Abstract
Response to Brett McDonnell, Dampening Financial Regulatory Cycles
While more a diagnosis than a prescription, Professor Brett McDonnell’s Dampening Financial Regulatory Cycles makes a noteworthy contribution in defense of the aspiration that “[f]inancial regulation should be countercyclical.” The Article offers a refined examination of the procyclical nature of our financial regulation and introduces three competing explanatory models. More frustrating, however, is the Article’s consideration of the administrative mechanisms available to dampen financial regulatory cycles. While able to identify several “intelligent roadblocks” available to regulators looking to “block bad new rules but not beneficial ones,” the Article offers little hope that any such mechanism will be applied skillfully to reverse the procyclical regulatory bias and its attendant consequences.
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