Hold on to your housing reform wallets – and hopes

When people like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former Congressman Rick Lazio are buttering up Barney Frank, the idea of REAL finance industry regulatory reform is starting to set below the horizon.
First, Frank isn’t THAT liberal on financial regulation issues. Go look at his voting record in the 1990s.

Second, Frank is going to miss the boat by not attaching more comprehensive financial services regulation legislation to the housing reform bill. That’s what concerns Paul Krugman, who says the time for real fiscal-system reform is slipping away.

Indeed, we will instead get more Band-Aids, many in the form of dribble-out payouts, and maybe a few stitch-up jobs, but none of the needed serious surgery.