Legal Commentary

UVA Debate: Are Bailouts Inevitable Under Dodd-Frank?

By Kenneth Anderson

Check out the YouTube video of the debate at University of Virginia Law School this past Monday on the vexed question of whether the Dodd-Frank financial regulation reform law makes future bailouts more or less likely, or even inevitable.  I thought this was one of the most interesting, informative, and ?listenable? discussions of the subject - and I have read and watched lots and lots and lots of these exchanges. (It runs about an hour on YouTube. Kudos to UVA Law?s Rex E. Lee Society for pulling it together.)

The discussion features UVA Dean Paul Mahoney (?inevitable?) and UVA ?84 Randall Guynn (?inevitable, not?), which is one reason it is so noteworthy.  Guynn heads Davis Polk?s financial institutions practice group and was a key inside player in advising the administration on financial regulation reform.  Indeed, so much so that David Skeel?s New Financial Deal notes that the Treasury?s initial 2009 report that would serve as the ?template that would eventually become the Dodd-Frank legislation? was elaborated from a ?draft first written by Davis Polk,? and it ?literally had the law firm?s name on it when Treasury submitted it to Congress, thanks to a computer watermark that Treasury had neglected to delete.?  (Skeel pp. 49?50.)

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on March 04, 2011 (boomark / email).