Overhauling financial rules will take years

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on regulation:

John Coffee, a leading securities law expert at Columbia University, cites the proposal to merge the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The idea, while sensible, has languished for two decades, Coffee said. Aside from resistance by both the futures exchanges and stock exchanges, a bigger problem could lie with the Senate and House Agriculture committees.

"Historically, Congress has been unwilling to do this for the most selfish of reasons," Coffee said, because the Agriculture Committees currently have authority over the commodity exchanges and do not want to cede their turf - and the political contributions that go with it - to the House and Senate banking committees.

"They'll lose much of their political funding, and that's a nonstarter," Coffee said.