Politics
The Reith Lectures: Brain Food Vol.2
The 2012 Reith Lectures are presented by the economic historian Prof Niall Ferguson. Reith Lectures Brain Food Vol.2 provides links to articles and audio relating to some of the topics raised Prof Ferguson's second lecture, The Darwinian Economy.
BBC Radio 4 - The Reith LecturesSignificant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series- "What is the biggest problem facing the world economy today? To listen to some people, you might think the correct answer is insufficient financial regulation," ponders Niall Ferguson as he opens his second Reith Lecture.
Many people believe the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 - which separated the activities of commercial and investment banks - was a fateful error, and if it was still in place, the financial crisis would have downsized. 
Blaming Glass-Steagall : NPRIn our conversation about who we should blame for the global financial crisis, quite a few of you have pointed the finger at the repeal o...
Could Glass-Steagall Have Stopped JPMorgan Loss?The banking giant's $2 billion loss has many lawmakers and economists wondering what happened to the 2010 financial overhaul, which was s...- One of the most high-profile advocates of increased regulation is Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman.
Why We RegulateOne of the characters in the classic 1939 film "Stagecoach" is a banker named Gatewood who lectures his captive audience on the evils of ...
Op-Ed Columnist - Financial Reform 101 - NYTimes.comLet's face it: Financial reform is a hard issue to follow. It's not like health reform, which was fairly straightforward once you cut thr...
Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a ...18 hours ago ... The New York Times's Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman, Nobel-Prize winner, ... as a percentage of GDP and thus a small...- The US Congress agrees - and in 2010 passed the biggest reform of US financial regulation since the Great Depression.
Q&A: US bank regulationThe US Congress has agreed a bill containing the biggest overhaul of banking regulation since the 1930s. The bill is the culmination of e...
Major US financial reform agreedThe US Congress has all but finalised the biggest reform of US financial regulation since the Great Depression. President Barack Obama sa...- Although not everybody thinks this is a good idea...
Over-regulated AmericaAMERICANS love to laugh at ridiculous regulations. A Florida law requires vending-machine labels to urge the public to file a report if t...
Behind the Burden of Regulation"Over-regulated America" was the headline in the Feb. 18 issue of The Economist. "The home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excess...- Niall Ferguson doesn't agree either. He says overly complicated financial regulation is one of the causes of financial crisis. "De-regulation isn't bad," he says "bad regulation is bad", not to mention a lack of will to enforce the law and punish bad bankers.
One of the most-famous anti-regulation advocates is the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek - and that goes for the 'Austrian School' of economics as a whole.
Radio 4's Analysis explored the ideas of the free market Austrian School, which has undergone revived interest in recent years. 
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Analysis, Radical Economics: Yo Hayek!Synopsis Was the economic crisis caused by fundamental problems with the system rather than a mere failure of policy? Over two weeks, Ana...
BBC - Podcasts - AnalysisAnalysis makes sense of the ideas that change the world. What made Islam political, whether the Government can make us go green, why we t...- Analysis also explored the other side and the role deregulation has played in the expansion of consumer credit. Some observers on the left believe that the growth of the financial sector has given birth to a novel form of capitalism - credit serfdom - and with it, a new kind of worker exploitation.
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Analysis, Radical Economics: escaping credit serfdomSynopsis The role of credit in the build up to the global financial crisis is well known - but what has our reliance on credit been doing...- Despite the introduction of tighter financial regulation - are the banks up to their old tricks? In 2011, File on 4 investigated concerns that banks are continuing to sell high-risk investment products.
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - File on 4, Business As Usual?Synopsis In the wake of the financial disaster, policy makers and regulators around the world pledged to make banking safer and more tran...
BBC - Podcasts - File on 4A podcast offering Radio 4's award winning, flagship investigative series File on 4.- Niall Ferguson says the continued criticism of the banking sector by the political classes is convenient - as it deflects blame away from their own failings. But this current level criticism of bankers is nothing compared to the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, says historian David Cannadine.
A Point of View: Wall St back in the firing lineCriticism is being levied at bankers in the US, where opinion does not divide neatly along party lines. But it is mild compared with some...
