When faced with a run on a “systemically important” but insolvent bank in 1889, the Banque de France pre-emptively organized a lifeboat to ensure that depositors were protected and an orderly liquidation could proceed. To protect the Banque from losses on its lifeboat loan, a guarantee...

AbstractThe papers in this session treat different aspects of the unfinished business of reforming the financial system. Charles Calomiris offers a bold multipoint plan for reform, whose underlying theme is that we do not need more complex rules and more supervisory discretion but simpler rules...

Implementation of Volcker's Rule requires a historical perspective on the original Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 that separated commercial banking from investment banks in the United States. Like the Dodd-Frank legislation, the Banking Act of 1933 was passed before full analysis of the financial...