ABSTRACT
A hint that the actual regulatory package that would get implemented would include significant compromises in favour of finance capital came when the Obama administration in June 2009 announced the contours of a likely reform package led by a statement by the President. Despite this tension involved in appearing radical while being conservative, the Obama package, released as a trial balloon, incorporated a number of important regulatory advances. Radical proposals for regulating and reining in finance were placed on the table. Yet more than four years later, finance exudes a new confidence and has intensified all efforts to prevent limits being set on financial sector incomes and to stall the introduction of anything but the most inconsequential restraints on financial activity. Finance has therefore emerged as victor at the end of a period reserved for retribution, even though it has lost its ability to facilitate growth and is behaving in ways that will precipitate another crisis.
