WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Dennis Kelleher, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Better Markets testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services at a hearing entitled “Dodd-Frank Turns 15: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead.”

In his testimony, Kelleher discussed lessons learned and not learned from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Law, the decades of deregulation leading up to the 2008 financial crash, the crippling costs of the 2008 crash, and how the Trump Administration’s widespread deregulatory actions will cause the next financial crash. His full testimony and a video of the hearing can be found here.

As Kelleher states in his full testimony, previous lessons have not yielded sufficient reforms, leaving the stability of the economy in jeopardy just as Main Street Americans are struggling to make ends meet under the Trump tariffs and rising inflation. Some highlights:

Trump’s dangerous deregulation is turning back the clock on the financial reforms of Dodd-Frank, which were already incomplete.

“The actions of the Trump Administration in the months since the inauguration have already opened cracks in the foundations of our economic and financial systems. While Administration actions on tariffs and starting a trade war have received most of the attention, the cumulative impact of his massive deregulation of the financial industry thus far and as expected over the next four years—which JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon said has bankers ‘dancing in the streets’ with joy—will return the country to the non-regulatory regime and anything goes culture that prevailed from 2000 to 2007, and directly caused the horrific 2008 Crash, which necessitated the re-regulation of the industry via the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Law…”

Main Street Americans cannot afford the coming financial crash.

“Trump adding four more years of deregulation and unleashing Wall Street and finance—appropriately referred to as a ‘new high water mark for deregulation’— are going to cause a catastrophic financial crash. It will almost certainly be worse than the 2008 Crash, which was the worst since 1929 and caused the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s: it threw 27 million Americans out of work, caused 16 million foreclosure filings, pushed 40+% of homes underwater, and took 10 years for unemployment to return to 2007 levels.”

Democracy needs free, well-regulated markets to thrive. Main Street depends on it.

“Deregulation is what kills credit, lending, business and growth. That’s what four more years of deregulatory under Trump is going to cause, maybe not immediately, but sooner or later. We believe that it is going to lead to a historically damaging financial crash, which will reverberate economically, socially, and politically for decades to come.”

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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.