Siren voices including that of Bill Harrison, chief executive of J. P. Morgan Chase, are beginning to warn that a raft of new regulations and moves to break up the industry could shackle investment banks at a time when their profits are already under strain.Nevertheless, reform of how research is conducted by investment banks now seems inevitable.
Muslims, she says, must stop prioritising the afterlife over this life; they must "shackle sharia" and respect secular law; they must abandon the idea of telling others, including non-Muslims, how to behave, dress or drink; and they must abandon holy war.
Unburdened by the constraints that shackle most of her 27 fellow commissioners, she can block mergers, launch surprise raids on private offices and threaten multinationals with vast fines.
The constitution, often portrayed as designed to shackle government, actually imposed a structure that the earlier Articles of Confederation lacked, notes Garry Wills, a historian.
You can shackle a Yahoo to his desk, but you can't make him feel the buzz.
Last year the president's economic lieutenants had seemed content to shackle the banks with tougher regulation and higher capital ratios, rather than limiting their activities.
With a single voice, the opposition now demands direct, contested elections, the abolition of laws that shackle political life and allow for arbitrary arrest, and constitutional reform to redress the current, extreme imbalance between the executive and other branches of government.
Britain, which has the biggest banking centre, is particularly concerned about the proposed rules, which may cede aspects of the City of London's banking supervision to Brussels.Related items Financial regulation: How to fix financeJan 15th 2009In America, meanwhile, the plans taking shape face resistance, partly from the bankers they will shackle but even more from regulators and lawmakers.
Their hope had been to shackle the Germans via the euro, but now they find themselves at a competitive disadvantage without the option of devaluing.
Some want to shackle capitalism with tougher rules.
You might conclude that the thing to do is to shackle finance as it was shackled in the 1950s and 60s.
