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The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was the focus of an October 25 panel discussion among (from left) U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), chair of the House Committee on Financial Services and a cosponsor of the bill; Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and Paul Volcker, head of the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. The Robsham Theater event was sponsored by the Carroll School of Management and moderated by finance professor Clifford Holderness (far right). Topics discussed in response to questions from students and faculty included infrastructure investment, the home mortgage deduction, international cooperation and competition, and deficit spending. In response to a freshman’s question about careers in finance, Frank, citing the explosive growth in credit default swaps in the last decade or so, said, “I would hope that some years from now the financial industry has shrunk some.” Bair agreed with Frank that the industry was a necessary intermediary, and noted it had erred in becoming “an end in itself.” Volcker said the freshman would have “a much better chance” than this year’s graduates of finding work in finance. “Three years from now he ought to be doing fine.”