Don’t Cry for Wall Street

Perfectly correct, as far as it goes. But Prof. Krugman underestimates the political power of the financial oligarchs, who effectively control the national currency. Like a dictator faced with international sanctions, they can make the public feel a politically unsustainable level of "pain" through credit contractions, etc. If regulations threaten, the financial markets will suddenly "lose confidence," as the euphemism goes, and unemployment starts to rise, along with bond prices. They have it in their power to create a "crisis" and manipulate the resulting populist anger with help from an utterly corrupt GOP. It will be very difficult to save the American middle class at this point.

A through set of regulations and honest taxes will "pull their teeth".

Doing it will be the problem.