THE MECHANICS OF LEGISLATION: CONGRESS, THE SEC AND FINANCIAL REGULATION
"I must respectfully disagree with your views about deregulation. A revolution is sweeping the world and everywhere one looks, people are choosing free markets over state control as the path to prosperity and opportunity. History has demonstrated that competition is the driving force for economic growth. Competition forces businesses to cut costs and increase quality. Technological progress and innovation are the result of efforts to make a better mouse trap, and it is new technology and efforts to cut costs that expand wealth, the economic pie. Regulation, by definition, eliminates competition, the engine of economic progress."
Gallery Opens
The virtual museum and archive's 11th Gallery provides insight into the process of legislating on financial affairs by examining two significant financial laws enacted in the last half-century - the Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988 (ITSFEA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.
As Dr. Kurt Hohenstein, Gallery curator, states in the framework essay: "Over the years, financial legislation has become increasingly more complicated because our system has grown more complex. From the public's view, the passage of legislation often appears to have come out of the blue, rapid and responsive to a public outcry for reform. In reality, much of the hard work of drafting bills, conducting hearings, building public consensus and organizing needed votes remains hidden from the public."
