(Photo by Ramy Majouji - CC BY 2.5)

Wall Street sign.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was made law in the U.S. in July of 2010. It was passed in response to the financial crisis of 2008 — a period where the phrase “too big to fail” was coined in regard to major U.S. banks.

There’s an ongoing effort in Congress now to roll back some Dodd-Frank provisions, but the House and Senate are unable to agree, so the move is at least temporarily stalled.

To learn more, The Show's Steve Goldstein turns to J.W. Verret, a professor at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University who previously served as chief economist and senior counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.