Timothy P. Carney finds some surprising results as he searches for the people most likely to have derived benefits from the year-old Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform legislation. Carney documents the results of his search for the Washington Examiner.
It may not prevent another bailout or protect consumers from dangerous financial products, but the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law — now one year old — has already benefited one group of people: the government officials who wrote and implemented the law before cashing out as lobbyists or consultants for Wall Street, hedge funds and big banks.
The top staff lawyers in charge of crafting the legislation in both chambers of Congress have both left Capitol Hill for K Street, as has a Securities and Exchange Commission staffer who helped implement the law. This is “private-sector job creation, Obama-style,” as blogger Ira Stoll drolly notes.
The Great Wall Street Cashout is another example of how President Obama’s agenda of bigger government — and congressional Democrats’ style of leaving the key details up to executive-branch regulators — accelerates the revolving door and breeds crony capitalism.
