I'm not sure how the author can assert with a straight face that Dodd-Frank is essentially sacred, a lack of community banks is hurting the economy, and that it

I'm not sure how the author can assert with a straight face that Dodd-Frank is essentially sacred, a lack of community banks is hurting the economy, and that it's all the big banks' fault. A loan to your your local mom-and-pop shop is a much riskier investment than a bond to a large corporation. DFA discourages risk-taking with the new capital requirement rules. Thus, community banks are fighting over a small pool of profitable loan opportunities and their numbers shrink. On the other side, small businesses have a harder time getting loans. Regulatory compliance overhead from DFA hits community banks harder than big banks as well, so they're consolidating and leaving fewer true community banks. None of this is has much to do with the actions of big banks. It's the natural consequence of DFA. If you don't like the status quo, you need to change DFA. Not necessarily to pre-2007 rules, but some small changes could provide a big boost to community banks.