Damian Paletta

Certainly the supporters of the law would say that.

The critics of the law would say that it's maybe held back trillions of dollars of economic growth and that, you know, allowing a little more risk in the economy is not a bad thing.

So, you know, the different people see different realities when it comes to this law.

But the real test is going to be the day when there's some ticking time bomb within a financial institution, whether it's a bank or some other company.

And then we see whether the regulators really can use these tools they have to prevent this from getting out of control.

He was very proud of it.

He was incredibly proud that he was there in this moment, not just for this piece of legislation, but for the government's response to the financial crisis.

I think all lawmakers know that as time goes on,

pieces of legislation are going to be chipped away at.

And I think he tried to protect the bill, the core pillars of the bill.

But, you know, politics is going to be politics.

And I think the legacy that he leaves behind and the people who worked with him on it, leaves behind it is a definitive piece of legislation, the likes of which we may never see again in terms of its scale.

And this, for Democrats, was, you know, one of the biggest achievements of this era, the Obama era and beyond, a piece of legislation that really took it to Wall Street in a moment when Wall Street was, you know, kind of on its back and put rules in place that many Democrats have been trying to put in place for decades.

Do you think we'll ever see another Barney Frank?

I think about this a lot, actually.

I don't think we will, in part because for a lot of lawmakers, there is no interest in passing legislation anymore.

A lot of lawmakers come here, you know, and do a podcast as a side hustle or they want to be influencers or they want to be, you know, bomb throwers.

There's not a lot of time spent in committee rooms or

late at night, talking about the ins and outs of legislation.

I mean, the hours that he put in, just in that committee room, kind of grinding away at hearings, and that just doesn't happen anymore.