Global Financial Crisis and Government Intervention: A Case for Effective Regulatory Governance

Abstract

The recent financial and economic crisis in the United States and the rest of the world, as well as the interventionist efforts of respective governments to stabilize their economies, have generated a lot of controversy about the virtues of the free-market system and the wisdom of state intervention. The objective of this article is to put the debate on the relative efficiency of the free-market and government intervention in a larger theoretical perspective and make the case for the importance of efficient regulatory governance of financial institutions in ensuring economic stability. Drawing on the theories of laissez faire and market failure, the Keynesian and Marxian theories and the theory of regulation, I argue that mutual co-existence of the market and the government is beneficial to society, and that periodic global financial crisis occur because of the failure to learn from history and ineffective regulatory governance. Governments need to put in place proactive regulatory framework to guard against regulatory capture, arbitrage and forbearance in order to control financial market excesses.