European Union Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Joaquín Almunia, takes to the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal Europe (what he presumably views as hostile territory) to let everyone know that things will have to change in financial regulation.  In what is mostly a review of the toxic asset options, he then offers a partial diagnosis  —

While fixing the abundant short-term problems remains the priority, we should not lose sight of the need to lay the foundations for sounder and more responsible global financial and governance systems. If one thing is certain at this stage, it is that what remained of the Thatcher and Reagan ideological heritage — the aversion to any attempt to correct the undesirable effects of the “laissez-faire, laissez-aller” approach — has collapsed.

Ronald Reagan last held power in 1988.  And he’s dead.  Maggie Thatcher’s most recent stint in the news was due only to her daughter saying silly stuff.  The Reagan-Thatcher era was 2 decades ago.  Some of us are getting old but some of us maybe don’t realize it.  Of course it’s always possible to define their “legacy” as including whatever unpleasantness one likes in the current era, but can’t Almunia do any better in terms of coming up with specifics about who’s at fault in the current crisis?  There have been years of policy and regulatory decisions since the Ronnie and Maggie show ended, and many made by the same circle of ministers, ex-ministers, regulators, and ex-regulators in which Almunia now operates. 

In the Irish case, he need only look over at his fellow commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, whose stint as finance minister is going to feature prominently in the post-mortems on the Celtic Tiger.  Now Charlie can always pull the “Maggie made me do it” excuse.  But he’s the one who did it.  One might hope that the crisis would bring franker assessments from policymakers about how we got here and how to get out of it.  In that regard, Sarko’s slam of Gordon Brown’s VAT cut was refreshing.  But it’s much easier to blame ghosts, it seems.