Projet de réforme réglementaire américain: la suite

Comme on le signalait plus tôt, le Secrétaire du trésor américain, Henry Paulson, a déposé un vaste projet de réforme des autorités régulant les marchés financiers. Le Rapport intégral est disponible ici et ses points saillants ici (merci à David Durand, étudiant au LL.B. pour les références).

Le rapport est largement commenté dans les médias. L'article Paulson Plan Begins Battle Over How to Police Market du Wall Street Journal du 31 mars (ici, abonnement requis) résume bien les enjeux. D'abord les motifs de la réforme:

There's widespread consensus that the current patchwork regulatory system doesn't work. One problem is that overlapping jurisdictions lead regulators to court the regulated.

One other problem: The regulatory system left important pockets largely unwatched, such as mortgage brokers who aren't part of regular banks. With narrowly focused agencies looking after discrete areas of the finance world, there were major lapses in coordination as financial market innovation outpaced regulators' ability to keep up.

Maintenant les critiques:

While policymakers are more likely to take action during a crisis, some economists caution that the crisis mentality itself can lead to rash decisions and costly mistakes.

Mr. Paulson said the plan wouldn't necessarily prevent future financial crises. "I don't think any regulatory system is going to change that. I think we rely very, very heavily on market discipline. Having said that, I still think we need a system that is more efficient and gives us a better chance, gives us more tools to try to solve problems."

"It's probably a bad idea to spend too much time debating the organization of the fire department while the fire is still burning and no independent investigation of the cause of the fire has yet been completed," says former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who is now a managing director at hedge fund D.E. Shaw Group.

Du point de vue canadien, la question sera-t-elle soulevée? Est-il nécessaire aussi de revoir l'encadrement, compte tenu de la crise du papier commercial? Quelqu'un a-t-il prononcé les mots agence de notation de crédit?