No reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, but Congress and Obama will make much ado about a financial reform bill that substantively changes very little on Wall Street.

They've succeeded in protecting their financial industry controllers at the expense of Main Street.  Casino business as usual on Wall Street....defrauding and robbing the American people.

Robert Reich comments: "Thursday the President pronounced that “because of this [financial reform] bill the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes.”

"As if to prove him wrong, Goldman Sachs simultaneously announced it had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to pay $550 million to settle federal claims it misled investor — a sum representing a mere 15 days profit for the firm based on its 2009 earnings. Goldman’s share price immediately jumped 4.3 percent, and the Street proclaimed its chair and CEO, Lloyd (“Goldman is doing God’s work”) Blankfein, a winner. Financial analysts rushed to affirm a glowing outlook for Goldman stock. 

".....the main point is that the Goldman settlement reveals everything that’s weakest about the financial reform bill."

(Note: And the Obama administration "almost employs more Goldman Sachs officials in financial and regulatory positions than Goldman Sachs itself does.")

Reich continues: "Reliance on the discretion of regulators rather than structural changes in the banking system plays directly into the hands of the big banks and their executives and traders who contribute mightily to Democratic and Republican campaigns.

"Make no mistake: As long as there’s no fundamental change in the structure of Wall Street — as long as the big banks stay as big and are allowed to grow bigger, and have every incentive to invent new financial gimmicks with which to bet other peoples’ money — they will remain too big to fail, and too politically powerful to control.

"Congress has labored mightily to produce a mountain of legislation that can be called financial reform, but it has produced a molehill relative to the wreckage Wall Street wreaked upon the nation."

Andy Kroll at Mother Jones writes: "Finally, new regulators won't do anything to stop the financial sector from exerting its influence over Washington and the regulators themselves. During the 2000s, we saw plenty of financial regulators—SEC, CFTC, Treasury, OTS—fall victim to what's called regulatory capture, when the regulated overpower the regulators. There's nothing in Dodd-Frank to prevent future regulatory capture.

"There's no doubting that Dodd-Frank is a major legislative accomplishment, the crowning moment in Connecticut senator Chris Dodd's long career. But will it prevent the next financial crisis? The chances don't look good."

And from Jonathan Tasini at Working Life: "...the passage of what I believe is a weak financial "reform" bill. Not only were key parts of consumer protection gutted and a strong so-called Volcker rule eliminated. The game remains the same.

"Remember, even back in 'the good 'ole' says of Wall Street, we, the people suffered. Nothing in this bill will stop Wall Street from continuing to be the financial engine behind the unwinding of the American Dream. Wall Street will continue to finance leveraged buyouts and corporate takeovers which are based heavily on debt--which has resulted in the shedding of millions of good-paying jobs and will continue to create the same sick dynamic in the financial system whereby the 'health of a company' is measured by its stock price, not by how well the workers are doing.

"The robbery of America continues."