The Global Crisis : Fatal Decisions – Four Case Studies in Financial Regulation

This paper uses four case studies to review the performance of the Anglo-American regulatory ‘culture'. In the decade before the global financial crisis, American and British officials were almost identical in their analysis of and non-interventionist responses to identified threats from changing financial conditions in Asia; dependence of new financial products on the insurance industry; shortcomings of the rating agencies; and excesses in their property markets. They now acknowledge these past policy errors but continue to resist consumer protection and other reform initiatives