American finance for the 21st century

by Robert E. Litan

This book, originally prepared as a report to Congress by the Treasury Department, presents a framework for setting policy toward the financial services industry in the coming decades. The authors, who worked closely with senior Treasury officials in developing their recommendations, identify three core principles: an enhanced role for competition, a shift in emphasis from preventing failures of financial institutions at all cost toward containing the damage of the failures that inevitably occur in a competitive market, and a greater reliance on more targeted interventions to achieve policy goals rather than broad measures such as flat prohibitions on certain activities.