More than 360,000 words in length, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is the longest and most complex piece of financial legislation in American history. The nature and magnitude of its effects, both intended and unintended, will become clearer as regulators exercise the broad discretion given to them under the law.
In this new book, the contributors ask whether the law is an effective response to the financial crisis that so deeply rattled our nation. Taking a hard look at the law’s celebrated objectives, they reveal that it not only fails to achieve many of its stated goals, it also creates dangerous regulatory pathologies that could lay the groundwork for the next crisis.
About the Editors
Hester Peirce is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Before joining Mercatus, she served as a senior counsel to the Republican staff on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Before that, she served as counsel to Commissioner Paul S. Atkins at the Securities and Exchange Commission and as a staff attorney in the Division of Investment Management at the Securities and Exchange Commission. She earned her BA in economics from Case Western Reserve University and her JD from Yale Law School.
James Broughel is the program manager of the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is a doctoral student in the economics program at George Mason University. He earned his MA in economics from Hunter College of the City University of New York.