Dodd Frank

From Cafe Hayek

The entertaining part is the arguments they get into. The illuminating part is that TWO YEARS after Dodd-Frank passed, its provisions are not completely specified. Frank resents the claim that it’s not even half done, but that’s quibbling. The point is that two years after this legislation passed, its provisions remain incompletely unspecified. What the heck is that about? There is no way to measure the impact of this kind of uncertainty on the economy in the middle of a recession with any precision, but it’s not a good thing. We’re not talking about the uncertainty of what the consequences are of the legislation. We’re talking about the uncertainty over what’s in the legislation.

And it’s not good for democracy. What does it mean to pass legislation if the specifics are worked out over more than two years through an opaque process where the actual decision-makers are not accountable to the voters?