Christopher Dodd recently spoke in defense of the act with his name his name on it at a conference for accounting fraud examiners. Following the event the former senator discussed the compromises and concessions that were necessary to pass the bill, and everything he would have included given his druthers, in an interview with Accounting Today.
At the top of his wish list is a single prudential regulator. "I would have incorporated the consumer protection within it so you would have had a complementary system between consumer protection and prudential regulation, which I think is essential," he said.
He identified GSE reform and issues regarding ratings agencies as two areas of financial regulation that still need to be tackled. He and other legislators would have liked to have figured out the answer to housing finance, but "frankly, there were a lot of people who didn’t want to do anything," he said.
And his description of how Congress came to an agreement on part of the Volcker Rule highlights how political pragmatism trumps all. "I'd love to tell you we came up with some mathematical formulation," he said about the percent of funds allowed for hedging. "The pros and the cons could come to 3. That's not exactly the most enlightened way to get to a number. I'll be the first to acknowledge it. But the people who tell me otherwise never had to deal with 99 other people and 534 other people in Congress."
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