Most of the chatter about financial regulation in the blogosphere focuses on the issues of the moment. But what are the big questions? What does all the debate about the detail add up to?
To me, the big question is this: What comes after the collapse of the neoliberal consensus? What will be the prevailing common understanding of the proper relationship between governments and markets, and between actors in the market (financial entities, labor, enterprises, and yes, the academy?)
This question has so many dimensions, but it is the big challenge of our day, and most of the fights on the front page of the Financial Times–whether it is about disclosure policy at the Fed or what kind of collateral the ECB should accept–come down to versions of this Big Question.
Here are some possible subparts to this question:
-Is New Governance (peer review, self monitoring, naming and shaming, soft law etc) as now practiced at key international financial organizations such as the Financial Stability Board the answer?
-How do we balance democratic participation with the need for expertise? Can these things be “balanced”? What other models might we have of how democracy and expertise can coexist?
-What new forms of collaboration between the government and the market might be possible?
What do you think is the key question? What do you think about these questions?