The Seven Deadly Sins of the Contemporary Financial System

Abstract

This paper identifies and analyzes the fundamental deficiencies, or “Seven Deadly Sins” of the contemporary financial system. The “Sins” are: dominance of an excessive risk-taking culture and behavior, over-reliance on short-term funding, inevitable deficiencies in hedging tools, ignorance of the sources and feedback loops of shadow banking activities, failure to address cognitive bias, overemphasis on the use of complex regulations, and failure to promote moral restraint and professional standards. An understanding of these sins, together with a brief review of post-crisis reforms, enables policymakers to identify areas where more regulatory effort is needed, or to channel greater market power into the remediation of these fundamental deficiencies.