The re-regulation of the American financial system

After the President's speech and the Fed Chairman's testimonies, investors' confidence remain weak, Dow's momentarily upsurge remains yet another flash. Already trillions upon trillions of dollars vanished (on paper or real money), expect more to be burnt until the stock markets actually bottom out some time this year or in 2010.

The White House team may be vague in their opening remarks, but the good thing is that they seem to act fast (albeit for the sake of a hasty change). One could only hope that quick actions bring quick results, that is, the right kind of results, certainly NOT OTHERWISE.
(Tan Boon Tee)

But we're been starting to see a clear pattern from this administration: Vague opening statement... followed in pretty quick succession by details and action.
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What pattern? On the most crucial initiative of the first month of his presidency (the economic recovery/"stimulus" bill) Obama never provided a detailed plan -- he never submitted his own legislation to Congress. So rather than have both houses use his bill as a template, each house created their own bill, and the whole thing turned into a circus.
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Now, this can't be done when it comes to regulatory reform -- the admistration has to come up with specific regulations. So instead, the pattern has been vague statements followed by a multitude of trial balloon... and now we're getting the regulations.
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speaking of which -- the proposal you linked to seems less about "regulation" and more about a bailout of the big banks. We already have a set of capital requirements for banks; Geithner's plan seems to be all about handing over cash to insolvent banks in exchange for worthless preferred stock to keep them in business.
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Its the "reward Wall Street, screw Main Street" approach to fiscal reform; welfare for the 20% of Americans who own 90% of financial assets in this country.
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and all Obama's talk about "better regulations" is crap as long as these massive institutions continue to be subsidized. If/when these banks get back on their feet and the economy improves, the push for "deregulation" will begin again, and eventually we'll be right back where we started, because the lesson that we're teaching is that we'll bail out the rich regardless of how irresponsibly they invest their money in pursuit of maximum returns.
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One and six strike me as the really big deals here (and maybe seven, although I think the global stuff will take a lot longer to happen).
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on this point, the question isn't how long it will take, but whether the US will agree to the demands of the rest of the world -- one can already predict the cries of outrage because the US is giving up its autonomy, and subjecting itself to "world government" and rule by "socialists". (Doubtless the Swiss and some other nations will also object, but its the US position as the world's largest economy that will make our objections relevant.)
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Geithner is far too much in bed with his wall street buddies to do what needs to be done -- and Geithner and Obama are still captive to the myth that the stock margin is the appropriate metric to use in determining the economic health of the United States.

This sounds incredibly straightforward to me. If the taxpayer is expected to pay for the consequences of the decision making of a group of individuals/companies, then it is reasonable to expect that the taxpayer has the right to protect their interest through oversight and moderation where necessary.
Secondly if our actions and the actions of other nations in respect to the global economy materially effect us and everyone else, then it is reasonable to expect a higher standard from everyone, so we should work towards that, but like everything we have to put our house in order before we can criticize others.

The problem is that it takes a crisis to expose rampant self-interest as complete folly.