Five Questions: Tom Stanton on Lessons from the Financial Crisis
New author and former Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission investigator says JPMorgan Chase and MF Global risk management failures will be repeated unless regulators become more aggressive.
By S.L. Mintz
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It may be too soon to bestow a mantle of historical perspective on causes of the financial crisis, but Thomas Stanton comes close with a new window on missteps, blunders and malfeasance that cause financial debacles.
Slated for publication in July by the Oxford University Press, “Why Some Firms Thrive While Others Fail: Governance and Management Lessons from the Crisis” arms institutional investors with a better grasp of factors that govern success or failure in the companies they own. More than a decade before the financial system nearly ground to a halt, Stanton called attention to catastrophe lurking at government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Using exhaustive interviews conducted by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, where Stanton was a senior investigator, his new book tackles themes from repairing public and private institutions to corporate organization and the supervision and regulation of financial firms. Mainly, he dissects winners and losers in the financial crisis for clear lessons that can help prevent a relapse. Institutional Investor contributor Steven Mintz spoke with Stanton, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at the Johns....