The Goldman Sachs Web site has the text of the spech the firm's CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, gave today in Frankfurt. It's interesting to see him straddle the line between calling for more government regulation and cautioning against too much of it. Here, he calls for more regulation:
regulators need to more regularly and proactively engage market participants. We should get more questions from regulators like, "Where are standards slipping or policies being stretched? Where are pressures building up? And, where are you seeing concentrations in risk?"
Here, he warns against too much regulation:
Most of the past century was defined by markets and instruments that fund innovation, reward entrepreneurial risk-taking and act as an important catalyst for economic growth. History has shown that a vibrant, dynamic financial system is at the heart of a vibrant, dynamic economy. We have to safeguard the value of risk capital, which is at the heart of market capitalism, while enhancing investor confidence through meaningful transparency, effective oversight and strong governance. If we fail to achieve this balance, we not only constrain our ability to finance ourselves out of the downturn, we weaken the elements of our financial system that, over the long-term, have contributed significantly to systemic growth and investment.
