At the G20 and elsewhere, we’ve heard government leaders like Obama and Brown calling for more regulation to prevent financial institutions from growing too large to fail and obfuscating their responsibilities. These calls are all well and good, but they aren’t a panacea. The problem with too much regulation is that it slows down markets and hampers growth. The ‘greedy bankers’ that have been reported on so often in the press aren’t the problem—they’re only the symbol. They’ve just been following procedures in a marketplace incentivised by short-term thinking and by imbalanced approaches to risk-taking. [...]

I recently came across this article from Gill Corkindale about how British bank CEOs are failing to take responsibility for the failure of their banks and their banks’ role in bringing on the global financial crisis. When the British CEOs answered the questions of the parliamentary select committee last week, their lack of self-awareness was astounding. Says Corkindale: [...]