The latest revelations  concerning the dispute between AIG and Goldman over collateral show how weak the new financial reform package really is.

After all, Goldman's demands for collateral from AIG as it was failing ended up costing taxpayers billions of dollars. Yet according to the testimony today during the crisis panel's latest hearings, the whole question hinged on what constituted fair value.

While many critics claim the financial regulation bill that emerged from Congressional negotiations on Friday will do next to nothing to reduce the chances of another banking crisis, there are some limits on risk taking that could do just that.

The one that strikes me as the toughest and most critical is the so-called Lincoln amendment, which would require banks to separately capitalize their trading in credit default swaps, which were central to the recent crisis.

The members of Congress in charge of creating a financial reform bill recently decided to remove majority voting for electing board members from the legislation and to include only a diluted version of proxy access for nominating board candidates, as my colleague Stephen Taub just discussed .

That latest cop-out underscores an increasingly obvious truth about this legislation: It's not going to change the financial system significantly nor will it do much to prevent another major crisis.