The Contrarian Investor: Be careful what you wish for

David Stevenson looks at how, following the financial crisis, innovation has been stifled and investors led into an ever-narrower range of funds.

When it comes to regulation, we should be careful what we wish for. Following the global financial crisis, everyone and their dog seemed to approve of the idea the markets required closer inspection and supervision. Markets and key financial agents such as investment banks simply could not be trusted to do ‘the right thing’. That market failure in turn required regulators to intrude into internal processes and management, especially around issues such as risk, treating customers fairly, and professional training. This form of what is essentially micromanagement borrowed many of the in...