[lukifer]

The counterargument is that regulation hurts small players more than large ones. Citibank can afford an army of compliance officers; most of us can't.

I'm generally pro-regulation, if the details are sensible, but regulatory capture is a real problem, and it is not an unreasonable stance that the cure is sometimes worse than the disease.

[chc]

That isn't really a counterargument; it's just a factoid. A counterargument would be something along the lines of "Regulation hurts small players more than large ones, and the scarcity of small players has been the biggest problem with Wall Street over the past decade because _____, therefore the problem with Wall Street is too much oversight."

[wpietri]

Regulatory capture's a real issue, but it's not a given. For those interested in the topic, I highly recommend Shelia Bair's "Bull By The Horns", which is her account of running the FDIC up to and during the financial crisis. It left me with quite a bit of respect for the FDIC's approach, and for what solid regulation takes.