Despite promises from the Federal Reserve that a "soft landing" of the economy is on the way, all signs point to an imminent "crash landing"! While the full consequences of these bank failures are yet to fully play out, a prized and popular scapegoat has already been trotted out to explain the current crisis: deregulation of financial markets.

According to proponents of this view, the partial rollback of the famous Dodd-Frank Act that took place in 2018 enabled banks to engage in overly risky behavior that has now become those banks' undoing. This perspective has even started to gain traction in Washington, DC, as well. On March 14, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Katie Porter introduced a bill that would undo the partial rollback of Dodd-Frank.