Enron sizzle missing in U.S. financial reform effort

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the drive for U.S. financial regulation reform at a critical turning point, Barney Frank has to be asking himself by now:

Where's the $6,000 shower curtain?

Where are the perp-walking CEOs in handcuffs, and the cynical trader caught on tape sneering, "Burn, baby, burn?"

The 2008-2009 global financial crisis has hit the economy much harder than the 2001-2002 Enron-era scandals ever did. But it's lacked the rogue's gallery of obvious villains and glaring images of excess that were so common seven years ago.

That could be decisive from a public opinion standpoint, former Representative Michael Oxley told Reuters in an interview.

Days before the scheduled rollout on Wednesday of the Obama administration's comprehensive financial reform proposals to prevent a recurrence of the latest crisis, Oxley noted an important difference between then and now.

"It doesn't seem to be as intense as it was with Enron or WorldCom," he said. "Maybe it's because it's not as focused ... maybe it's because it's a little more complicated."

Or maybe it's because the mortgage-banking credit-bailout crisis -- is there even a good name for it? -- is just too big for most people to get their heads around.