Reviewed by Jim McTague. Here’s an idea for curbing the rapine of all those financial executives thumbing their noses at the taxpayers who rescued them from ruin: Limit their annual salaries to $300,000 to $400,000, and institute three-year performance programs that award bonuses to good stewards, but not the bad.

That’s just one of several provocative ideas found in this thorough, intelligent and straightforward book by money manager Robert Pozen, which traces the ontogeny of the financial crisis and offers ..read more

As Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, once said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

But the current financial crisis won’t be the catalyst to rethink fundamentally the structure of U.S. financial regulation. Instead, Congress will fill a few holes in the regulatory foundation, and install new radar for detecting systemic risk within the existing framework of regulation according to financial function or service. Unfortunately, in some cases, that’s too little, too late.

What shape is financial regulation ..read more