Complete "Volcker Rule: Financial Crisis, Bailouts, and the Need for Financial Regulations" Case (KEL-703-PDF-ENG) from your Harvard Case Studies Course Pack.  Please answer the following questions specifically:

Your paper should be a minimum of 5 pages (not including the cover sheet, abstract and references) 

In the case:

1. In this case, at what state in its life cycle is the nonmarket issue of the “Volcker rule” (regulation of proprietary trading)?
2. Map out the interest and their potential influence.  
3. Propose a nonmarket strategy for a large bank to deal with the threat of the Volcker rule.  Make sure the strategy looks not only at the current stage of the issue but at future stages as well.

Additional questions:

1. Should banks be allowed to engage in proprietary trading? Why, or why not?
2. What are the interests and their potential influence for each side of the issue?  Who has the balance of influence?
3. Who are the banks’ opposition and allies?  What are the sources of strength of the banks’ opposition in terms of influencing legislation?  What are the sources of strength for the banks and its allies?
4. Should the banks support the Merkley-Levin amendment?  Why, or why not?
5. What are the banks’ general market strategies?  How does the nonmarket issue of proprietary trading relate to their strategy?
6. What should a bank’s nonmarket strategy look like here (both its strategy for the legislative and administrative phases of the issue)?  Is it likely to be successful?