House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has a new proposal to regulate bank transactions. Some of it is OK and some of it perpetuates the abuses that brought Lehman and other financial institutions to their knees.
First the OK part. Frank's proposal would require over-the-counter derivatives to be traded on listed exchanges and sold on exchanges or processed through a regulation platform. This is not good enough. We need transparency for each and every trade done by each and every financial institution. That means that all trades must be done on a listed exchange and cleared through a clearinghouse. All of this data can be put on computers and monitored daily. Then if some trader goes beyond established guidelines, he will be shut down immediately.