Rethinking Financial Regulation for the 21st Century

The Business and Finance Law Program and the GW Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP) will host a conversation with Professor Emeritus Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr. and discussant Professor Erik Gerding, Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School as a part of IIEP's Rethinking Capitalism and Democracy Series. 

The financial crisis of 2007-09 and the pandemic crisis of 2020 showed that global financial markets are dangerously unstable. Those markets are dominated by “too-big-to-fail” universal banks—commercial banks that engage in capital markets activities—and large shadow banks, such as private equity firms, securities broker-dealers, and hedge funds. Governments and central banks rescued financial markets in 2008 and 2020 with enormous bailouts and unconventional monetary policies. Those policy measures produced soaring global debt levels, aggressive risk-taking by investors, heavily indebted sovereigns, and bloated central bank balance sheets. In addition, large technology companies are seeking to enter the banking business, a development that could transform the banking industry and extend government bailouts for banks across our commercial economy. The seminar will discuss regulatory policies that would return our financial system to a structure that is much more stable and far less dependent on government bailouts.

Participants

Featured Speaker

• Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Law, George Washington University Law School

Discussant

• Erik Gerding, Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School

Moderator

• Sunil Sharma, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Institute for International Economic Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

Introductory Remarks

• Jeremiah Pam, Director, Business and Finance Law Program, George Washington University Law School.
• Jay Shambaugh, Professor of Economics and International Affairs and Co-Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University