Elliott Management’s Paul Singer Speaks Aganst Dodd-Frank

Paul Singer, fund manager of Elliott Management Group and favorite of the Tiger21 club, recently spoke to members of the Federalist Society at a conference in Washington on Thursday reports MarketWatch.

Paul Singer Speaks Against the Dodd Frank Act

Paul Singer criticized the Dodd-Frank law. Singer argued that the law, which was implemented as part of efforts to prevent another financial collapse, enshrined banks that are “too big to fail” while, at the same, creating an environment in which regulators would be hard pressed to fulfill their new obligations. In his speech, Singer called the law’s ability to eject top executives from failing banks as “preposterous,” asking attendees, “Can you try to imagine the FDIC throwing out the entire management of the firm and having [former FDIC chief] Sheila Bair’s successor and others at the FDIC running these complex institutions?”

Dean Baker Seconded Paul Singer’s Concerns

Paul Singer was not the only speaker to raise objections about the Dodd-Frank laws. According to MarketWatch, “Other participants at the conference also raised concerns that the statute preserves the perception that the big U.S. banks are ‘too-big-to-fail’ and that they will be bailed out in the event of another crisis.” Amongst the neigh sayers was Dean Baker, co-director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who “argued that the biggest U.S. banks continue to have substantially lower costs of funds than the rest of the banking sector… that the largest institutions should be broken up and that large banks do not need $1 trillion in assets… to achieve economies of scale.”