Jim Jubak

"Here's a good rule of thumb: If the government in Washington, D. C. announces some new regulatory program of Wall Street and the stock market goes up, you can be pretty sure there's absolutely nothing in it that's meaningful. That's the kind of reaction we got from the market after Treasury Secretary Paulsen announced a big new ballyhooed package of reforms for Wall Street.

"The market rallied basically because there is nothing in this package that makes them worry. The real worry on Wall Street was that Paulsen would announce something that actually attacked the core of the problem, not the banks which are already regulated. But the investment banks and the vehicles they set up and the hedge funds; all of these places which have very little regulation, very little disclosure, even, but they're the sources of the problem. The 'non bank' banks in Wall Street terms.

"Well, the proposal does nothing meaningful in this area..."