Word: reform
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Applying Smith's teachings to the modern world, then, is a much more complex and doubtful endeavor than it's usually made out to be. He certainly wouldn't have been opposed to every government intervention in the market. On financial reform, it's easy to imagine Smith supporting the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and crackdowns on giant financial institutions. He might have also favored the just-passed health care reform bill, at least the part that requires states to set up exchanges to ensure retail competition for health insurance...
Congress is now approaching a crucial opportunity for financial reform. Such a reform must be tough and intelligent, as a weak reform would create a dangerously false illusion of security and stability. The House passed a major regulatory bill in December, and now Chris Dodd has brought his own Senate proposal to the floor, for debating over the next few weeks. Financial regulation must specifically address capital requirements for banks, the tools to liquidate failed financial institutions, consumer protections, derivative trading, and the immense trading operations of many major investment banks...
Obama's health care reform will undoubtedly prove inadequate to the demands of a globalized, warp-speed economy and an aging population. It will have to be modified, and modified again - and one hopes the Republicans, with their natural instinct for efficiency, will participate in that process. But, however flawed, the health care bill is a sign that major, concerted public reforms are once again possible, and that the difficult work of transforming America to compete successfully in a new world of challenges can now begin...
...many Germans, Merkel is right not to put their country's money on the table too soon, as it could lift the pressure for reform in Greece. "That would risk setting a precedent of profligate countries taking advantages of the others," says Silvio Peruzzo, a London-based analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland. "If you set up a bad incentive, then you undermine the credibility of the euro zone. In that sense, the Germans are much more forward-looking." (See pictures of the dangers of printing money in Germany...
...even if Merkel says Greece is in no immediate danger, there are doubts about whether it can survive for much longer without outside financial help. Simon Tilford, chief economist at the London-based Center for European Reform think tank, says Merkel's brinkmanship is understandable given the political risks of Germany's conceding too soon but that she cannot hold out indefinitely. "It is implausible that Greece could get through the rest of this year unaided," he says. "Ultimately, the Germans will put something on the table. They will always defend the stability of the euro...