Description: The U.S. economy and the stock market were booming on April 21, 1998, when the heaviest hitters of the Clinton administration met to discuss a controversial topic: whether the government should regulate a profitable but risky corner of the financial markets. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, the former Goldman Sachs (GS) co-chairman, attended. So did his deputy, Larry Summers, and Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve. The meeting’s odd woman out was Brooksley Born, the little-known chairwoman of a little-known agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), who exhorted her colleagues to consider regulating privately traded derivatives such as swaps contracts.

Source: Businessweek.com

Date: May 01, 2014

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-01/clinton-officials-missed-chance-to-avert-2008-financial-crisis#r=hp-lst

Questions for Discussions:

• Summarize the key points presented in this report.
• Do you agree with the conclusions?