Congressman Barney Frank says he was caught off-guard by the timing of last week’s unveiling of the Volcker Rule, but he likes the idea and it shouldn’t be a problem to work into the financial-reform bill he’s got going in the House.
Barclays chief Bob Diamond says he does not like the Volcker Rule and doesn’t understand why banks like his, which ran responsible businesses and needed no bailout money, should be punished. Large size isn’t the problem, he argues, bad management is.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy blames the global financial crisis on globalization and calls for a less-antagonistic, more-moral form of capitalism.
Investor George Soros gets even darker than usual, arguing that markets are just as likely to move away from equilibrium as they are towards it. The freefall of 2008 wasn’t some sort of freak thing, but rather a normal characteristic of the system.
NYU economist Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini admits that the world economy is growing—but thinks the U.S., Europe and Japan are due for another slowdown thanks to the withdrawal of stimulus funds and inflation concerns.
Economist and bubble-caller Robert Shiller provides an easy, seven-point check list for telling if you’re suffering from an asset bubble.
China’s deputy central bank chief Zhu Min worries about a fresh financial crisis hitting Asia if the U.S. starts raising interest rates and investors stop borrowing cheap dollars to invest abroad.
