President Obama has announced the most sweeping reforms of the financial services in 70 years. The reforms are to be applauded and are long overdue. But are they enough? Can they be undone or jettisoned? Will they stick?

I have two problems with the changes. First, they do nothing to stop the power of the lobbyists who will try to kill the package. And secondly, the administration has done nothing to pull the ratings agencies, which caused the problem in the first place, into line. All it's done is the equivalent of sticking them in a comfortable chair and poking them with a soft cushion.

Basically, there are five things you need to know about these changes. First, they set up a Consumer Financial Protection Agency which will have the authority to force lenders to offer straightforward credit products, increase access to them and make all financial instruments easier to understand. Secondly, the Federal Reserve gets new powers to supervise large institutions that could destroy the financial system. The changes also force financial services firms to carry more capital to guard against losses. They will also have to retain a portion of the loans they package and sell. Another move will impose stricter rules on all those once-lucrative, and ultimately destructive side bets that financial institutions make. And finally, advisers of hedge funds whose assets exceed a certain size will be required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As I said, it all makes sense and is long overdue. But will it get through? Let's not forget that the banking industry has paid millions of dollars to lobbyists to stymie any changes that would affect their business and stop them raking in enormous profits. So don't expect the banks to lie down and cop this one. As Bloomberg reports, lobbyists will be doing everything to ensure this package will be either stopped or watered down. Already the US Chamber of Commerce, bless them, has put out a statement attacking the changes and has vowed to campaign against them. "We'll put up a fight when it comes to regulations that will add to the layering, duplication, and gaps of the current system."

Until this administration does something about the lobbyists, any reform runs the risk of beign hijacked by vested interests.

But my biggest concern about the package is that it does nothing about the ratings agencies which caused the crisis when they made millions by encouraging the spread of risky products that subsequently shattered the global economy. That's just not good enough.

As New York University economics professor Lawrence White told the New York Times: "It's the equivalent of grabbing the rating agencies by the lapels, shaking them, and saying 'do a better job. This was a big-time missed opportunity."