We all know that throughout the history of the West, banking and finance have played an important role as vital infrastructure for the economy. That remains true today, although it is often overlooked in the traditional litany of issues critical to the West.
A strong banking industry is necessary for households and businesses to engage in the spending, saving, and investment that constitute economic activity, and one of the purposes of financial regulation is to ensure that  1  Wallace Stegner, “The American West as Living Space,” University of Michigan Press, 1988. -2banks continue to be able to serve this purpose.