The financial crisis of 2007, which rolls on uncomfortably into this year, has brought more than its fair share of calls for wholesale reform of financial regulation.
The German government – clearly embarrassed by the failures of some of the banks it owns – has led the way with attacks on “snooty” bankers (maybe it sounds more serious in German) and demands for new constraints on securitisation, on ratings agencies, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds and, of course, demands for a cull of the locusts in wicked hedge funds.
