Column: Regulators on Crisis Hot Seat

There's little doubt that before Bear, investment bank directors were going to be front and center in the post-mortem blame game. Why didn't they stop excessive risk taking? What did they know, and why didn't they know more?

The questions are good, but not entirely fair. The assumption that even dedicated directors can make a difference in this complex, emotion-driven, leveraged, inter-related world of finance is dubious.

Now investment bank directors' future looks different. Under some new and more appropriate regulatory scheme, securities firms will have some of their risk-taking ability trimmed by government officials, who will also take on responsibility for oversight.

That means directors will have less authority but less to carry on their shoulders.

___

Neal Lipschutz is senior vice president and managing editor of Dow Jones Newswires.