New FinReg Legislation

A nice graph by Dr. Mark Perry, professor of Finance and Economics at the University of Michigan showing how the financial regulation that was recently signed into law compared in terms of pages to other major financial regulation through the years.

One of major causes of the recent financial crises was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that was a main part of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.  I was a proponent of the repeal of the time, thinking people had learned enough from what happened in the Great Crash of 1929 to not do such stupid things again.  I was clearly wrong in thinking that.

Anyway, the law creating Glass-Steagall was 37 pages and that law worked wonderfully for over 60 years.  To repeal it took 145 pages.  To partially put it back takes 2319 pages.  Yes there are other items in there but to be 16 times the size in order to undo the damage done by the 1999 Act seems a bit much.

Now the real question is, of all the people that signed this bill into law, how many actually read this in its entirety and how many understand what is in it.  I fear that number is a relatively small percentage.  Only time will tell what was really in and what impacts there may be such a tome.