WAPO piece saying no comprehensive global rules likely to emerge from recent financial crisis primarily because the EU and the US cannot agree on any one approach. We agree on desired ends; we cannot yet agree on chosen means.
This was always the downside of the collective stimulus packages working so well in the short run: the crisis does not end up being enough to foster systemic change.
The go-your-own-way approach undoubtedly leave us with a patchwork of rules, whose gaps will inevitably be exploited--once again--by innovators both well-meaning and nefarious:
. . . a resulting patchwork of reforms could allow companies to continue exploiting national differences by moving operations to countries where conditions are most favorable and thwart the efforts of regulators to spot financial threats early on. The outcome, for instance, could be very different ways of banking in New York and the financial capitals of Europe, prompting leading American firms to shift their riskiest activities overseas beyond the purview of U.S. regulators.
The evolving divide, analysts say, is spooking investors and contributing -- along the European debt and euro crisis -- to the sharp losses in recent days on stock markets from New York to Frankfurt to Tokyo.
Plenty of points of agreement (e.g., next time, the financial community itself must pay), the article notes, but wider perceptions of profound philosophical differences creates uncertainty in the system.