Quote

Our current way of regulating the financial system is dysfunctional. Oversight is dispersed among numerous confusing bodies that at times have seemed to be racing each other to the bottom. Setting up One Big Regulator would end that problem.

Wall Street, the banks, and corporate America, has been able to call the shots here. They control our members of Congress and they get what they want.

It is vital for officials and regulators to have input from people within our businesses who understand the intricacies of how financial markets operate and the consequences of certain policy decisions.

We're one of the most highly regulated industries, and we have to pay attention to what government is doing.

I believe that we have to have a new regulatory regime for our financial system.

I find it very difficult to see a scenario where financial regulation doesn't pass the Senate.

We also must pull from our highest ideals of justice and protect against those ills that destabilized our economy - like predatory lending, over-leveraged financial institutions and the unchecked avarice of the past that trumped fairness and common sense. Our platform calls for significant cuts in federal spending.

You read constantly that banks are lobbying regulators and elected officials as if this is inappropriate. We don't look at it that way.

The Federal Reserve, the Treasury, all the regulator agencies - if there's a problem of the financial mechanism in society, the only one to fix it is government. They've got a legitimate role.

Financial regulation is the next item on the political horizon, and it doesn't have to be the deathly dull wonk-battle that it sounds like. In fact, if the Democrats do their job, it can just as easily become a platform for addressing the greatest issues of them all.