American finance for the 21st century / Robert E. Litan with Jonathan Rauch.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface / Robert E. Rubin -- 1. The Financial Services Industry Today -- 2. Tides of Change -- 3. Energizing Competition -- 4. Containing Risk -- 5. Expanding Financial Opportunity.

This book, originally prepared as a report to Congress by the Treasury Department, presents a framework for setting policy toward the financial services industry in the coming decades.

The authors, who worked closely with senior Treasury officials in developing their recommendations, identify three core principles: an enhanced role for competition, a shift in emphasis from preventing failures of financial institutions at all cost toward containing the damage of the failures that inevitably occur in a competitive market, and a greater reliance on more targeted interventions to achieve policy goals rather than broad measures such as flat prohibitions on certain activities.