"I believe in ready, aim, fire—not ready, fire, aim," said Maine Sen. Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, in a discussion about passing new financial regulation in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) collapse. Somewhat astoundingly, he's not alone among left-of-center lawmakers in resisting the temptation to rush through new banking rules in response.
Plenty of Democratic lawmakers are angling for new regulations, of course. President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.), and many others have been quick to blame SVB's problems not simply on poor decisions by private actors but on an alleged lack of oversight of midsize banks. Specifically, they blame a Trump-era rollback of Dodd-Frank regulations that said banks with $50 billion or more in assets were subject to increased regulatory scrutiny. Under the 2018 Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, this threshold for stricter regulation was raised to $250 billion.
