So does the Volcker Rule really have a chance of becoming law? Right now, I would call it an even money bet.

JPMorgan's (JPM) Jamie Dimon (Jamie Dimon news) is thought to be well-connected in Washington, and what has he done? He has invested in a commodities trading unit. He has agreed to pay $1.7 billion for parts of a commodity trading business jointly owned by Sempra Energy and Royal Bank of Scotland. Now could this unit be deployed by JPMorgan on an agency-only basis? I am not sure. But to maximize its potential you would think it would add prop trading capacity.

So this seems to be a bet against the law, and the regulatory reform agenda in general. But Paul Volcker is pressing on. He has lined up an impressive array of Wall Street greybeards--the likes of George Soros, Nicholas F. Brady, John S. Reed, William H. Donaldson and John C. Bogle, notes the New York Times. They think Wall Street in general is ripe for some reforms, pitting them against the likes of Dimon and Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein (Lloyd Blankfien news).

For more:
- here's an LA Times article
- here's a New York Times article

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