According to recent press reports, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering releasing a controversial proposal to impose additional capital and liquidity regulations on the $2.7 trillion money market fund industry (MMMFs) and to replace the fixed $1 net-asset value ("par value") rule now used by all MMMFs to redeem customer funds with a mark-to-market (NAV) requirement. 

National Mortgage News (December 19) asks, "Can Regulators Prevent the Next Systemic Risk Crisis?" Probably not.  Certainly not, if they can't even define the central term, "systemic risk."  As Donna Borak writes, "The chief obstacle to heading off systemic risk turns out to be agreeing on a definition for...

The Group of Twenty (G-20) asked the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to devise a process for identifying Globally Systemic International Banks (G-SIB).  In July the FSB released a consultative document setting forth the methodology for identifying G-SIBs and in November produced its first list using this methodology.

We need good economics over politics, now more than ever. That means sensible tax reform, a Fed focus on maintaining liquidity, and rationalization of the European monetary system.

The White House has proposed a “Buffett Rule” mandating that taxpayers earning more than $1 million pay at least 30% of their income in federal income taxes. The unfairness the Obama administration has identified is only one limited, albeit  eye-catching, manifestation of more systemic problems in the tax code.

The financial crisis has highlighted the institutional features of our financial system and regulatory policies that unexpectedly resulted in financial instability.

On the heel of the recent JP Morgan fiasco, American Enterprise Economist John Makin makes the case for how Dodd-Frank is an insufficient guarantor of financial stability.

A systemic risk advisor might help ameliorate bubbles and busts, though not avoid financial cycles.