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Failures in the regulation of large complex financial institutions played an important role in the financial crisis.

As we enter the fall of 2011, three years after the Lehman Brothers crisis, Europe and the United States are teetering on the brink of another, potentially more serious, systemic crisis.

In considering whether the government should back housing finance, the first consideration this committee should have in mind is whether it would be good policy at this time to add to the U.S. government’s financial obligations.

Poverty is a human problem, not simply an economic one, and it demands a human response. How should we as individuals respond to the problem of poverty in our communities? What role should institutions play in helping the poor?

Dodd-Frank overall is a poorly drafted statute that drastically expands the power of the federal government, creates new bureaucracies staffed with thousands, and does little to help the struggling American citizen.

For many years, community financial institutions have been denied fair and equal access to the secondary market. Banks prosper by making prudent loans with an adequate return and maintaining a reasonable cost structure. Today 97 percent of our banks are community banks and they are increasingly finding this business model under siege.