The Breakdown: Will the Financial Reform Bill Prevent Future Meltdowns?

The Breakdown: Will the Financial Reform Bill Prevent Future Meltdowns?

The Breakdown: Will the Financial Reform Bill Prevent Future Meltdowns?

Obama signed the Frank-Dodd bill into law this week. What does the bill do to reform Wall Street, and will it prevent bailouts? Finance blogger Mike Konczal joins Chris Hayes to tackle these questions on this week’s edition of The Breakdown.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

Nearly two years after a global financial crisis almost crippled our economy, President Obama this week signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, otherwise known as the financial regulatory reform bill. The bill is supposed to prevent such a crisis and the subsequent bank bailouts from ever happening again, but will it really accomplish that? And more broadly, what does it do to reform the financial system that made Wall Street’s abuses possible in the first place? The Nation’s Washington DC Editor Christopher Hayes and finance blogger Mike Konczal tackle these questions on this week’s edition of The Breakdown.

The Breakdown Nearly two years after a global financial crisis almost crippled our economy, President Obama this week signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, otherwise known as the financial regulation bill. The bill is supposed to prevent such a crisis and the subsequent bank bailouts from ever happening again, but does it really accomplish that? And more broadly, what does it do to reform the financial system that made Wall Street’s abuses possible in the first place? The Nation‘s Washington DC Editor Christopher Hayes and financial blogger Mike Konczal tackle these questions on this week’s edition of The Breakdown.

Related Links

More information on our guest Mike Konczal.

Konczal’s initial thoughts on the bill.

An article by Christopher Hayes and Nomi Prins explaining the financial crisis.

Disobey authoritarians, support The Nation

Over the past year you’ve read Nation writers like Elie Mystal, Kaveh Akbar, John Nichols, Joan Walsh, Bryce Covert, Dave Zirin, Jeet Heer, Michael T. Klare, Katha Pollitt, Amy Littlefield, Gregg Gonsalves, and Sasha Abramsky take on the Trump family’s corruption, set the record straight about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s catastrophic Make America Healthy Again movement, survey the fallout and human cost of the DOGE wrecking ball, anticipate the Supreme Court’s dangerous antidemocratic rulings, and amplify successful tactics of resistance on the streets and in Congress.

We publish these stories because when members of our communities are being abducted, household debt is climbing, and AI data centers are causing water and electricity shortages, we have a duty as journalists to do all we can to inform the public.

In 2026, our aim is to do more than ever before—but we need your support to make that happen. 

Through December 31, a generous donor will match all donations up to $75,000. That means that your contribution will be doubled, dollar for dollar. If we hit the full match, we’ll be starting 2026 with $150,000 to invest in the stories that impact real people’s lives—the kinds of stories that billionaire-owned, corporate-backed outlets aren’t covering. 

With your support, our team will publish major stories that the president and his allies won’t want you to read. We’ll cover the emerging military-tech industrial complex and matters of war, peace, and surveillance, as well as the affordability crisis, hunger, housing, healthcare, the environment, attacks on reproductive rights, and much more. At the same time, we’ll imagine alternatives to Trumpian rule and uplift efforts to create a better world, here and now. 

While your gift has twice the impact, I’m asking you to support The Nation with a donation today. You’ll empower the journalists, editors, and fact-checkers best equipped to hold this authoritarian administration to account. 

I hope you won’t miss this moment—donate to The Nation today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel 

Editor and publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x