It's one year since the deluge. One year since the collapse of Lehman and the 500 point Dow plunge. So why am I worried that the emperor has no clothes? Now take note, I like this emperor. But I didn't hear one thing in President Barack Obama's speech to Wall Street to convince me we are any less likely to have a repeat of last year's debacle, or that regulatory changes will provide us that protection any time soon.

I know the President has his hands full. But what I see is this. The guy who ran the New York Fed, and was supposed to be keeping an eye on the big money center banks, is now Treasury Secretary. The guy who ran the Federal Reserve, and let the big money center banks grow like Kudzu until they threatened to destroy the world if they imploded, and let those same banks take on so much risk they did implode, will now, pending Senate approval, continue to run the Fed for many years to come. The idea of a consumer protection agency for Wall Street seems to be a non-starter on Capitol Hill. Ditto the idea of restraining Fannie and Freddie, which are still bleeding all over the taxpayer's balance sheet. And all the regulators and the various committees of Congress which oversee them are engaged in a massive turf battle over who will regulate what. Meanwhile, whatever regulation there is of Wall Street, is for the most part taking place behind closed doors.

As for Wall Street itself, there is little evidence any lessons have been learned. On the contrary, Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas are back in town to film a sequel to their 1987 blockbuster film Wall Street and the surviving masters of the universe are back to wheeling and dealing. The geniuses who earned big bucks packaging toxic mortgages into sweet smelling securitized bundles are now bundling life insurance policies, bets on when the policy holder will die, into something they can put lipstick on. Salaries, by whatever name, are still as high and as short term oriented as ever. The rocket scientists, discredited when their formulas failed because they assumed the markets would always be open, are back at work now trying to quantize the "deer in the headlights" phenomenon known as FEAR. They couldn't do it in 1987. They couldn't do it in 2008 and I doubt they will do it now.

The gaggle of talking heads at the business news channels, where anti-Obama sentiment runs rabid, had a field day today. One noted with glee that the President's speech was interrupted only once for applause, that taken as a sign of failure. Another commented that the President was a coward for failing to take a walk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. I figure he just decided lunch with former President Bill Clinton at Il Mulino, the best Italian restaurant I've been to outside of Italy, was a better way to spend an hour or two.

I don't know why the Wall Street interests are against the guy. He doesn't seem to be doing anything that threatens their way of life. He doesn't seem to be doing anything to protect the rest of us from them either.