Washington insiders are all pumped up by Sen. Chris Dodd's pending financial reform bill. They say that it seems to have a real chance to garner bipartisan support. Yippee! That sounds great on the surface, but ask yourself WHY it seems more popular than, say, Obama's health-care bill? Reason is that Dodd's dang thing's got no teeth! Sure the bill has a measure to create a consumer protection agency within the Fed, (even that's controversial) and it would ban bank execs from being on the New York Fed's board. Then there's the real torches and pitchforks stuff, but even here, the bill is fangless. The proposed bill would allow shareholders to have "advisory votes" (say what?) on executive pay.

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