THEN WHY DOES THE UR SUPPORT REGULATION OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS?

Hedge-Fund Regulation Splits G-20 as Conference Begins (DAMIAN PALETTA in Horsham, England and JONATHAN WEISMAN in Washington, 3/14/09, WSJ)

National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, laid out some key elements of U.S. regulatory proposals Friday in Washington. He called for levels of capital and liquidity in the banking sector to be kept fixed, even in economic downturns. Under existing rules, capital requirements tend to go up in bad times, making it harder for banks to survive.

Mr. Summers said the U.S. wants large hedge funds and private-equity firms to be subjected to "rigorous public scrutiny," compared with the minimal oversight they now face.

Overall, Mr. Summers pledged that the president will press for tougher regulation when heads of the Group of 20 leading economies meet in London on April 2. "The United States must lead a leveling-up of regulatory standards, not as has happened all too often in the recent past, trying to win a race to the bottom," Mr. Summers said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. [...]

German and French officials have called for hedge funds to be regulated much more closely, in some cases overseen like banks. But U.S. and U.K. officials have been more cautious, suggesting instead that these companies be required to register with the government and disclose much more information to increase transparency. Current U.S. law makes it voluntary for hedge funds to register with the government.

Mr. Summers said governments should play a bigger role in discouraging what he called "improper risk taking," but that the discouragement should come from "transparency and accountability for errors."