On July 21, 2011, the one year anniversary of
the historic Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, the Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security (Aspen IFS) hosted Reforming Our Nation’s Financial System: Dodd-Frank One Year Later at the Aspen Institute headquarters in Washington DC.
After Lisa Mensah, Executive Director of Aspen IFS, delivered opening remarks, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) kicked off the conversation, discussing their respective roles in addressing the financial crisis, the implications of new regulation, and the long-term importance of financial reform, specifically the Dodd-Frank reforms, in maintaining a robust U.S. economy. Following their remarks, Wall Street Journal Pulitzer-prize winner David Wessel moderated a brief discussion with each Senator and probed deeper regarding both their motives and expectations with the Dodd-Frank reforms.
Wessel moved on to moderate a conversation between Michael Barr, Former Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Treasury; Alex Pollock, Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Damon Silvers, Policy Director and Special Counsel at the AFL-CIO. The dynamic discussions were indicative of how policymakers, the financial industry, and the American public continue to debate how best to implement and enforce a new financial regulatory regime.
