Dick Durbin: “July 21 marks the fifth anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.…”

“July 21 marks the fifth anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Let's remember what was happening when the law was created. In 2008, we were staring in the face of the greatest economic meltdown since the Great Depression. Wall Street banks and financial companies had built a multi-trillion dollar house of cards. They built it out of subprime and predatory mortgage lending, mortgage-backed securities with inflated credit ratings, and unregulated derivatives based on these mortgages. It was enormously complex and risky, and our financial regulatory system was ill-equipped to oversee it. It all started coming apart when several mortgage lenders went under, and Bear Stearns began wobbling. Then in March 2008 Bear Stearns went down. By September 2008 one giant financial company after another started collapsing: Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Washington Mutual, Wachovia. It was a time of panic. Credit markets froze. The stock market swung wildly. Congress had to take dramatic steps to stop the economy from going into free fall. Who suffered the most from Wall Street's misbehavior? Main Street Americans. As a result of the financial crisis, unemployment went up over 10 percent. Nearly nine million Americans lost their jobs. Millions of families faced foreclosure on their homes. More than $19 trillion in household and retirement wealth was wiped away.…”