Tools for a New Economy: Proposals for a Financial Regulatory System

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Tools for a New Economy: Proposals for a Financial Regulatory System is a report by Robert Pollin. In it he asserts that "A range of forces in the U.S and global economies have combined to create the most severe economic crisis since the 1930s. We will debate for years to come how these forces came together and how they interacted once combined. But one factor stands out as the greatest cause of the crisis. This is the collapse of the U.S. financial system. The financial-system collapse can be traced, in turn, to the dismantling since the 1970s of the Glass-Steagall financial regulatory system. Glass-Steagall was created in the 1930s precisely to prevent a recurrence of that era’s economic disasters. Both Democratic and Republican political leaders must now accept responsibility for the current calamity. We now begin what will necessarily be a long process of building a regulatory system capable of mobilizing the economy’s financial resources for productive economic activity instead of casino capitalism. With the collapsed model of the deregulated financial system now before us, the set of proposals offered here are a starting place for forming a stable and equitable financial structure for the U. S. economy."