Ivory marked by the Royal African Company. International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Wikimedia Commons.
Dodd-Frank, in 2010, was the attempt to write rules before the next financial fire.
If money is tight, a consumer bureau is useful only if it stops the loan that would have trapped you.
If you are in the middle, higher bank capital is invisible until it shows up as a tighter mortgage.
If you have savings, the Volcker Rule is about whether your bank is also a trading desk.
The Dodd-Frank Act was signed on July 21, 2010.
It created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, raised demands on bank capital, restricted banks from betting for their own account, and set a path for winding down a giant firm.
The argument began immediately over whether the law made credit safer or simply scarcer.
Source: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed July 21, 2010.