On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Obama's signature financial reform, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), was in trouble in the Senate.

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) was considering dropping the idea of creating an independent, stand-alone consumer protection body, empowered to crack down on banking abuses, in order to get a regulatory revamp passed this year with bipartisan support. Dodd is apparently considering shrinking the CFPA into a division of an already-existing federal agency (no doubt one with a proven track-record of failing consumers.)

Dodd is faced with a dilemma. Although he introduced a rather strong financial services reform bill in Congress last year -- one which creates an independent CFPA, curtails the powers of the Federal Reserve and tackles many Wall Street abuses -- it appears that big bank lobbyists who have spent millions fighting reform are now chipping away at his bill.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission today. He cited his strong statutory authority to go after the firms that had a role in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. His team was tackling securities fraud, accounting fraud, financial discrimination and fraud related to the stimulus bill. It was an impressive list, but what was not impressive was the first case he touted – Bernie Madoff.

You remember Bernie. His kids turned him in. It appears that the FBI considers this the high-water mark of criminal detective work.