Monday, March 31, 2008

Fight Hard when the Stakes are Low

Sheez, Paulson rolls out this plan to consolidate various regulatory agencies, and people hate it. The WSJ said
Groups ranging from small banks to state attorneys general criticized Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposals to consolidate regulatory agencies and revamp oversight of a financial system bruised by crises in the credit and housing markets.

Merging the SEC and CFTC, the OTS and the Fed, getting rid of state-by-state insurance regulation. Clearly the latter one will get rid of lots of little fiefdoms, but there is no reason these things should not be merged, it just makes it easier to do business when you have lots of different assets, and work across state lines. What if the FDA worked state by state? It's good to see these guys use this crisis to make some overdue reshuffling. Corporations have major reorganizations every 5-10 years or so, implying the government can reorganize every 50 years or so.

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