WHY A GLOBAL FIX IS SO FAR OFF

摘要

Can a global financial system be made safe without creating a global regulator? Hoping to avoid future crises, the Obama Administration released its plan for financial regulatory reform on June 17. The proposal, loaded with good ideas, would help U.S. regulators monitor financial stresses during good times and give them new powers to deal with troubled U.S. financial institutions. But the reform proposal is unsatisfying, precisely because in an increas -ingly global economy it focuses mainly on beefing up U.S. regulation. Until now that was a workable strategy. Even globe-spanning giants like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs got the bulk of their income and revenue at home, enabling them plausibly to be regulated by the U.S. government. For example, in 2006, Citigroup received 56% of its income from the U. S., roughly matching the location of the company's loans.