The $2 billion loss at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has reopened debate on the Volcker rule. The proponents of the rule have seized on the story as proof that the Volcker rule is necessary and should be quickly put into effect by regulation. In reality, however, if the facts are as thus far reported, what happened at JPMorgan is proof that the Volcker rule is unworkable and should be repealed. 

Longstanding policies that were intended to promote confidence in the independence of regulatory decision-making have now been wiped away by the Dodd-Frank act, which has in effect placed all the financial regulators under the direction of the Treasury secretary.

Under the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law, large nonbank firms may be declared systemically important because their failure will cause a systemic breakdown. In effect, this amounts to a government statement that these firms are too big to fail.

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.

Introduction

In the late 1990s, the lawyers at Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach were the undisputed kings of securities fraud class actions. Melvyn Weiss, the dean of the securities class action bar and a co-founder of the firm, ran its New York office. Bill Lerach, frequently described as the most...

The trade policies that President Obama outlined in his State of the Union Address undermine the strength of America's economy, and are the wrong way to react to the changing nature of trade.

Has the Fed lived up to reasonable expectations of what the top central bank can and should do? Or are our expectations of its superior knowledge and insight into future trends and risks naïve and unreasonable? What should the Fed do or not do now? Our expert panel debates these and other issues.

The problem of proxy access to the corporation’s ballot has been one that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has struggled with for a long time.