1. What are the advantages of banking regulation to consumers, businesses, and national economies? How could regulation be a disadvantage to banks themselves?
2. Banks have increasingly subsidized their traditional business models by charging new and higher fees to consumers and businesses. Do you think that this is ethical or unethical?
3. Why has the rate of bank failures fallen in recent years? Do you expect this trend to continue?
4. Why do economically stressed countries with massive debt have difficulty borrowing outside money needed for economic recovery? Explain.
5. If banks are required to keep larger cushions of cash on hand rather than loaning out that money (as proposed in the Basel III Requirements), in what ways will the U.S. economy be affected?