Regulating Wall Street is an Old Testament sort of affair: Like Leviticus, it is all about the persnickety details. But politicians try to talk about it in New Testament terms, with sinners and saints, salvation and damnation. Only they can’t agree on who the sinners are — the bankers or the bureaucrats — and wherein lies salvation. Such moralizing, however, does very little to shine light on the benefits and drawbacks of the byzantine 2010 banking regulations known as Dodd-Frank. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland are pleading guilty to antitrust violations in the foreign exchange market, while UBS is pleading guilty over manipulation of a benchmark rate. White Collar Watch: Guilty Pleas and Heavy Fines Seem to Be Cost of Business for Wall St. William Dudley of the New York Fed has said the malfeasance is not because of “isolated rogue traders or a few bad actors.”
Source: Wall Street Is Using the Power of Dodd-Frank Against Itself – NYTimes.com
