Has the United States suffered a regulatory breakdown? Today the answer would appear to be clearly, yes. Virtually every account of the nation’s woes over the past few years has placed considerable blame on regulation. One could even say that dissatisfaction with the performance of regulation has become one of the rare points of agreement between Democrats and Republicans – although their sources of disaffection vary profoundly. For the left, the United States would have never suffered disasters like the financial crisis or the Gulf Coast oil spill had the regulatory system not grown lax. For the right, the country never would have suffered such deep and sustained economic problems had costly regulations not stifled the business risk-taking needed to jumpstart economic growth. Whichever account is correct U.S. regulation clearly suffers a deep crisis of confidence. Government has become less trusted and politics more polarized, with debates over regulatory policy readily devolving into highly charged ideological disputes. This panel will feature papers analyzing the disparate causes of the current crisis as well as considering potential solutions. Drawing on studies of both the housing finance crisis and the Gulf Coast oil spill, as well as research on persistent claims about regulatory ossification, the panel seeks to draw lessons about regulatory failure and its prevention for both policymakers and researchers.