The Truth (and Lies) About Financial Regulation

In just a couple of weeks, Dodd-Frank law ignominiously celebrate its first birthday.

The WSJ, working with PolitiFact — the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking service of the St. Petersburg Times — looked at “some of the most controversial statements about Dodd-Frank, how PolitiFact scored them.”

These are the more interesting statements told by various Congress critters about the regulatory Dodd-Frank law:

Rep. Elijah Cummings: Last month, the Maryland Democrat said the budget for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “is only about 1% of the amount banks generate just from late fees and overdraft fees.” (TRUE)

House Speaker John Boehner:  In November, the Ohio Republican who gave a press conference after the GOP retook the House. Mr. Boehner was asked about the party’s priorities. Among them, he said, would be a scaling back Dodd-Frank, which requires “358 regulatory filings,” he said. (TRUE)

President Obama: In October, he appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and said stabilizing the financial industry ultimately “will cost less than 1% of GDP,” which is less than the 2.5% to fix the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s (HALF-TRUE)

Oregon Democrat Kurt Schrader: Said more Republicans voted for the bank bailouts in 2008 than Democrats. Actually, 171 Democrats voted yes, compared to 91 Republicans. (FALSE)

Jeff Greene, a Georgia Republican:  Mr. Greene argued that Dodd-Frank’s restrictions on derivatives were too onerous. Without them, he argued, there “would be no bank loans at all today.  (BARELY TRUE)

Sen. Sherrod Brown: The Ohio Democrat said last April that the bill will end “too-big-to-fail.”  (BARELY TRUE)

Sen. Mitch McConnell: The Florida Kentucky Republican said Dodd-Frank “actually guarantees future bailouts of Wall Street banks.” He said the bill sets up a “$50 billion slush fund.” (FALSE)

Good stuff from David Weidner.

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Source:
The Truth (and Lies) About Financial Regulation
David Weidner
WSJ July 7, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304793504576430783688575732.html

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