Whoever wins, Dodd-Frank is not likely to go away
Share Now on:
Whoever wins, Dodd-Frank is not likely to go away
Jeff Horwich: Government regulators are still writing many of the details of Dodd-Frank financial reform act. The massive bill passed after the financial crisis will affect banks, insurance companies, payday lenders and many more aspects of our economy.
Wall Street lobbyists want to make the rules less intrusive and less costly. Mitt Romney says he’ll “get rid of Dodd-Frank” and start again from scratch. But how likely is it that we’ll turn back the clock on Dodd-Frank? Here’s Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman.
Mitchell Hartman: The big banks don’t like Dodd-Frank’s limits on trading, or its consumer protections. Standard and Poor’s estimates they could cost $20 billion to $30 billion a year.
But that doesn’t mean Wall Street wants a complete re-do, says Boston University finance professor Cornelius Hurley.
Cornelius Hurley: It’s easy to say ‘repeal Dodd-Frank,’ but you’re then left with the status quo immediately before the financial panic of 2008, and I don’t think anyone wants to go back to that.
Especially the big banks. Hurley says they like some aspects of Dodd-Frank, since it maintains the government guarantee that they’re ‘too big to fail’ and doesn’t break them up.
If conservative Republicans win big in November, the banks could actually find themselves on the defensive, says Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute.
Mark Calabria: You know, there’s essentially a populist, maybe Tea Party wing of the Republican Party and then there’s a Wall Street wing of the Republican Party.
Whoever wins, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is likely to survive. It’s got strong support among voters.
I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
