Economists on Financial Reform proposals

The National Association for Business Economics' latest semi-annual Economic Policy Survey of its members (mostly private-sector economists), conducted between February 4 and February 22 this year, has just been released:

* Fifty-four percent feel that creating such an agency would not impair safety and soundness regulation; 25 percent believe it would be detrimental

* Forty-three percent of respondents indicate that a consumer financial protection agency would not impair access to credit while 39 percent believe it would.

* Fifty-seven percent believe that barring depository institutions from proprietary
trading and hedge fund operations will reduce systemic risk to the financial sector; 34% believe that it will not

* Fifty-nine percent believe that imposing size restrictions on these companies would not be an effective means of addressing the Too-Big-To-Fail issue. It would have been most interesting if the survey had followed this up with a question to this 59%: what do they believe WOULD be an effective way of addressing the Too-Big-To-Fail issue? Sphere: Related Content