By James Hamilton, J.D., LL.M.
In his floor remarks on the day the Senate passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Senator from the state of Alabama, Richard Shelby, reminded us that the first thing President Franklin D. Roosevelt did was to reform the nation’s banking and financial systems before he embarked on the New Deal’s public works programs. There is today a growing consensus that investors are sitting on the sidelines because they lack confidence in the securities markets. At the same time, the crisis in the banking industry continues unabated because toxic asset-backed securities remain on the books of major financial institutions. This raises the question of whether the Obama Administration should have tackled financial regulation reform before passing a public works oriented stimulus bill.