If failure is the outcome of the new financial regulations that President Obama announced today, then I'll consider it a success.
Let me explain. I'm not saying that I hope Obama's plan fails. Nor am I hoping that it causes financial institutions to fail. What I do hope though, is that it achieves its goal of creating a framework where financial firms are able to fail.
The recent financial crisis has seen AIG (NYSE:AIG) at the brink, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch swept up by JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and Lehman Brothers out-and-out biting the dust. The Bear Stearns and Merrill deals were hastily thrown together and, at least in the case of Merrill, are now causing headaches and despair.
AIG, meanwhile, has been sucking government funds into its gaping maw. While Lehman Brothers, rest its soul, brought fire and brimstone down on the marketplace when it slid into chapter 11 bankruptcy. And let's not leave Citigroup (NYSE:C) out of this discussion -- its trials and tribulations have no doubt helped Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke end up a bit balder.
Other major financial firms -- from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) to American Express (NYSE:AXP) -- may not, in retrospect, have really been facing collapse, but just the worry of it was enough, since it was clear our system couldn't handle it.
In the end, we don't want to demonize risk. After all, it is risk, the entrepreneurial spirit, and, yes, greed that have helped make our economic system so great in the first place. But if nobody ever failed when taking a risk, it wouldn't be a risk, now would it? So my hope is that Obama's plan will help make sure failure is no longer a four-letter word.
What I've seen so far looks promising. There will be new regulations to help ensure firms don't turn themselves into dirty bombs set to nuke the entire financial system if they fail. At the same time, there will be a new focus on making sure there are plans ready to quickly resolve major failed financial firms so that they don't poison the water.
There's often a yawning chasm between ideal outcomes and government regulations, so only time will tell if this plan will lead to a better system or just a bureaucratic mess, but I've got my fingers crossed.
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