Rachel Evans
Asia editor
Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, called for better, smarter, tougher regulation in March. His call was by no means the first. Americans have been pushing for (and planning) reform since the effect of sub-prime defaults first became apparent in August 2007. But the presidential elections deprived the government of a mandate, postponing change; now that Barack Obama has been inaugurated, these calls can be translated into real reform.
Already, the White House has lobbied creditors on an agreement regarding Chrysler's financial difficulties, and has reinforced its commitment to the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp) and Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (Talf) with a new Public-Private Investment Programme (P-Pip) that will draw on these funds.
However, the model for wider regulatory reform, addressing systemic risk supervision and regulatory coordination, for example, remains uncertain. Here, Arthur B Culvahouse Jr, Counsel to the President under Ronald Reagan, passes on his...