http://www.project-syndicate.org/series/the_rules_of_the_game <p><em>Were over-compensated and unaccountable bosses to blame for the Great Recession? Are bankers and financial managers overpaid? Which reforms must be adopted to save capitalism – above all from its practitioners?</em><em></em></p> en 2012-02-10T05:55:19+01:00 webmaster@project-syndicate.org Mark Roe, Luigi Zingales 1994-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 4 hourly http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales13/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales13/English>ROE/ZINGALES: Central Bankers in the Line of Fire</a> The decision in January by Philipp Hildebrand to resign as Chairman of the Board of the Swiss National Bank, after a suspicious trade made by his wife, is to be welcomed. But, while Hildebrand’s resignation should serve as a precedent to be followed elsewhere, the circumstances surrounding his departure smell much worse than what caused it. Luigi Zingales 2012-02-02T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe7/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe7/English>ROE/ZINGALES: Reforming Repo Rules</a> This October, the derivatives firm MF Global filed for bankruptcy after losing more than $1 billion of its customer's funds in a number of complex "repos," or repurchase agreements. Until repos are reformed, the stability of the global financial system will remain at risk. Mark Roe 2011-12-21T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales12/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales12/English>ROE/ZINGALES: Elected Dirty Dealers</a> The US Congress, like legislatures elsewhere, effectively exempts itself from the normal rules of insider trading. But the real issue is not just insider trading – it's that Congress and other legislatures live by rules that are very different from those imposed on ordinary citizens. Luigi Zingales 2011-11-29T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe6/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe6/English>ROE/ZINGALES: Clearinghouse Over-Confidence</a> To reduce the chance that a financial meltdown like that of 2007-2008 will recur, regulators are now seeking to buttress institutions for the longer run by strengthening clearinghouses for derivatives – instruments that accelerated the implosion of AIG and others in the last financial crisis. But a clearinghouse is no panacea. Mark Roe 2011-10-26T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales11/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales11/English>ROE/ZINGALES: The Unexamined Crisis</a> Three years have now passed since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which triggered the start of the most acute phase of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. But the financial world is no safer today, because the data needed to identify what caused the crisis have been withheld. Luigi Zingales 2011-09-22T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe5/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe5/English>ROE/ZINGALES: America’s First Debt Crisis</a> Both Europe and America should learn a lesson from US history: lost in the haze of patriotic veneration of America’s founding fathers is the fact that they created a new country during – and largely because of – a debt crisis. Might today’s crises one day be seen as a similar moment of political creativity? Mark Roe 2011-08-08T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales10/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales10/English>ROE/ZINGALES: The Perverse Politics of Financial Crisis</a> In trying to understand the pattern and timing of government interventions during a financial crisis, we should probably conclude that, to paraphrase the French philosopher Blaise Pascal, politics have incentives that economics cannot understand. Unfortunately, those incentives also often bring about crises in the first place. Luigi Zingales 2011-07-25T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe4/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe4/English>ROE/ZINGALES: How Capitalist is America?</a> If capitalism’s border is with socialism, we know why the world properly thinks of the US as strongly capitalist. But consider the extent to which capital – that is, shareholders – rules in large businesses: if a conflict arises between capital’s goals and those of managers, who wins? Mark Roe 2011-06-20T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales9/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales9/English>ROE/ZINGALES: The Derivatives Market’s Helpful Enemies</a> The launch of two European antitrust investigations into the market for credit default swaps might appear to be no more than a political vendetta against an alleged culprit behind the 2010 European sovereign-debt crisis. But the existence of political motivations does not undermine the legitimacy of the new inquiries. Luigi Zingales 2011-05-18T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe3/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe3/English>ROE/ZINGALES: Fukushima and Derivatives Meltdowns</a> Many financial commentators have likened Japan’s nuclear catastrophe to the 2008 financial meltdown. But, while the resemblance between these crises is clear enough – each activity yields big benefits and a tiny but explosive risk – it ends where preventing their recurrence begins. Mark Roe 2011-04-18T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales8/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zingales8/English>ROE/ZINGALES: The Dark Underbelly of Finance</a> The insider-trading trial of Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire hedge-fund manager, has now begun. It is likely to provide an especially lurid exposé of the financial world's ambient corruption. Luigi Zingales 2011-03-22T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe2/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roe2/English>ROE/ZINGALES: The Economic Future of Egypt’s Revolution</a> The question of the day regarding Egypt is whether the country will build a democratic political system or relapse into some form of autocratic regime. But an equally important question – above all for Egyptians, but also for other developing countries (and development experts) – is the economic impact of the outcome. Mark Roe 2011-02-21T00:00:00+01:00