REGULATORY REFORM….Congress seems likely to pass some version of Henry Paulson’s Wall Street bailout bill. Maybe not precisely his version, but something close, maybe with some oversight added and a few restrictions on exactly how the money can be used. We will, of course, be promised that although the bailout has to be passed this instant and there’s no time to add regulatory reform into the enabling legislation, reform will be taken up just as soon as we’ve all caught our breath. I figure there are three ways this could turn out:
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Option A: Republicans will filibuster, Democrats will wither, and basically nothing much will get passed at all. In other words, suckered again.
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Options B: There will be some kind of panic and we’ll end up with a gigantic snarl of regulation that sounds tough but doesn’t really do anyone any good, sort of like Sarbanes-Oxley.
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Option C: Everyone will take a deep breath, Democrats will stand up to the financial industry, and some reasonable set of new regulations will be hammered into place.
I’d put the odds at about 60% for Option A, 35% for Option B, and 5% for Option C. My only reservation is that maybe I’m being a little too optimistic about all this.
