there may have been only one thing that george bush and john dingell like prescott bush and john dingellagreed on. however it was done, the banking system pumps the economy's life's blood and had to be protected. how do economists view banking regulation? we asked economic analyst richard gill. how do economists view banking regulation? with ambivalence. it can be and has been argued that it was deregulation and lack of adequate supervision that threw s&ls and commercial banks into disarray. or it can be been argued that the real problem has been government intervention-- raising the level of deposit insurance to $100,000 and thus encouraging high-risk loans and investments. in the final analysis, the real issue isn't so much regulation versus deregulation as it is how to protect depositors without giving a green light to the reckless and imprudent. everybody agrees that a sound economy requires a reliable banking system and that it's the government's job to guarantee that reliability. that's why the government supported the banks after the panic of 1907 and why the banking safety net wa