Videos
Public Choice And Politics Without Romance Featuring Mike Munger
Would you give the politician you trust least the same powers you want government to have?
September 28, 2026
Published May 30, 2025
For decades, U.S. financial policy has sustained a cycle of excessive risk-taking and taxpayer-funded bailouts. Implicit guarantees have distorted incentives, weakened market discipline, and shifted financial risk onto the public. Legislative efforts such as the Dodd-Frank Act, while aimed at reform, ultimately codified government support for firms deemed too big to fail. True reform begins with credibility: ending bailout expectations, strengthening equity requirements, leveraging private market discipline, and instituting executive clawbacks. Deregulation alone will not fix a broken system — credibility and accountability must come first.
Check out more from Ross Levine:
- Read "Rebuilding the Firewall against Moral Hazard” by Ross Levine here.
- Read "Trump Wants to Unleash the Banks. End the Bailout Culture First" by Ross Levine here.
- Watch "Challenges Facing The US Economy" with Ross Levine here.
Learn more about Ross Levine here.
__________
The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.
© 2025 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
Cast
Ross Levine
Related
Political Economy In Financial Regulation
Interest-paying electronic money, completely safe without deposit insurance, would be a great thing. For example, Silicon Valley Bank would never have had huge uninsured deposits that ran if there had been an easy safe place for large depositors to put their money.
September 22, 2026
Real Interest Rates And Fiscal Prudence
Ken Rogoff says he was right about secular stagnation, real interest rates, and what it means for fiscal policy.
September 25, 2026