Obama to Launch Radical Bank Reform

Oversight measures aim for 'minimum' to avoid meltdown

(NEWSER) - Today Barack Obama will announce a major financial reform package that will give the Fed, Treasury, and FDIC new powers of regulation and oversight. It's the most substantial shift in financial regulations since the 1930s—but stops short of some of the most radical proposals, including tough limits on derivatives trading. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the president says he wants a "relatively light touch," but that Washington needs to "guard against huge systemic risk." More»

(NEWSER) - The Federal Reserve is ripe for some major changes everywhere but at the top, Steven Pearlstein writes for the Washington Post. It's finally clear that the job "involves a lot more than adjusting interest rates," and we've seen the drain that happened when we "left the previous chairman in the job so long that it created a cult of personality." To fix that, the possibility of reappointment should be removed for the Fed chairman—whose term should be extended to 6 years—to ensure independence from the White House and Wall Street. More»

Low-key chair deserves chance to stay on, clean up: Ignatius

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has a huge decision coming up this summer: whether to reappoint Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Fed or turn to obvious challenger Lawrence Summers. If he’s smart, he’ll stick with the soft-spoken incumbent, writes David Ignatius of the Washington Post. “He has been a veritable tiger,” he writes. “The Bernanke Fed is so much more powerful than its predecessors that it’s almost a different institution.” More»

The Fed stands to gain some powers and lose others

(NEWSER) - Among the myriad things that will be reshaped by the current economic crisis is the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reports. The steps the Fed has taken to stave off further economic turmoil have made it more vulnerable than it has been in years: If a lasting recovery takes hold, the 21st-century Fed may gain some important new powers—including the authority to regulate financial institutions, other than banks, that are so big they put the system at risk. More»

(NEWSER) - Tim Geithner today proposed a major expansion of federal regulatory powers, reports the Washington Post. In testimony before Congress, the Treasury chief called for hedge funds, derivatives markets, private equity firms, and major insurers like AIG to be brought under strict federal supervision for the first time. His plan, which requires congressional approval, would reverse decades of deregulation. More»