A careful look into credit-default swaps shows that they are not only simpler than thought, but also vital to keeping the financial system strong.

The administration's proposal for regulating the credit default swaps market is unlikely to reduce systemic risk, and may in fact increase it.

At this AEI event, Mark C. Brickell and R. Christopher Whalen will outline opposing views of credit default swaps.

Although thecredit default swapmarket can be improved, excessive restrictions on it would create considerably more risk than it would eliminate.

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.

During the recent campaign season, the Democrats blamed the financial crisis on “Republican deregulation,” in particular the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA) and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA). The GLBA repealed the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that prevented affiliations between commercial and investment banks,...