The Becker-Posner Blog: How Much government Regulation to "Protect" Consumers?Becker Becker asks: How would greater regulation have helped when commercial banks, one of the most heavily regulated of all industries, did so badly during this housing bubble? We learned in the 20’s that banks have to be regulated and did OK until S&L’s were "deregged" and the rubes that ran them began swinging for the fences, and perhaps from the chandeliers. Now, we’ve surely learned that despite having savvy economists and lots of computers the system will fail if the "lender" is able to pass his risk on to some other institution that also should know better but accepted the risk for an inadequate premium anyway.