oversight during the 1980s was lax and that regulations were much less enforced than in previous decades. This may be true in certain areas such as antitrust enforcement, but there can be no doubt that the total body of regulation has been expanding continuously.