New Normal. Everything Old is New Again After a Decade of Quick Fixes, Fake Money, and Made-Up Rules

"The New Normal" is the story of how we created our own money and the rules as we went along. More importantly, it warns that we are far from finding the solution, considering that derivatives are still in use, many publicly traded companies still have large off-balance sheet portfolios, and any short-selling laws we have are almost entirely ignored. Written by regulatory expert Eric Dinallo, former New York Superintendent of Insurance, "The New Normal" provides a roadmap for how to get out of the mess we ourselves created. He calls for a return to the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which prevented commercial banks from working with full-service brokerage firms or participating in investment banking activities. In other words, it prohibited the creation of financial supermarkets. Dinallo also provides his fix for the rating agencies, a proposal for a federal charter for insurance, and finally the creation of a Risk Regulator position, which would be responsible for regulating all financial products, institutions, markets, and exchanges. Dinallo concludes with his own advice for readers; he offers 10 ways for investors to respond to the future by creating a template by which they can benchmark their finances.