Is Our Economy Safe? A Proposal for Assessing the Success of Swaps Regulation Under the Dodd-Frank Act

Abstract:     
On July 21, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law. The central goal of the Dodd-Frank Act is to ensure that all standardized derivates products are regulated. The Act requires these trades be fully transparent and backed by adequate capital. The central question for evaluating the success of the Dodd-Frank Act is simple but profound: Has the Dodd-Frank Act made the economy any safer from the threat of another economic meltdown? This paper introduces a number of metrics that can be used to assess the success of the Dodd-Frank Act.

This paper was prepared for the Roosevelt Institute, October 2010.

Keywords: OTC, Financial Crisis, Swap, Swap Dealer, Major Swap Participant, CFTC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFMA, Commodity Futures Modernization Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, CDS, Credit Default Swap, Clearing, DCO, Derivatives Clearing Organizat

working papers series