WSJ – Sweeping Changes in Paulson Plan: “U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans Monday to call for sweeping structural changes in the way the government monitors financial markets, capping a broad review aimed at revamping a system of regulatory oversight built piecemeal since the Civil War. If even only some of the changes get made, they would represent a major reworking of the U.S. regulatory system for finance. Such an outcome would likely take years and would also require major compromises from an increasingly partisan Congress.”

• AP: Financial Overhaul Glance
• WSJ: Fed’s ‘Supercop’ Role May Give It Headaches, March 31, 2008: “The Federal Reserve, criticized for regulatory lapses that allegedly aggravated the credit crisis, emerges at first glance as the big winner in Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposed overhaul of financial regulation. But Mr. Paulson’s plan to make the Fed a supercop in charge of keeping the financial system stable is also problematic for the Fed and its chairman, Ben Bernanke. The Fed is being asked to do a job that may be beyond anyone’s ability: Identify and avoid a crisis in advance.”
• AP: “In proposing the broadest overhaul of financial oversight since the Great Depression, the Bush administration has kicked off a fierce debate. It pits those eager to revamp an antiquated system against an industry opposed to excessive regulation. The administration is aware of the hardening lines. The 200-page plan set for release Monday comes with the financial system in the midst of the most severe credit crisis in two decades.”
• Real Time Economics: Q&A With Paulson (WSJ – free access)
• Text of Paulson’s Executive Summary (WSJ – free access)
• WSJ – Treasury Plan Garners Mixed Response From Policy Makers
• Office of Thrift Supervision Internal Memo
• WSJ – Treasury Stakes Out Position on Federal Insurance Regulation