Hardy Perennials

Abstract

In the long history of systemic banking crises—including, but not limited to, the Global Financial Crisis—the worst cases have been caused or at least severely exacerbated by what may be called bad banking and bad policies: those that permitted or encouraged excessive risk-taking and even “looting” of other people’s money. With each crisis there is an inevitable chorus of calls for more official prudential regulation and supervision to prevent a recurrence. Empirical evidence suggests that policy is best directed toward ensuring a dynamic approach to regulation focusing on the information that is being disclosed to market participants, the degree of market discipline on the behavior of bankers, and the incentives in the financial system, including those for regulators.