I think you can read Sen. Chris Dodd’s comments as desperate bargaining against a CFPB nomination for Elizabeth Warren. Yet even Dodd has to announce support if she gets the call.

Lawmakers worked into the night and came up with an oddly unsatisfying compromise on the two most contentious issues left in financial reform, with the final package voted upon at 5:30 this morning (ET). But hey, that was on C-SPAN, so eight people did probably get to see it. Transparency!

Dodd seems to think that the discretionary threat of dissolution will act as a deterrent to bankers to staying within the lines of size and particularly risk. Tim Geithner basically said the same thing on Good Morning America today. While he acknowledged the danger in having the six largest banks control 63% of all assets, he focused far more on what would happen “in the future” if they treated those assets like a stake at a casino again.

Noting that two years ago today, Bear Stearns collapsed, Chris Dodd released his financial regulatory reform bill at a press conference where he said confidently that the bill will pass this year.

There was a hint in Dodd’s speech of the effort to force Republicans to defend Wall Street banks. He stressed the urgency for new rules to cut off potential crises, and basically challenged Republicans to stand in the way. The labor movement is gearing up for a fight on that front as well, though their aims are a bit broader, seeking the “financial responsibility fee” outlined by the President a couple months ago.

It’s interesting seeing all these warhorses coming to grips with the fact that the Senators on the other side aren’t respecting the rules laid out for themselves, and how time may just be marching on by such rules.

Sen. Chris Dodd appears obsessed with getting a bipartisan financial reform package through the Senate Banking Committee, no matter if it makes a mockery of reform, no matter if it includes virtually nothing to protect consumers or deal with the problem of “too big to fail” financial firms. He’s already seeking to drop the Volcker rule put forward by the White House that would limit proprietary trading from banks.

Much discussion today about Chris Dodd as a potential candidate to replace Tim Geithner atop the Treasury Department, which I think overlooks a much better idea: get Byron Dorgan to oversee America’s economy and, specifically, Wall Street.

Bill Black called it last March, and a new Federal Reserve Board IG report makes it official: the Fed does not do “oversight” terribly well. Oversight FAIL, OTOH . . .

Could someone remind me why giving the Fed more oversight authority is a good idea?

You’d never know it from most Traditional Media coverage, but according to a New York Times poll that Adam Nagourney and Megan Thee-Brenan did their best to spin into dissemblance, 90% of Americans want health care reform, more Americans approve (46%) than disapprove (38%) of how President Obama is handling health care reform (Congressional Republicans only have a 17% approval rating on this topic), and far more Americans have a favorable

Why? Because the language about taking warrants in exchange for buying up toxic assets is only for direct purchases and not for reverse auction puchases, which will be the majority of the purchases. As Soros points out, in any reverse auction, the government will get stuck with the most toxic of toxic waste because of information asymetries. In exchange they should at least get stock, equal not to what they paid, but to the face of the crap they are buying.