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William K. Black, J.D., Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Bill Black has testified before the Senate Agricultural Committee on the regulation of financial derivatives and House Governance Committee on the regulation of executive compensation.

Economy

Why our Fundamental Approach to Banking Regulation is Inherently Unsound

William Black Jan 26, 2011

By William K. Black (cross-posted from Benzinga.com) Greetings from the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) annual enforcement conference in Charleston, S.C. I’m giving the keynote address Monday. I’ll…

Economy

How to Regulate Mortgage Lending, Part 3

William Black Jan 25, 2011

By William K. Black (cross-posted with Benzinga.com) Honest accounting is essential for effective regulation – and for integrity. It is also very helpful to prosecuting accounting fraud. The banking industry lobbyists, including the…

Economy

How to Regulate Mortgage Lending, Part 2

William Black Jan 25, 2011

By William K. Black (cross-posted from Benzinga.com) When Reputation becomes Ineffective or even Perverse Control fraud also makes reputation perverse. Theoclassical economists predict that reputation trumps everything, even auditors'…

Economy

How to Regulate Mortgage Lending, Part 1

William Black Jan 25, 2011

By William K. Black (cross-posted from Benzinga.com) “Regulating” and “deregulating” are terms that often mislead. My next three columns discuss how to regulate two diverse activities that are critical to our economy – residential…

Economy

Obama Embraces the “Economic Philosophy That Has Completely Failed”

William Black Jan 22, 2011

By William K. Black President Obama's Executive Order on regulatory review was originally set in motion by his February 3, 2009 direction to OMB to create an improved regulatory review process. The fundamental principles and structures…

Economy

Expect More De Facto Decriminalization of Elite Financial Fraud in 2011

William Black Dec 28, 2010

The role of the criminal justice system with regard to financial fraud by elite bankers in 2011 is likely to reprise its role last decade — de facto decriminalization. The Galleon investigation of insider trading at hedge funds will take…

Economy

Cash Incentives for Whistleblowers of Control Fraud

William Black Dec 27, 2010

by William K. Black Marty Robins' December 15, 2010, column "Blow the Whistle on Pointless Whistleblowing" in The Huffington Post opposed the SEC implementing the Dodd-Franks Act's provision that the SEC should develop a system…

Political Economy

How the US Congress is Sowing the Seeds of the Next Crisis

William Black Dec 20, 2010

I wrote recently about the Bank of England sowing the seeds of their next banking crisis by deciding to reduce bank examinations. Spencer Bachus (R. Ala.), the incoming Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, told the Birmingham…

Political Economy

Celtic Creditors and the Future of Europe and the Euro

William Black Dec 14, 2010

by William K. Black The struggle within the EU and the European Central Bank (ECB) over the nature of European project continues. The EU continues to be dominated by the French/German tandem. The Euro, once the great hope of the periphery…

Economy

Too Big To Regulate

William Black Dec 11, 2010

Systemically Dangerous Institutions – the U.S., Iceland, and Ireland by William K. Black This column was prompted by Thomas Hoenig's December 1, 2010 op ed in the New York Times (“Too Big to Succeed”) warning that we must end banks…