Has your bank raised its fees or stopped offering free checking accounts in the last couple of years? If so, you can thank the regulatory boondoggle that is the Dodd-Frank financial law.
Since its passage two years ago tomorrow, the number of large banks that offer free checking has declined sharply. In 2009, 96 percent of them offered free checking, but just 34.6 percent did in 2011.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) argued that their namesake would save America from another financial crisis—but most of the law’s provisions have little or no connection to the most recent crisis.
For example, Dodd–Frank does not end bailouts and taxpayer support for big banks. Under the act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is permitted to purchase the assets of a failing firm, guarantee the obligations of a failing firm, take a security interest in the assets of a failing firm, and borrow on the failed firm’s total consolidated assets. (For Bank of America, that would be $2 trillion in bailout authority to be paid by taxpayers.)
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