The recovery from the Great Recession began in July, as the financial system came back to life, and then steadily strengthened. The principles that made that first test so effective were independence and transparency.
For the first time, an independent authority, the Federal Reserve, would seek to independently assess risks.1 Just as important, the details of that assessment would be shared with the public, an extent of transparency that until then wasn’t characteristic of bank supervision but would become the hallmark of the regulatory framework erected in response to the crisis.