Transcript
12:30 Fred Barbash-Moderator: Welcome readers and welcome Douglas Elliott.
12:31 [Comment From Laurie] How close is Congress to tightening the regulations that some say allowed the financial crisis?
12:31 Douglas Elliott: Congress is going to take its time on this one, no matter what they are saying at the moment. It’s big, complex, and very heavily lobbied. Equally importantly, there is no political deadline that can’t be slipped until we get close to next November’s Congressional election.
12:32 Douglas Elliott: I do, however, think we’ll get comprehensive reform passed. I don’t think there are very many Democratic incumbents who want to be running in November saying: I know that we just went through the worst recession since the Great Depression; I know you know that it was caused by the financial sector; we all know that regulations need to be reformed to prevent another crisis … but we just couldn’t get it done.
12:32 Douglas Elliott: The voters won’t understand most of the complexity of whatever is passed, but they will want to see something of significance passed. Luckily there is much more consensus about some of the key reforms than you might think reading the coverage, which tends to focus on controversies.
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