Obama Moves Quickly to Overhaul Finance Rules

(NEWSER) - President Obama wants to put the so-called dark markets under control, the New York Times reports, seeking congressional approval to regulate the byzantine world of derivatives trading—which played a large role in the current financial mess. In a letter to lawmakers, Treasury chief Timothy Geithner calls for an oversight system to be run either by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. More»

President plans new limits on bank size, risk-taking

(NEWSER) - President Obama, going on the offensive against Wall Street banks "too big to fail," plans to propose measures to limit the size of banks and their ability to take risks, according to administration sources. Adopting an approach championed by former Fed chief Paul Volcker, he wants to bar commercial banks from the "proprietary trading"—using clients' funds to play the markets—that led to the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama visited Wall Street’s historic Federal Hall today, on the anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse, to make the case for the financial regulatory reforms wending their way through Congress. He spoke of the need for “strong rules of the road” for the financial system. “History cannot be allowed to repeat itself,” he said, calling the effort “the most ambitious overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the Great Depression.” More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama has big plans for the economy, and that’s too bad because he knows nothing about it, Fred Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard. All of his proposals and angry jabs at Wall Street are counter to his professed interest in growth and job creation. “Obamanomics pays lip service to a free market economy,” Barnes writes. “But Obama hasn't a clue what makes it work.” More»

Banks may have unfair edge in information on credit-default swaps

(NEWSER) - The Justice Department is probing the market for credit-default swaps, the largely unregulated derivatives that contributed to the financial crisis, Bloomberg reports. Justice is investigating whether big banks have unfair access to price information through their ownership of a private company that provides data to investors. The Obama administration wants to bring transparency to the swap market, where investors speculate on companies’ failure to pay debts. More»