World Economic Forum: Davos 2010

Everyone — even bankers — agrees that there should be new rules for financial firms. After that, the agreement stops. It's true that consensus is forming around certain ideas. For example: an insurance pool funded by banks to be used for future bailouts and a way to convert bank debt into equity in an emergency. Yet two-and-a-half years after the credit bubble started deflating, there are still fundamental disagreements about what caused the crisis and what should be done to prevent future meltdowns. One money manager argued that the focus on capital requirements was flawed — the reason many firms failed was because of a lack of liquidity. Others said that re-regulating banks without also addressing players like hedge funds and private equity would simply drive excess risk to those sectors. Conversations bounced between global imbalances, the culture of Wall Street, the effect of instantaneous information. Even a panel of central bankers couldn't produce a unified opinion. Regulation will come, but it seems impossible to know ahead of time whether or not it will be what we need.