Elizabeth Warren: Regulation Cost/Benefit

Posted by admin on Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Elizabeth Warren Money Quotation saying SEC regulations are so often under-enforced to allow big banks to wreak havoc on the economy. Elizabeth Warren said:
 

 

“How do you make sure that when we’re talking about cost/benefit, that the costs, not just of enforcing regulations, but the cost of under-enforcing those regulations, is also accounted for?” — Elizabeth Warren

 

 

In this quote, Elizabeth Warren is arguing that any cost-benefit analysis of regulations should consider not just the costs of enforcing new rules, but also the costs of failing to enforce regulations strongly enough. She suggests that if regulators take a lax approach and do not adequately police industries, it could have severe economic and social consequences in the form of financial crises, public health emergencies, or other problems that taxpayers ultimately have to bear the burden of addressing.

Warren is advocating for a comprehensive accounting of costs and not just a narrow focus on the price tag of regulatory enforcement. The quote conveys Warren’s view that cost-benefit studies need to provide a full picture by also assessing the high price that could come from insufficient oversight of powerful industries and corporations.