The bigger issue is the repeal of very bad legislation, not what type of regulatory framework should replace it. It was a bad joke that two of the biggest government supporters of the practices that caused the meltdown would craft this bill. It would not have prevented the meltdown, as that was set in place by government supported lax lending standards. It was set aflame by the actions of Fannie Mae, which made many people rich while putting the risk on the back of the American tax payer. Dodd and Frank were fully complicit in this, and their law was a weak attempt at finding other scapegoats. Repeal Dodd Frank ASAP.

Gee and I thought this last recession was due to over valued housing and unscrupulous lenders, investment firms, and insurance companies. If you are asking to allow them to run amok again, no thanks. If you are asking to improve legislation by perhaps bringing back Glass Steagall to separate speculative investing and banking I'm all for it. Your view of what happened to cause this downturn in this economy is way off. Ideology should not trump facts, my friend.

How? What do you mean, "how"? There will be no regulation at all. The business of America is business.

I'm voting for the candidate who is _NOT_ raking in dollars from Wall Street. Those were the most compelling facts in this whole article. Wall Street is sending millions to Mitt Romney. Did you ever hear a stronger reason to vote for Obama?

Asking how Romney and the Republicans plan to regulate banks is like asking how they plan to raise taxes as part of a debt deal - the answer is clear that they are ideologically opposed to doing so no matter what prudent policy dictates. Republicans like Romney don't seek public office to help the majority of Americans; they want power to help themselves and the narrow interests of their wealthy friends.

Mittster wants this so bad he can tate it. In his heart he knows money has always bought him everything. It's such a shame he has no brains, guts, or ideas to back the money up.

Kate, I would never vote for a conservative (or whatever he is today)like Romney but you need to be realistic about the American political system. Obama is also raking in Wall Street dollars. The reality of the matter is that both political parties are hopelessly corrupt.

Great populist message in The Globe. The reality is that this bill is awful. I lost a job in January directly, not indirectly, but directly because of it. It is confusing and overreaching. Mortgage rates, even at their current lows, are artificially higher because of it. There is not one bank in America that could be audited for adherence to this bill and not be found in violation of at least a part of it. What the average consumer is told is that it protects them. What it does is stifles the economy.

Romney doesn't have to have an alternative plan: he's a Republican. He'll support bailing out the big guys, and he'll preach abstinence and patriotism to the falling little guys who have no net. That's what government is for now, right?

Kate, Obama collected millions from Wall Street in 2008, more than McCain. Did you support John McCain for president?

I just watched the second part of PBS' Frontline about the financial meltdown last night on WGBH, strongly recommend watching it when it repeats on the other public television stations. Scary as hell. Makes it clear that starting with Clinton's repeal of Glass-Steigel, through the Bush Administrations, and now with Obama, no one is minding the store and we are heading for an even bigger meltdown. Obama's choice of Wall St. insider Tim Geithner for Treasury, and his decision to do ObamaCare instead of financial reform, made things worse. Dodd-Frank didn't help, and needs to be replaced with something that ends derivatives and swaps. I too await Romney's detailed plan. Both candidates take Wall St. money; but then they should do what needs to be done.

How's Mittens going to regulate banks when he's been in bed with them for decades? Mutt Romney's a corrupt liar who wouldn't know a principle from a scum bucket. There is so much wrong with this guy that the notion of him ever becoming President is absurd on the face of it. His willingness to sell us all out in pursuit of votes is glaringly obvious and anybody not a millionaire who votes for him is just plain nuts.

The banksters can regulate themselves. We've seen how well they do it on their own. And, frankly, given Obama's laissez-faire attitude towards enforcement, and the fact that he has given de facto amnesty to essentially all the past violations of law (due to the tolling of statutes of limitations), the banksters really have no good reason to complain.

How appropriate that the Boston Glob, which is bragging about its paid circulation increase, would choose a 'maybe, someday' policy move by a presidential candidate that the Globe opposes. How appropriate that the Boston Glob third or fourth rates the placement of its coverage of a 'secret' trip and double tubetime grab by the incumbent presidential candidate that the Glob favors and propagandizes for. This says much about the priorities that the Boston Glob and its bow-tied editorial poobah bumpkins deem important. Whether or not Romney ever tries to regulate banks and bankers is a theortetical question at this point. But Obama's signing an agreement with the corrupt president of a barely civilized nation-state, guaranteeing to keep an undisclosed number of U.S. troops in that nation-state as trainers, and combatants if necessary, for 12 more years is just a minor point by Glob editorial chieftain standards. It is also fair to note that the Glob does not demand an at least early estimate from Obama and his cronies of the amounts of U.S. taxpayer funds this decade-plus-two deployment will cost. Obama is now costing this nation $2 billion a week (or is it a month,d epending upon the source) to keep Obama feeling he can self-proclaim himself (twice in one of his May 1 intrusions into good Tuesday night network television) as commander-in-chief and say how pleased he is with the troops. That makes this moron seem like he would not be pleased if he was still only a U.S. senator or a mere community organizer. What does that say about Barry the O?

Dodd-Frank is a useless slap at the wrong sinners. The financial panic came on because billions of dollars of mortgage-back securites (MBSes) held by banks became illiquid due to Congress having permitted and required FNMA and FHLMC to issue no standards mortgages, mortgages for anyone who walked in - liar mortgages, no doc mortgages, no money down mortgages. Thank you Congress and the CRA, with special mention to Barney Frank, the primary mover behind the whole mess. Congress has done nothing with FNMAE or FHLMC yet, other than allow them to draw $150 billion and counting from the Treasury, and are day-dreaming as FHA goes down the same path... The banks were only guilty of bending to the rulebook Congress wrote for them. Romney would be 100% right to junk Dodd-Frank and instead focus on getting control of FHA and terminating for good FNMAE and FHLMC.

"He'll support bailing out the big guys, " And just who do you think Obama bailed out? They dont get much bigger than GM and ALL the big banks.

What's so puzzling about this? Romney, who is first and foremost a capitalist, would follow the usual Republican act of catering to the banks and Wall Street. Then he'd probably make up for it by raising the taxes on those of us who aren't multimillionaires and lowering taxes on his equals.

Romney? Regulate Big Banks? I needed a good laugh...good one Globies! I simply cannot wait to have more arsenic and fecal matter in my drinking water, and mercury in my fish as I beathe that free air that is free from clean air regulation! Romney may be Mormon but he is also a Bush CEO clone!

D_F institutionalizes too big to fail

Yes, Kate. My vote for him is based on his Reverend Wright, william Ayers background. His executive experience has shined for the last three years, and the robust economy that his policies have unleashed all form the reason for my Obama vote. The wall Street money part is just icing on the cake.

It is just a big canard that financial regulation is considered so important. It is not. Yes, there are a few areas where banks and brokerages can be regulated. But the true cause of the melt down, has already been addressed. Lending standards for mortgages are now back to where they used to be. In fact, it is the tightening of lending standards that has caused the recovery in housing to be so slow. But it was necessary. All the other regulation is settling old scores, and not making the financial industry any more safe.