Financial Reform: The Lawyers and Lobbyists Full Employment Act

Heritage "Washington looks increasingly like a public-works jobs program for lawyers and lobbyists, a profit center for professionals who are in business for themselves.” The Dodd-Frank bill is the perfect extension of Washington as “a public-works jobs program for lawyers and lobbyists.” Instead of encouraging the U.S. economy to invest in engineers, technology and new products, it requires firms to invest in lawyers and lobbyists just to stay alive. It will do nothing to help create new wealth or new net jobs in the economy, but will transfer more wealth to lobbying and law firms in Washington, D.C."

Dodd-Frank may backfire on Democrats. "That's because, like stimulus and health care, Democrats turned the financial regulation bill into a monstrosity. What started as a promise to streamline and modernize the financial system turned into 2,300 pages of new agencies and new powers for the very authorities that fomented the financial crisis. The bill is laden with uncertainty and brimming with costly regulations on small businesses. Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank made it easy for Republicans to pronounce their bill more Obama Big Government—a "Main Street takeover"—and to justify their votes against it." KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

7 Reasons to Be Skeptical About Financial Reform "Democrats will no doubt hail the bill as a major accomplishment before the midterm elections. After all, it is perhaps the most significant piece of progressive financial legislation since the Great Depression. But the Atlantic has also spent considerable time pointing out all the ways financial reform could fail to curb risk appetite, strengthen the most dangerous banks and hurt ultimately taxpayers. Here* are seven reasons to be skeptical about financial reform:"...Derek Thompson is a staff editor at TheAtlantic.com, where he writes about economics, business, and technology.

Business Knows More than Obama "But all business is asking for is some clarity and certainty regarding government intentions, especially on taxes and regulation. Take, for example, the new 2,300-page bank-regulation bill, which spreads 243 new regulatory provisions across ten agencies. No one really knows what’s in this document, or what the unintended consequences will be. Until people figure this out, it could freeze bank lending for years."

All the above shows what happens when we let celebrities and academics choose our president.