Tim Fernholz on financial regulation:
Sitting in his office, Rep. Brad Sherman does not look like an angry man. Leaning back and rubbing his stomach, the Californian calmly explains his concerns about the Treasury Department’s plan to regulate the financial industry, currently moving through Congress. Put him at a hearing, though, and he’ll subject witnesses to scathing questioning on the subject; at a recent closed-doors meeting between White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and congressional Democrats, he launched into a short tirade.
Sherman thinks the administration’s proposal — the Financial Stability Improvement Act — amounts to institutionalizing the expensive and controversial bailouts the government used to deal with the crash of 2008. Not surprisingly, the administration disagrees.