After two years of effort, the US Congress last week gave President Obama a massive and very ambitious financial reform bill, the Dodd-Frank Act, to sign.

The 2,300 page law in 15 sections affects all financial service activities in various ways but it does little to improve systemic risk control. It strengthens the hands of regulators, but relies on them entirely to identify and avert future crises, things they have not been successful in doing in the past.