May 28, 2010
The NYT headline told us: “Geithner sees consensus on finance reform.” USA Today’s headline was: “Geithner: US, Europe broadly agree on financial reform.” The Post took a different perspective: “United States and Germany remain divided over financial regulation issues.”
I’m inclined to agree with the Post. There is a push in Europe, led in part by Germany, for more extensive regulation of finance, including greater restrictions on hedge and private equity funds. It also seems likely that Europe will build up a reserve bailout fund in advance of a crisis, a provision that will likely be missing from the final bill coming out of Congress. And, Europe is very interested in taxes on financial speculation. The Obama administration is strongly opposed to any sort of financial transactions tax.
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