Risk, Regulation and Insurance

From the Marketplace website comes a great idea.

Having heard stories about government bailouts and regulation and why they're both bad, I was wondering if maybe there wasn't a way to relate the two. Require companies to purchase government "bailout insurance" and their premiums will be set based on risk factors just like any other form of insurance. If companies want to dabble in risky behavior or have opaque accounting, fine, but they will have higher premiums. How much various risk factors influence the premium should be under the control of the Fed, giving them another set of controls to work with. New regulations could be eased into enforcement indirectly, and the rate of corporate participation will help establish accurate measures of the cost of compliance. - The Marketplace Confessional

If homeowners in low-lying areas are required to buy flood insurance in order to get Federally-backed loans, why aren't businesses required to by similar insurance?

On NPR this morning Robert Rubin suggested that the Fed might implement margin requirements for new investment instruments, which is also a good idea. I think we should consider implementing both.