This report studies the role of leverage in the current financial crisis and federal oversight of leverage. The objectives were to review: (1) how leveraging and de-leveraging by financial institutions may have contributed to the crisis; (2) regulations adopted by federal financial regulators to limit leverage and how regulators oversee compliance with the regulations; and (3) any limitations the current crisis has revealed in regulatory approaches used to restrict leverage and regulatory proposals to address them. Includes recommendations. Charts and tables.

Law Reform and Financial Markets addresses how law reform can be used to support strong financial markets and draws on the Global Financial Crisis as a case study. This edited collection reflects recent developments, including the EU institutional reforms and Dodd-Frank Act 2010. The different contributions adopt a range of theoretical, contextual, and substantive perspectives, examine different domestic, regional, and international contexts and assess public and private law frameworks in considering how legal and regulatory reforms can be most effectively designed for strong financial markets. This comprehensive book will appeal to academics and postgraduates in the field of financial regulation and in cognate fields, including finance and economics, as well as to regulators and policymakers.

This volume’s primary contribution to the field of Economics is that it addresses the issue of inter-linkages between money, finance and macroeconomics with a broad analytical perspective that has commonality with the Post-Keynesians. In an attempt to assess the consequences of economic reforms and the fallout of the global financial crisis on India and the world around, the book argues that with the onset of the crisis, as in most advanced economies, debates and discussions in India have been concerned with three main issues: monetary policy and asset prices, financial stability, and macro-prudential regulation. Three related issues which are also considered important in the Indian context are – rule vs. principle-based supervision, integrated financial supervision, and regulatory and supervisory independence. The book argues that the crisis highlighted the inadequacies of macro-prudential regulatory structure which mainly addresses idiosyncratic risks specific to individual financial institutions. The crisis precipitated an extensive debate on the role of national regulatory and supervisory authorities in crisis prevention and crisis management via macro-prudential regulations which involves a general equilibrium approach to regulation aiming at safeguarding the financial system as a whole. The book then argues that the crisis led to a paradigm shift in macroeconomic theory and policy. This shift has been categorized into four specific areas: monetary policy, financial regulation, corporate governance, and globalization. The book analyses how the characteristics of each of these four categories have changed from the pre-crisis to the post-crisis situation. The book also delves into the phenomenon of rising global commodity prices post-crisis. The book also deals with an analysis of the impact of this crisis on employment in the US economy, by simulating a macroeconomic model developed by the Cambridge Department of Applied Economics in the 1980s.

Dramatic failures in individual markets and institutions sparked a global financial crisis that resulted in political, social, and economic unrest. In the United States, a host of legislative acts have completely reshaped the regulatory landscape. Capital Markets, Derivatives and the Law: Positivity and Preparation investigates the impact of the financial crisis on capital markets and regulation. With an emphasis on the structure and the workings of financial instruments, it considers market evolution after the crisis and the impact of Central Bank policy. In doing so, it provides the reader with the tools to recognize vulnerabilities in capital market trading activities. This edition serves as an essential guide to better understand the legal and business considerations of capital market participation. With useful definitions, case law examples, and expert insight into structures, regulation, and litigation strategies, Capital Markets, Derivatives and the Law: Positivity and Preparation offers readers invaluable tools to make prudent, well-informed decisions.

This is the first of a two-volume series that examines the current EU capital markets regimes and explores codification as a means for achieving a true single market for capital in Europe.

The EU and the US responded to the global financial crisis by changing the rules for the functioning of financial services and markets and by establishing new oversight bodies. With the US Dodd–Frank Act and numerous EU regulations and directives now in place, this book provides a timely and thoughtful explanation of the key elements of the new regimes in both regions, of the political processes which shaped their content and of their practical impact. Insights from areas such as economics, political science and financial history elucidate the significance of the reforms. Australia's resilience during the financial crisis, which contrasted sharply with the severe problems that were experienced in the EU and the US, is also examined. The comparison between the performances of these major economies in a period of such extreme stress tells us much about the complex regulatory and economic ecosystems of which financial markets are a part.

Using both academic and practitioner research, this is the most detailed book available that provides an account of open market operations, including discussions of central bank operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan.

What role should regulation play in financial markets? What have been the ramifications of financial regulation? To answer these and other questions regarding the efficacy of legislation on financial markets, this book examines the impact of the Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), also called the Financial Modernization Act of 1999, which fundamentally changed the financial landscape in the United States. The GLBA allows the formation of financial holding companies that can offer an integrated set of commercial banking, securities and insurance products. The tenth anniversary of the most sweeping financial legislation reform in the industry’s structure is a natural benchmark for assessing the effects of the law and for questioning whether changes are necessary in the working of this historic legislation. The importance of this review is reinforced by a variety of proposals in the last several years to reform the regulation of financial institutions that have attracted considerable attention among regulators and in the financial firms that they regulate. Most recently, the financial crisis and the failure of some large financial institutions have called into question the legitimacy of America’s current financial structure and its regulation, including to some degree the GLBA. There is no doubt that regulatory reform is front and center on today’s policy agenda. The lessons of the GLBA experience and its effects, both domestic and international, on financial markets and competitiveness, risk-taking and risk management by financial services firms and their regulators will be critical to the direction the country takes and the effort to ensure that future financial crises do not occur or have less costly damage. With contributions from academics, policy experts, and a sponsor of the GLBA, Congressman James Leach, this book is invaluable to anyone interested in financial system reform.