"President-elect Barack Obama was set on Thursday to name seasoned regulator Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission as he considers a major overhaul of the heavily criticized agency."

Schapiro is now chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulatory body for the securities industry. She served as an SEC commissioner for six years, then became chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 1994 during the Clinton administration."

"By naming his pick at this time for the SEC job -- which is not part of the Cabinet -- Obama is signaling an interest in restoring the agency's stature.

Obama has called for a broad changes in Wall Street regulations to prevent future crises and has said the structure of regulatory agencies is among the issues that should be considered. But he has not spelled out any specifics.

Under one scenario backed by some lawmakers, the SEC would be merged with the CFTC, which oversees the markets for commodities such as oil, coffee and sugar."

I am normally very skeptical, but I will give Obama a chance to demonstrate his commitment and ability to reform. I believe things will change, but will wait, in hopeful anticipation, to see the result.