Following the costly banking and thrift crises of the 1980's and early '90s, the United States dramatically reformed the federal government safety net for depository institutions, which many blamed for the outbreak and high cost of the crises. The reforms, highlighted by the 1991 Federal Deposit...

Ever since severe turmoil enveloped the financial markets in the fall of 2008, commentators have blamed deregulation of the financial system, and specifically the supposed "repeal" of the Glass-Steagall Act by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999,2 for the crisis. This has led many to advocate a...

Despite the fact that it grew out of a financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act was not the result of a bipartisan consensus. It received no Republican votes in the House of Representatives and only three Republican votes in the Senate. There are repeated statements by Republicans that they would...

The portfolios of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have now become the central issue in the legislative battle over improvements in their regulation. But it was not always so. When the notion of improving their regulation was first advanced in 2000, the...

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), established by the Dodd-Frank Act, has the extraordinary authority to designate financial firms as systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs). Firms so designated are then turned over to the Fed for “stringent” regulation. FSOC’s...