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Here are the Ten Most-Read Posts during the past month, and following that, the Ten Most-Read during the life of this blog.

PAST MONTH

MONEY | 10 Ways to Cut Cable Bills (Updated Feb. 1... Feb 6, 2016

DEATH | April 7–Lazăr Edeleanu, 75 Years Ago (Upda... Feb 13, 2016

PENSION FUNDS | Beaver Award to TSP Feb 10, 2016

JOBS | Retail Continues Strong in January 2016 Feb 5, 2016

CREDIT CARD | Curb Recurring Charges! (Updated Feb... Feb 1, 2016

JAPAN | Video History Feb 14, 2016

NYC COMPTROLLER | Eric Wollman of FOCEA Jan 31, 2016

BANKS | Why Their Shares Fell Feb 3, 2016

WW2 | BOISSEVAINS Links (Updated Feb. 23, 2016) Jan 26, 2015

RETIREMENT | Planning and Saving Feb 21, 2016

SINCE THE BLOG WAS CREATED

MED BIZ | How the Clinton Plan Was Killed, 1993 Jan 31, 2009

DEPRESSION | Cause–the Fed? Or Real-Estate Specula... Feb 23, 2009

NYC | More Catholic, Jewish, Muslim Feb 15, 2008

JOBS | Brazil #1 in Workplace Innovation (Updated ... Jul 29, 2014

JOBS | Low Labor Participation Puzzle - I (Demogra... Oct 10, 2014

JOBS | Which David Brooks Should We Listen To? Oct 24, 2014

JOBS | What Keynes Said, What Bush 43 Did Jun 23, 2012

MED BIZ | BBC Panorama on U.S. Jan 25, 2009

NYC | In the Eye of the Storm, OMB's Mark Page Mar 22, 2009

BANKS | New Regs after 2008 (Superseded) Mar 22, 2008

Regulating Banks and Non-Banks: One Year Later

A year ago today I wrote about financial regulation . As the G20 meeting on April 2 approaches, the topic is more relevant than ever.

I argued last year that when the Glass-Steagall wall between banking and non-bank financial institutions was torn down in 1999, the law should have extended U.S. regulatory authority beyond banking to all the other institutions.

My views were shaped by research I did at the FDIC. I developed a state credit-quality indicator, based on bank examiners' classification of loan quality at insured banks. The indicator deducted 20 percent of the loan value classified as substandard, 50 percent of loans classified as doubtful, and 100 percent of loans classified as loss. The results were included in an article I wrote with Professor George Benston published in the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, "Bank Examiners' Evaluation of Credit".

Whatever use a state credit-quality indicator might have had as an early warning system (e.g., of mortgage-quality problems in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada) disappeared when mortgage loans were wrapped up into securitized packages that were beyond easy classification by bank examiners and were camouflaged by AAA ratings by rating agencies and insurance companies.

The Chairman of the UK Financial Service Authority (FSA), Lord Turner, on March 18 has highlighted for the G20 socially undesirable financial innovation as a key source of the global crisis. He recommends regulation of near-bank activities such as hedge funds and credit-rating agencies, with a Europe-wide financial body to set standards and supervise. The UK seems to have joined the hawkish German and French authorities.

While the United States has been considered a dove on financial regulatory issues, the Obama administration may surprise the G20. Stephen Labaton in the NY Times on Saturday says a plan is being prepared that would

regulate the shadow banking system, with heightened standards put in place after the economy began to rebound. A broad consensus has emerged that hedge funds must be registered and more closely monitored, probably by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The U.S. plan will probably give the government greater authority over large troubled companies not now regulated by Washington. The Treasury secretary would have authority to seize a struggling institution after consulting with the president and upon the recommendation of two-thirds of the Federal Reserve board. The government now can seize only the banking unit that controls federally insured deposits of large troubled institutions.