''In a time of mind-boggling complexity in financial regulation - too complex, according to Ben Bernanke, for the Federal Reserve System to understand its impact - Lessons Not Learned is a refreshing call to return to a simpler, more basic approach. Susanne Trimbath emphasizes that the failure to implement regulations, a key factor in the crisis of 2008, remains the system's Achilles heel. This book features a refreshing combination of research grounding and pragmatic experience. A must read for taxpayers and their representatives '' -- Jerry Caprio, (currently) Williams College, (formerly - 1988-2005) World Bank, Director, Operations and Policy Department, Financial Sector Vice Presidency *** Much has been written and spoken about the lessons learned from the financial crisis of 2009. This book lists the lessons not learned before the financial crisis. It demonstrates that the theoretical and intellectual frameworks for regulating financial systems that had been available since at least 2001 could have prevented the systemic failure in the United States that led to the collapse of global credit markets in 2007-2009. Step-by-step, the book will guide readers through what can be done right now, and/or what could have been done before 2008 or the Dodd-Frank Act. The book concludes with a key idea for how to make financial service businesses stand out from the crowd and be successful in the coming decades. The list of '10 Steps' is quite straight-forward and simple: ** Have private, independent rating agencies. ** Provide some government safety net, but not so much that banks are not held accountable ("Too Big to Fail"). ** Allow very little government ownership and control of national financial assets. ** Allow banks to reduce the volatility of returns by offering a wide-range of services. ** Require financial market players to register and be authorized. ** Provide information, including setting standards, to enhance market transparency. ** Routinely examine financial institutions to ensure that the regulatory code is obeyed. ** Enforce the code and discipline transgressors. ** Develop policies that keep the regulatory code up-to-date. ** Encourage the creation of specialized financial institutions. For each step, the reader will find legislative/regulatory background on the existing rules, plus what academic work is available on the theory. The book also includes facts showing where they were not implemented/enforced in the US (with examples of countries that did get it right), where applicable, and data supporting the connection between the steps and the events of 2008. *** Librarians: ebook available *** "A truly impressive and articulate analysis, 'Lessons Not Learned: 10 Steps to Stable Financial Markets' should be a part of every community, governmental, corporate, NGO, college, and university Contemporary Economics reference collection and supplemental studies reading list." -- Midwest Book Review, MBR Bookwatch: February 2016, Helen's Bookshelf Subject: Economics, Finance]