Chris Dodd: “I noted in my opening comments that housing and autos have historically led us out of recessions in many ways.”

I had hoped we'd get in the lame duck session to the ratification of the Colombian Free Trade Agreement and the Panamanian Free Trade Agreement.

In fact, it was the uncertainty inherent in a nontransparent and reckless financial system that made Dodd-Frank necessary in the first place.

The truth is that the catastrophe was years in the making caused by regulatory negligence and Wall Street gambling.

Maybe we ought to be spending a little more time looking at the relationships at that level.