Paulson puts scissors in drawer, ignores loaded Uzis

The NY Times has a useful summary of the Treasury proposals for regulatory reform. Consider this:

The optimal structure should establish a new prudential financial regulator, PFRA. PFRA should focus on financial institutions with some type of explicit government guarantees associated with their business operations. Most prominent examples of this type of government guarantee in the United States would include federal deposit insurance and state-established insurance guarantee funds.

In other words, the PFRA will not include the broker/dealers as they do not have guarantees (except for the relatively small bank subs of some broker/dealers). I was wrong, then, when I said these proposals were positive: they really suck. So, in honour of this totally failing to see the big picture moment, I offer you the first annual DeM lookalike competition. One plays a government official who uses unethical but often ineffective methods to try to enforce his will. The other's a bit better at protecting the interests of his buddies. Which is Vic, which is Hank?