The limits of markets as mechanisms for constraining socially suboptimal behavior are well documented. Simultaneously, conventional approaches toward the law and regulation are often crude and ineffective mechanisms for containing the social costs of market failure. So where do we turn when both...

Innovation. The word is evocative of ideas, products and processes which have somehow made the world a better place. In the frothy days leading up to the global financial crisis, many viewed financial innovation as unequivocally falling into this category. Underpinning this view was a pervasive...

This article examines the potential efficacy of macro-prudential financial regulation as a mechanism for preventing future systemic crises. I argue that the potential efficacy of macro-prudential financial regulation will be undermined by (1) the complexity of financial markets and our...

Money is, always and everywhere, a legal phenomenon. In the United States, the vast majority of the money supply consists of monetary liabilities — contractually enforceable promises — issued by commercial banks and money market funds. These private financial institutions are subject to...

This article argues that there is a fundamental mismatch between the nature of finance and current approaches to financial regulation. Today's financial system is a dynamic and complex ecosystem. For these and other reasons, policy makers and market actors regularly have only a fraction of the...