Dodd-Frank just turned two, but it'll be old before its time writes Dimitri B. Papadimitriou of Bard College. The legislation falls prey to the same flaw of most financial regulation: aiming to solve the last crisis instead of the next, he argues.
"Dodd-Frank aims to identify the most vulnerable institutions and practices. That approach is too brittle to contain the disastrous effects of risks that are always morphing," he writes on HuffPost. Such factors are moving target as "we're always witnessing how quickly markets create newer, riskier, and more profitable instruments."
OK, so tell us, what is the regulatory solution to avoid furture crises?
He suggests breaking banks down into smaller units. "A bank holding company structure with numerous types of subsidiaries, each one subject to strict limitations on the type of permitted activities, would be a valuable deterrent to risky behavior," he writes. "Restrictions on size and function would allow a reasonable shot at understanding esoteric subsidiaries, and a chance to react quickly to mutations."
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