By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

The audience behaved today. Polite applause. No outbursts.

The President told us the story of the last year and announced that Barney Frank will Captain the Congressional ship on a journey toward financial reform…and a new agency called the “Consumer Financial Protection Agency”. And this will pass this year?

Who he failed to address were those in the room jingling the keys in their Armani suits, to their new Porsche purchased with their recent bonuses. Sarkozy? Stay home. The people in charge of these institutions will continue to charge exorbitant fees for their services. The argument is that these are the risk takers. I think not. A contracted bonus does not risk make.

What the President does not have the political capital to do is address the bonus-recipients. They elected him. He knows that. He vacationed with them in Martha’s Vineyard this summer and ate at their tables. As long as the Captains are lavished with mind-numbing extravagance, their minds will be numb to change. And as long as government officials are allowed to enter the revolving door of Wall Street, and return to the Beltway, it will remain a bonus club.

What we need in America is another Wall Street, somewhere on a main street yet to be determined to compete with Wall Street. Rather than regulation what we need is competition. Right now, Wall Street is the only game in town. Time for a new game, not new rules to an old dead game.