The current regulatory scheme governing banking laws and investment instruments was the wrong response to the financial crisis of 2008, creating a confounding maze that few understand and even fewer can navigate. Hundreds of provisions of the 2010 massive banking overhaul, Dodd-Frank, have yet to be finalized, and even finalized portions have yet to be fully interpreted. The havoc on America’s financial institutions has become clear, with government regulators receiving unprecedented powers, the creation of an uneven playing field among lenders, and a credit squeeze on America’s consumers and businesses, a case where government “crowding the field” again resulted in a weaker and slower growing economy.
CASE believes it’s time to fix the “glitch,” by keeping firm but sensible regulations on banks in place while getting government out of the banking business. It’s time to ensure a level playing field and keep government agencies within their delegated powers of oversight and consumer safety, while eliminating undo restrictions on banks that have achieved nothing other than to put a shark infested moat between consumers and access to credit. A market economy that rewards risk and investment requires clear and firm banking rules, not an army of government regulators squeezing the credit market with their arbitrary interventionist impulses.
