Niall Ferguson gives a lecture in which he describes the world financial system as too complex to control or manage using top down regulation such as that proposed by the Dodd Frank Act. He likens the financial system to other complex organic or man made complex systems, hard to model and predict, and describes his own approach to bringing the people in the system under control using simpler regulation and harsher punishments for misbehaviour.

For anyone involved in Dodd Frank (or EMIR), this makes fascinating listening – access via the link below, or use the new iOS Podcast app and search for Reith Lectures.

The eminent economic historian Niall Ferguson travels to the world’s financial centre to deliver a lecture at the New-York Historical Society. He reflects on the causes of the global financial crisis, and argues that many people have drawn erroneous conclusions from it about the role of regulation. Is regulation, he asks, in fact “the disease of which it purports to be the cure”?

BBC Radio 4 – The Reith Lectures – Episodes available on BBC iPlayer.