Delaware Online: Carney: Can regulators really reform Wall St.?
July 21, 2010

Democratic congressional candidate John C. Carney Jr. sees some good in the Dodd-Frank financial reforms signed by President Obama today — the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an end to taxpayer-funded bailouts for sinking Wall St. firms, for example.

But Carney, who served two terms as Delaware’s lieutenant governor and served as Secretary of Finance under then-Gov. Tom Carper, has his doubts about the bill, too.

In a statement released late Wednesday afternoon, Carney said:

“I’m concerned that Congress allowed too many of the bill’s most important elements, like increased capital requirements for financial institutions and oversight of derivatives and other risky trading instruments, to be written by the very regulators who did not see this crisis looming in 2007 and early 2008.

“As the son of two educators, who grew up in a large, middle class family, I understand the challenges Delawareans face to provide for their children, own a home, and save for a comfortable retirement. If I’m elected to Congress, I will fight every day to ensure that the financial regulations signed into law today protect Delaware families and help restore long-term stability to our economy. Additionally, I will work to strengthen the legislation if the regulations that arise from it prove to be insufficient to control serious risks to the financial system.

“We cannot go back to the lax enforcement on Wall Street that caused our economic problems in the first place. In the years ahead, Congress must provide the necessary oversight of the regulators to make sure they do their jobs. Wall Street’s actions have enormous consequences for Main Street, and Delaware families simply cannot afford to go through another financial catastrophe like the 2008 crisis.”