Critiquing Cost Benefit Analysis in Financial Regulation, May 19-20, 2014

Session 1: Background and Updates on CBA: Business Roundtable, legislation and policy implications
Background Materials:

• Business Roundtable v. SEC (D.C. Cir. 2011) (PDF)
• Setting the Record Straight on Cost-Benefit Analysis and Financial Reform (PDF) A Report From Better Markets, Inc. (2013)
• Letter in Opposition to HR 1003 (PDF) written by Americans for Financial Reform (2013)
• Rose, Paul, and Christopher Walker. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Importance of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Financial Regulation (PDF) Center for Capital Markets (2013)
• National Assoc. of Manufacturers v. SEC (D.C. Cir. 2014) (PDF)
  See the Court’s reasoning rejecting a cost-benefit challenge to regulations requiring disclosure of conflict minerals

Session 2: What Financial Benefits and Costs Do We Count? Considering Societal Costs, Capital Requirements, Derivatives and Other Reforms

Papers and Background Materials:

• Turbeville, Wallace, C. A New Perspective on the Costs and Benefits of Financial Regulation (PDF), MARYLAND LAW REVIEW (2013)
• Stanley, Marcus. Can Cost-Benefit Analysis Pass the Cost-Benefit Analysis Test? (PDF) (2012)
• Brief of Better Markets as Amicus Curiae in Support of CFTC in ISDA v. CFTC (PDF)
• Admati, Anat and Martin Hellwig. The Case Against Banking's Case for Less Capital, BloombergView.com (2013)

Session 3: Learning from the Environmental Experience

• McGarity, Thomas O. and Rena I. Steinzor. The End Game of Deregulation:  Myopic Risk Management and the Next Catastrophe (PDF),  DUKE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & POLICY FORUM (2012)
• Sinden, Amy. Formality and Informality in Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Driesen, David. Legal Theory Lessons from the Financial Crisis, JOURNAL OF CORPORATE LAW (forthcoming 2014)

Lunch Keynote & Discussion

• Coates, John C.  IV. Cost-Benefit Analysis of Financial Regulation: Case Studies and Implications (2014)

Session 4: Policy Alternatives and Economics

• Pouncy, Charles. “Recovering from the Recovery: Law and Contemporary Processes of Accumulation by Dispossession,” JOURNAL OF CIVIL RIGHTS & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (2011)
• Canova, Timothy. "Central Bank Independence as Agency Capture: A Review of the Empirical Literature,” BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES POLICY REPORT (2011)
• Carrillo, Raúl and Rohan Grey. "The Cost of Justice," MORNINGSIDE MUCKRAKER (2014)

• Epstein, Gerald. Financial Regulation and Cost-Benefit Analysis for Whom? TheRealNews.com (2013)
  An interview with Gerald Epstein who talks about Bloomberg News’ calls for a cost-benefit analysis of financial regulations.
• Center for Progressive Reform, Cost-Benefit Analysis: Bad Numbers, Bad Decisions (2009)
  Article gives an overview with numerous helpful references.
• Steinzor, Rena, Michael Patoka and Analyst James Goodwin. Behind Closed Doors at the White House: How Politics Trumps Protection of Public Health, Safety, and Environment (PDF) Center for Progressive Reform (2011)
  This report analyzes how regulatory cost review by Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) undermines effective regulation.
• Sinden, Amy.  Executive Order 12866’s Cost-Benefit Test is still with us and I Can Hear Ben Franklin Rolling Over in his Grave, CPRBlog.org (2013)
• McGarity, Thomas O.  A Cost-Benefit State,  ADMINISTRATIVE LAW REVIEW (1998)
• Posner, Eric A. and E. Glen Weyl.  Benefit-Cost Paradigms in Financial Regulation (2014)
  The author gives an overview of the University of Chicago’s conference on Benefit-Cost Analysis of Financial Regulation, arguing (in part) that on theoretical grounds, BCA should be easier for financial regulation than for other areas of regulation where it is already used, such as health and safety regulation.