Instead of placing undue reliance on all-too-fallible bank supervisors and regulators, should we not now be considering doing something serious about the perverse incentives to overly risky bank lending, as well as to the ‘too big to fail’ problem in the US and global banking systems.

In 2008 Barack Obama was propelled into office largely by a financial crisis. The main difference between then and now will be that this crisis did not originate in the US, but in Europe. And it will be one over which President Obama has no control.

Recently there have been a number of disturbing economic and political developments in Europe that heighten the risk that the Eurozone will experience a spate of sovereign debt defaults within the next six months.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should revise its certification standards to permit other qualified firms to become nationally recognized statistical rating organizations.

The California budget crisis may well lead to a second financial calamity that would be far worse than anything experienced over the past eighteen months.

Policymakers frequently do not want to recognize problems, especially when there is little that they can do to address them. There is no question that if European countries start defaulting the US economy would be seriously impacted because of the US financial system's large exposure to the European banking system.

Steps should be taken to increase competition in the rating industry, which would increase customer choice, price competition, innovation, and the analysis available to investors.

Chinese banks have become the world's largest ATMs for China's political and business elite.