In a paper in which he examined “what is the role of government in reducing systemic risk
in the financial markets”, John B. Taylor (2009)31 identified that government officials were
now proposing new legislation to expand significantly the role of government in the financial
sector. He identified that the heads of the US Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board,
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the SEC have all proposed the creation
of a “systemic risk regulator” which would be a new standalone agency, or part of the Fed
or a new council of existing regulators. Taylor articulates that the future role of government
in the financial markets depends on the lessons learnt about the role of government in the
crisis. He believes that there are two standpoints. Firstly, “the markets did it” – the crisis
was due to forces emanating from the market economy which the government did not control
either because it did not have the power to do so, or because it chose not to. Secondly, “the
government did it” – the crisis was due more to forces emanating from the federal government,
“where actions and interventions caused, prolonged and worsened the financial crisis”.
Taylor’s standpoint is that the government was at fault through the level of federal interest
rates, the government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), the support for
mortgage-backed securities, misdiagnosing the financial crisis as a liquidity problem rather
than a counterparty risk problem and not articulating “a clear predictable strategy for lending
and intervening into a financial sector”. Taylor considers the best evidence of a lack of
strategy was the confusing roll-out of the TARP plan which, according to studies, was more
likely a reason for the panic in the markets than the failure to intervene in Lehman Brothers.