Ever since severe turmoil enveloped the financial markets in the fall of 2008, commentators have blamed deregulation of the financial system, and specifically the supposed "repeal" of the Glass-Steagall Act by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999,2 for the crisis. This has led many to advocate a...

This paper examines consumer protection regulation in insurance markets and discusses how regulation could be made more efficient and robust. The paper argues that regulatory costs could be lowered and effectiveness enhanced by better targeting regulations to address market failures. Regulations...

Despite the fact that it grew out of a financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act was not the result of a bipartisan consensus. It received no Republican votes in the House of Representatives and only three Republican votes in the Senate. There are repeated statements by Republicans that they would...

Traditionally, individual states have shared responsibility for regulating the US insurance industry. The Dodd-Frank Act changes this by tasking the Federal Reserve with regulating the systemic risks that particularly large insurance organizations might pose and assigning the regulation of...

Throughout the past three decades of fast growth, China has undergone tremendous structural changes in its economy. There has been significant and continuing industrialization, urbanization and integration into the world economy. The financial system has also undergone major changes, with the...

Why should the United States engage in broad reform of its health care? Because it must. When should health care reform begin? Yesterday would be best, but today for sure. And how should reform be done? It should focus on continuous incremental changes to the cultural, legal, and regulatory...

Finance is a branch of economics that deals with budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing, lending, insuring, diversifying, and matching. In setting standards of financial literacy we ought to make sure they are consistent with the basic principles taught in economics courses. In section I of...

S. 40, the National Insurance Act of 2007, requires the development of a system of Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) for federally chartered insurers. This paper discusses the issues associated with developing a system of PCA and makes recommendations regarding its structure. First, the paper...

Medicare is America’s second largest entitlement program and this year will account for 14 percent of the Federal budget, 3.2 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is growing rapidly so that by the end of the Medicare Trustees 75-year projection period, 2080, the Medicare...

We review the history of financial literacy, as it applies to public company audit committees; we report on a financial literacy quiz that we have given to over 1,400 members of corporate boards, not all audit committee members. We develop a classification to score the potential of corporate...