Why Is It so Difficult to Rein in Wall Street?

Reforming Wall Street has become a key issue in the ongoing presidential primaries.

A bronze statue of a bull fighting with a bear is displayed at the Museum of American Finance on Wall Steet in New York City on Oct. 7, 2008. An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and located in the former headquarters of the Bank of New York, the museum serves as a financial education center. Exhibitions include a history of U.S. currency, ticker tape from the "Great Crash" of Oct. 29, 1929, and a section of the 1858 Trans-Atlantic cable. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Reforming Wall Street has become a key issue in the ongoing presidential primaries.

Bernie Sanders in particular has used his rival’s close ties to the financial industry, including speaking fees and political donations, to suggest Hillary Clinton wouldn’t rein in Wall Street. At the same time, Sanders has tried to highlight his own independence, declaring:

If I were elected president, the foxes would no longer guard the henhouse.

Clinton has tried to dispel the notion that Wall Street donations affect her judgment or independence, claiming her regulatory plan is actually tougher than Sanders’.

Almost a decade after the 2008 financial crisis, the reforms that many Americans have demanded remain incomplete.