Needed: Objective, Fact-Based Financial Analysis
Pew Charitable Trusts announced on May 27 the creation of a new Financial Reform Project to give us what we need: fact-based analyses of financial reforms being debated in Congress.
The recent flurry of attention to the new Supreme Court nominee seems to have taken everybody’s mind off regulatory reform of the financial markets, as has the apparent easing of the econonic crisis. But I’m with the experts who say that we are bound to repeat this economic catastrophe if real steps aren’t taken to get a handle on all the products sloshing through the market and all the practices taking place therein.
From the Pew release: “Leaders in Congress have signaled an intent to look at new ways to regulate the financial sector in the wake of the market events of last fall,” said John E. Morton, managing director of Pew’s Economic Policy Department. “Looking ahead, there will be a clear need for objective analysis of the costs and benefits of alternative regulatory proposals.”
This can only be to the good, but it’s not enough. We still need good journalists delving into the weeds of this stuff and getting all the information on the table. Let’s hope this Pew effort will help in that cause.
And while we’re at it, let’s question the Supreme Court nominee not just on the important topics of abortion and civil rights, but on business, trade, regulation, and other commerce-related issues that seem to always get short-shrift on Capitol Hill.