The Act represents a paradigm shift in the American financial regulatory environment impacting
all federal financial regulatory bodies and affecting almost every aspect of the nation’s
services industry. During his public address in July 2010, President Obama remarked the
reform introduced by the Act “will prevent the kind of shadowy deals that led to this crisis,
reform that would never again put taxpayers on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes”. The
change in thinking came in the wake of Congress’s criticism of Alan Greenspan during his
testimony to the Congressional Committee for Oversight and Government Reform hearing
held in October 2008, chaired by Henry Waxman. Chairman Waxman’s approach to the hearing
was to carry out a direct inquisition into Greenspan’s decisions during his time as Federal
Reserve chairman and the degree to which the Reserve set the stage for the American (and
global) financial disaster. Included in Box 4.3 is an extract of the dialogue between Henry
Waxman and Alan Greenspan during the hearing over Greenspan’s long-term advocacy of
financial deregulation.