The "sheriff of Wall Street," the former attorney general of New York, Eliot Spitzer, doesn't seem to be convinced that the barrage of new laws and agencies proposed by President Obama will solve all that much. Here's the gist of an interview with him:

The reality is they had all the power they needed to stop the crisis, they just didn't use the power. ...the Fed, the SEC, the OCC had all the power they needed to look at these entities and to set credit ratios, capital ratios, liquidity requirements. They just didn't do it.

The Financial Times has a good overview of skeptical commentary on the auto industry bailouts, which, it notes, include not only the American aid to General Motors and Chrysler but also the French government's 6 billion Euro bailout of Peugeot and Renault, and a German government 1.5 billion Euro "bridge loan" to Opel:

"The shape of the industry looks all but the same, except that governments have tipped lots of money in and prevented Darwinian selection," says Max Warburton, analyst at Sanford Bernstein. "It has been a good reminder of what this industry is: a government-supported job creation scheme."

Also:

"Because of government intervention, we're not going to see the same level of rationalisation that pure market forces could have driven," says Paul McCarthy, head of PwC's automotive strategy practice. "In the long run, we will pay for that."

The Canadian government is providing a new $1 billion subsidy to its paper and pulp industry to compete with American paper producers who are benefiting from a new tax credit for "biofuel." The New York Times, which has a nifty dispatch on the topic, quotes a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council who says, "for all intents and purposes, this is basically a subsidy that plays catch-up." The American biofuel tax credit, he said, "has prompted another country to subsidize one of the most polluting industries in the world."

Karl Rove's column in today's Wall Street Journal begins with what sure sounds like an endorsement of the Patients' Choice Act of 2009. Mr. Rove writes that Republicans must "offer proposals that families, small-businesspeople and health-care providers will applaud. Fortunately, Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Richard Burr of North Carolina, and Reps. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Devin Nunes of California have devised a plan that will likely appeal to anyone interested in making health insurance more affordable and portable." The Rove column goes on for three more paragraphs about the supposed virtues of the Patients' Choice Act.

Here is some actual language from the 13-page summary (pdf) of the Patients' Choice Act that is available from its congressional sponsors:

Reports the Wall Street Journal: "Nearly seven in 10 survey respondents said they had concerns about federal interventions into the economy, including Mr. Obama's decision to take an ownership stake in General Motors Corp., limits on executive compensation and the prospect of more government involvement in health care."

Confirming Maria Bartiromo's anecdotal sense.

Here in America very few politicians accept the "socialist" label. In Europe the term is more widely accepted, as Bloomberg News reports in an article about Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark who is a member of the European Parliament and head of the Party of European Socialists. "The group's affiliates include Britain's ruling Labour Party, Spain's governing Socialist Party and Germany's Social Democratic Party," Bloomberg reports.

Mr. Rasmussen's big initiative is a measure that would toughen regulation of hedge funds and private equity firms, which passed the European Parliament by a 562-86 vote in September, the wire service reports. Here in America, President Obama's "New Foundation" plan also would tighten regulation of hedge funds and private equity funds, though not as much as the Rasmussen plan, and Mr. Obama rejects accusations that he is a socialist.

From Bloomberg News: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is taking over chemicals as part of an effort to gain control over what he calls 'strategic industries.' He has nationalized most of the steel, cement and electricity industries since 2007."

The difference is that here in America the goverment has said it plans eventually to return most of the companies it has nationalized to private ownership. How much consolation that is depends on your point of view.

The creation of a new National Bank Supervisor and a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency will attract plenty of attention, but in some ways the big story of President Obama's 'New Foundation' plan (pdf) for overhauling the financial regulatory system is the big responsibility placed on the Federal Reserve. The agency already has its hands full fulfilling the goals it was given by Congress -- managing monetary policy "to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices."

The "New Foundation" report says, "All large, interconnected firms whose failure could threaten the stability of the system should be subject to consolidated supervision by the Federal Reserve."

From the Treasury Department's report (pdf), "Financial Regulatory Reform: A New Foundation":

in the run-up to the financial crisis, mortgage companies and other firms outside of the purview of bank regulation exploited that lack of clear accountability by selling mortgages and other products that were overly complicated and unsuited to borrowers' financial situation. Banks and thrifts followed suit, with disastrous results for consumers and the financial system.

Obama on markets, from his big speech today on regulation:

I've always been a strong believer in the power of the free market. It has been and will remain the engine of America's progress -- the source of prosperity that's unrivaled in history. I believe that jobs are best created not by government, but by businesses and entrepreneurs who are willing to take a risk on a good idea. I believe that our role is not to disparage wealth, but to expand its reach; not to stifle the market, but to strengthen its ability to unleash the creativity and innovation that still make this nation the envy of the world.

That sounds reasonable enough. The next sentence starts to get dicier:

That's our goal -- to restore markets in which we reward hard work and responsibility and innovation, not recklessness and greed...

"While markets are imperfect, regulators are even more so. Not only are they human, they are also bureaucratic and subject to political influences, therefore regulations should be kept to a minimum."

--George Soros, writing in the Financial Times, in an article that nonetheless goes on to call for lots of additional regulation.

If President Obama is planning to pay for an expanded government role in health care with an increased tax on alcoholic beverages he will meet with stiff resistance from at least some Democrats. "I have one of the most Irish districts in the United States of America and there are folks in my district that would consider a massive increase on the beer tax as a hate crime," Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, whose district includes brewers Samuel Adams and Harpoon, told the The BNA Daily Tax Report.

A bill to lower the beer tax to $9 a barrel from $18, restoring the tax to the level it had been at before it was increased in 1991, has about 200 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.

President Obama, trying to explain his economic policies to the Wall Street Journal, claimed that mortgages that were too expensive for borrowers to begin with have led to the foreclosure crisis:

If you find yourself able on a $30,000-a-year income to buy a $400,000 house with no money down, then you are much more vulnerable to the inducements that are out there than a generation ago…. he problem is, is that when you start seeing the entire housing market collapse because of foreclosures, or banks and other financial institutions requiring extraordinary support from taxpayers because they've greatly overextended themselves, this is not just a problem for one individual consumer; this is a problem for the economy as a whole.

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo writes:

I have been traveling a lot lately and it is amazing to me how much concern there is on the ground over President Obama's economic policies. People are concerned higher taxes and the attack on business will slow or even worse, reverse any beginning of an economic revival. This is something to watch closely.

Not sure why she would find it "amazing," but give her credit for passing along the concern to her readers. I've suggested that the White House's sensing of that same concern may have has something to do with its decision to send Lawrence Summers to New York to address directly the complaints about 'Back-Door Socialism.'

The Republican National Committee is complaining that ABC News, by hosting a prime-time White House town hall meeting, is turning itself over to "a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda" on health care," according to a letter published on the Drudge Report. ABC insists, "The president will answer questions offered by audience members selected by ABC News who have divergent opinions in this historic debate, as well as some submitted via ABCNews.com."

If the Republicans are betting on ABC anchor Charles Gibson to look like a lackey for President Obama, they may be disappointed. Back during the presidential campaign, Mr. Gibson won praise from the New York Sun for challenging Mr. Obama's ideas about increasing the capital gains tax.