Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) writes in The Hill’s Congress Blog that Dodd-Frank “however good its intentions, has not and will not protect us against another meltdown.”
Kaufman is the co-author of the Brown-Kaufman amendment that would have, if it had been added to Dodd-Frank, placed certain size limits on banks.
He is concerned about big banks getting bigger:
"Just before the financial crisis, the largest banks’ assets amounted to 43 percent of the U.S. economy. At the end of 2011, the five largest banks' assets had increased to 56 percent."
And he has little faith in the orderly resolution plans (aka "living wills") required by big banks:
"Each of the wills depends on that bank’s ability to sell assets in an orderly manner to another large financial institution. But given how interconnected they are, if one megabank is in trouble, the probability is they will all be in the same boat. 'Orderly' is not what happens in a meltdown."
Idea one: reinstate Glass-Steagall (note he posted this just a couple days before the Sandy Weill surprise). Idea two: enact Kaufman-Brown!
For the full piece see "
