Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will formally unveil his blueprint for financial reform Monday. The new plan would vest vast new powers with the Federal Reserve, though at The Wall Street Journal, Greg Ip warns that the Fed is “being asked to do a job that may be beyond anyone’s ability: Identify and avoid a crisis in advance.” At Time, Justin Fox warms to the idea of a business-conduct regulator, arguing that “financial products, in particular loans, are useful but potentially dangerous things,” and that a well-run, agressive agency could limit damage from “financial markets’ inevitable episodes of insanity.”

One commentator who unsurprisingly opposes the whole proposal is investment adviser Michael Shedlock of Sitka Pacific. Shedlock, a longtime proponent of returning to the gold standard, says the Fed has created a series of financial crises through its easy money policies. “In the long run, the only solution is to abolish the Fed, end government sponsorship of the ratings agencies, and return to sound monetary policies in Congress with a currency backed by hard assets instead of promises,” he writes. “Instead, the proposal is to give Fed increased authority to watch over additional henhouses. And if there’s one thing worse than the fox watching the henhouse, it’s the Fed watching the henhouse. A quick look at history should be enough to convince anyone of that.”

Sirius (SIRI) still doesn’t know whether regulators will approve its long-delayed merger with XM Satellite (XMSR), Fortune’s Scott Moritz reports. But the company set off a modest rally in its shares by noting there has been an uptick in activity at the Federal Communications Commission lately.

Speaking to investors at the Bear Stearns Media Conference Wednesday, Sirius said it has not seen any action from the Justice Department one way or another. But at the FCC, it’s just the opposite. The New York pay radio broadcaster says there have been many discussions among lawyers. The comments could be taken to suggest Sirius is hammering out concessions like program pricing and other guarantees that would soothe consumer complaints and allow for a conditional approval by the FCC.

The news helped send both XM and Sirius shares up 3% Wednesday.

The proposed merger between the only two satellite radio companies has been at a standstill ever since it was proposed back in February 2007. The companies said initially they aimed to close the deal late last year, but it hasn’t worked out that way, fueling investor fears the deal won’t get approved. The Justice Department has now had the issue on its hands for 55 weeks, and March 22 will mark the anniversary of the Sirius-XM filing with the FCC.

Sirius’ comments seem to suggest that the Justice Department has already reached a decision on the deal, one way or the other. The issue for the antitrust lawyers at Justice is whether a merger will lead to a satellite radio monopoly, or whether there is enough competition from conventional radio and new devices like iPods to give consumers a significant market choice, say observers. For the FCC, the tie-up threatens to reduce the chances of wider programming choices and moderate prices.

It has been widely speculated that there’s an outside chance that the two companies could get the nod if they made significant concessions to regulators.