Alternet - At
over 2,300 pages, the Dodd Frank Act is the longest and most
complicated bill ever passed by the US legislature. It was supposed to
end “too big to fail” and “bailouts,” and to “promote financial
stability.” But Dodd-Frank’s “orderly liquidation authority” has
replaced bailouts with bail-ins, meaning that in the event of
insolvency, big banks are to recapitalize themselves with the savings of
their creditors and depositors. The banks deemed too big are more than
30% bigger than before the Act was passed in 2010, and 80% bigger than
before the banking crisis of 2008. The six largest US financial institutions now have assets of some $10 trillion, amounting to almost 60% of GDP; and they control nearly 50% of all bank deposits.
Meanwhile, their smaller competitors are struggling to survive. Community banks and credit unions are disappearing
at the rate of one a day. Access to local banking services is
disappearing along with them. Small and medium-size businesses – the
ones that hire two-thirds of new employees – are having trouble getting
loans; students are struggling with sky-high interest rates; homeowners
have been replaced by hedge funds acting as absentee landlords; and bank
fees are up, increasing the rolls of the unbanked and underbanked, and
driving them into the predatory arms of payday lenders.
Today there are 1,524 fewer banks with assets under $1 billion than there were in June 2010, before the Dodd-Frank regulations were signed into law.
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