Dodd-Frank regulation: A treasure trove for lawyers and lobbyists

The behemoth Dodd-Frank law regulating financial institutions has spawned a surge in regulation that boggles the mind:

Rules implementing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law could fill 28 copies of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, according to a new analysis of the Wall Street overhaul.

The law firm Davis Polk, which closely tracks the Dodd-Frank rule-making process, released a graphic Friday that highlights the gargantuan size of the financial reform bill's overhaul of regulations.

All told, regulators have written 13,789 pages and more than 15 million words to put the law in place, which is equal to 42 words of regulations for every single word of the already hefty law, spanning 848 pages itself.

And if that seems like a lot, keep in mind that by Davis Polk's estimate, the work implementing the law is just 39 percent complete. (bold emphasis added)

Not only does it require a great many bureaucrats to write, vet, review, revise, and sign off on so much regulation, but a vast army of lobbyists to argue for changes in same to benefit one sort of financial firm over another, and countless legions of lawyers to interpret, litigate, and detect loopholes in no doubt imperfect drafting after the regulations are implemented. Our banks will then spend billions restructuring to comply with the law, if they have not succeeded in limiting its effect by dint of the aforementioned lobbying. If the great and powerful Oz were able to confirm to a certainty that all this would prevent another financial crisis, it might be worth the dead-weight load on the economy, not to mention the further corruption of our republic. Unfortunately, no such assurances obtain.