Twenty-five years ago Richard Epstein published Simple Rules for a Complex World, which would go on to become one of Epstein’s most influential works. This essay, prepared for a conference and symposium to celebrate the anniversary of the book, applies the insights of Simple Rules in the context of one of the most complex areas of social and economic regulation, financial regulation. The complexity of modern finance is often thought to require an equally complex regulatory structure to preserve the safety of the financial system and thus Epstein’s approach is inapplicable to this context. We argue that this argument is exactly backwards. Simplicity in the regulatory framework is essential for financial institutions to manage risk and conduct their affairs efficiently and prudently. Complexity, by contrast, begets a variety of destabilizing problems, including the likelihood of regulatory arbitrage and errors by regulators that increase risk. We argue that refashioning financial regulation around Epstein’s concept of simple rules would create a more stable and efficient financial regulatory system.

二十五年前，理查德·爱泼斯坦（Richard Epstein）出版了《复杂世界的简单规则》，后来成为爱泼斯坦最有影响力的作品之一。本文是为庆祝书的周年纪念而举行的一次会议和座谈会的文章，它运用了“简单规则”的见解在社会和经济监管最复杂的领域之一中，金融监管。人们通常认为现代金融的复杂性要求同样复杂的监管结构以维护金融系统的安全性，因此爱泼斯坦的方法不适用于这种情况。我们认为，这种论点恰恰是倒退的。监管框架的简单性对于金融机构有效，审慎地管理风险和处理事务至关重要。相比之下，复杂性会引发各种不稳定的问题，包括监管套利的可能性以及监管机构增加风险的错误。我们认为，围绕爱泼斯坦的简单规则概念重新定义金融监管体系将建立一个更加稳定和有效的金融监管体系。