The Hill News

For too long, too many in Washington protected Wall Street from commonsense regulations when they should have protected consumers from the reckless financial games that led us to the brink of economic disaster. We have seen the unfortunate results of these failed policies. Big financial institutions playing Russian roulette with our future -- backed up by "too big to fail" government guarantees -- wreaked havoc on the jobs and retirement savings of families who played by the rules. That is why, exactly one year ago, Congress and President Obama responded by enacting the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

One thing is clear: the drastic actions Congress had to take in 2008 to prevent a complete financial meltdown prove that the previous status-quo weren’t enough, and action had to be taken to prevent a repeat in the future. The new law does leave a good deal of discretion to regulators, but it gives them important tools that they did not have before. W! e will not know exactly how effective the law will be until the regulators have written all the rules and the next big financial crisis tests them, but we do know the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be off to a good start when it opens its doors today, despite efforts to derail it.

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