Obama to Wall Street: Prepare for Reform

Proposed regulatory fixes don't actually fix much: Nocera

(NEWSER) - President Obama is hardly living up to the hype on fiscal regulatory reform, and he's not matching Franklin Roosevelt, either. When FDR reformed financial regulation, he transformed the industry, cheerfully making enemies in the process. Obama has been timid by comparison, writes Joe Nocera of the New York Times: “The Obama plan is little more than an attempt to stick some new regulatory fingers into a very leaky financial dam.” More»

(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 has raised taxes when business needs a break

(NEWSER) - Everyone loves a scapegoat. The American people have Wall Street fat cats, and President Obama has George W. Bush, writes David Harsanyi for the Denver Post. While Obama, "in a superbly eloquent and inspirational pitch, always reminds us that nothing is his fault," Harsanyi gripes, "nearly every initiative enacted in the first 50 days of the Obama administration has exacerbated what Bush started." More»

Loophole lets Madoff types profit from bad advice, they say

(NEWSER) - Wall Street advisers and brokers are tussling over the details of a looming regulatory overhaul as Washington takes steps to prevent another Bernard Madoff scandal, Bloomberg reports. Advisers want brokers who counsel clients to be subject to the same oversight they’re under; currently, their brokerage counterparts can profit by swaying customers to buy their firm’s own financial offerings, even if they’re a bad risk. More»

President doesn't have to play nice with these guys

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama went to New York yesterday to beg Wall Street to play nice on financial reform, and Paul Krugman really wishes he hadn't. Obama said reform would ultimately help the financial industry, but Krugman doesn't see the need to play nice with the big banks. “Reform actually should hurt the bankers,” he writes in the New York Times . “An oversized financial industry is hurting the broader economy.” More»