The New Financial Deal: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act and Its (Unintended) Consequences

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is Washington's response to America's call for a new regulatory framework for the twenty-first century.

In The New Financial Deal, author David Skeel offers an in-depth look at the new financial reforms and questions whether they will bring more effective regulation of contemporary finance or simply cement the partnership between government and the largest banks.

• Details the goals of the legislation, and reveals that how they are handled could dangerously distort American finance, making it more politically charged, less vibrant, and further removed from basic rule of law principles
• Provides an inside account of the legislative process
• Outlines the key components of the new law

To understand what American financial life is likely to look like in five, ten, or twenty years, and how regulators will respond to the next crisis, we need to understand Dodd-Frank. The New Financial Deal provides that understanding, breaking down both what Dodd-Frank says and what it all means.

DAVID SKEEL is the S. Samuel Arsht Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is author of Icarus in the Boardroom: The Fundamental Flaws in Corporate America and Where They Came From; Debt's Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America; and numerous articles on bankruptcy, corporate law, and other topics. His commentary has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, Books & Culture, and elsewhere.