We still don't know for sure what the agency's final mandate will look like, because Congress is still working on it. The financial industry and any other likely targets will be lobbying furiously to reduce the degree to which they are legislated, so it's hard to say where things will end up. As the credit crisis has eased, Congress may not decide to regulate aggressively.

Most likely, though, there will be some push to regulate mortgages in hopes of protecting consumers against taking on risks unwittingly, as many did in the last housing boom.

I would like them to regulate the service portions of other industries, e.g., the airlines, which have such lousy service and seem to be overseen by nobody. And for there to be some regulation of the people performing security screenings, who frequently abuse their positions of power, knowing that there is nothing that travelers can do if they confiscate items from luggage or treat people offensively or abusively. We now need protection from our protectors, it seems.

I agree with Barclay - we need protection from the protectors! And maybe that means less protectors that come to (and go back to) those roles from the industries they regulate.

I think largely there will be more of the same. John Bogle said it best in his book 'Enough' (pick it up if you haven't, a great and easy read) - we've got the laws on our books, the problem isn't creating new watchdogs or new laws. It's enforcing the ones we have, and not bending that enforcement for the politically connected.