Secretary Geithner argued that we have forgotten the reasons that the Dodd-Frank Act was necessary, and that's why the act has become so controversial. What the secretary seems to have missed is that we have learned a lot in the intervening years. The administration's rush to judgment on the financial crisis is a case study in why it would have been worthwhile to wait for the facts.

The underlying idea—that financial institutions are "interconnected" and the failure of one will drag down others - is not implausible. But like so much else that underlies the Dodd-Frank Act, it was accepted as true—and acted upon—without much evidence, or even much thought.

If AIG was not too big to fail, why did the government rescue it? And why do we need to turn the financial system upside down?

Economist John Makin explores, in his latest Economic Outlook, why the Eurozone crisis has worsened so quickly in recent weeks and what options this leaves for Europe.

At times of serious economic and financial crises, politicians are wont to shirk responsibility for their policy errors and to seek scapegoats for their policy errors. European politicians are proving to be no exception to this tendency.

Europe is now battling an acute systemic debt crisis that threatens the global financial system and the global economy. This worsening crisis constitutes the largest single threat to the US economy and its financial system

As we enter the fall of 2011, three years after the Lehman Brothers crisis, Europe and the United States are teetering on the brink of another, potentially more serious, systemic crisis.

As we enter the fall of 2011, three years after the Lehman Brothers crisis, Europe and the United States are teetering on the brink of another, potentially more serious, systemic crisis.