Obama on attack over the lack of Street cred
Source: Agencies |
April 23, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
UNITED States President Barack Obama berated Wall Street yesterday for risk-taking that led to the financial crisis and urged the banking industry to stop its "furious efforts" to block tighter regulations.
In a speech in New York attended by some Wall Street executives, Obama blamed the crisis and the recession that followed on a "failure of responsibility" by both Washington and Wall Street.
He warned that the United States faced a repeat of the crisis without new rules to rein in the financial industry in a speech that tapped into public fury at big banks and pushed a Democratic regulatory reform bill that is gaining traction in the US Senate.
"A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it," Obama said. "One of the most significant contributors to this recession was a financial crisis as dire as any we've known in generations."
"And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility - from Wall Street to Washington - that brought down many of the world's largest financial firms and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression."
He said the legislation would significantly improve a flawed regulatory structure, "despite the furious efforts of industry lobbyists" to try to weaken the proposals.
Obama, who has in the past referred to Wall Street executives as "fat cats," said some of the huge pay packages in the industry encouraged "perverse incentives to take reckless risks," although he added that he does not begrudge anyone success "when that success is earned."
Obama spoke at the historic Great Hall at Cooper Union college in Manhattan, the venue for important addresses by leading Americans, including Abraham Lincoln.
Democrats hope cracking down on Wall Street will help them win voter support at congressional elections in November.
One of Obama's aims in the speech was to put pressure on Republicans to support reform legislation amid signs several in the opposition party may be willing to back the bill.
The legislation got a boost from fraud charges brought against Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs last week, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he was "absolutely confident" that the reforms would happen.
Obama addressed an audience of about 700, including financial leaders, members of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, local officials and Cooper Union students and faculty.
Obama listed five essential elements to the legislation.
Those include the "Volcker Rule," which would ban banks from engaging in proprietary trading, or trading for their own account.
In a speech in New York attended by some Wall Street executives, Obama blamed the crisis and the recession that followed on a "failure of responsibility" by both Washington and Wall Street.
He warned that the United States faced a repeat of the crisis without new rules to rein in the financial industry in a speech that tapped into public fury at big banks and pushed a Democratic regulatory reform bill that is gaining traction in the US Senate.
"A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it," Obama said. "One of the most significant contributors to this recession was a financial crisis as dire as any we've known in generations."
"And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility - from Wall Street to Washington - that brought down many of the world's largest financial firms and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression."
He said the legislation would significantly improve a flawed regulatory structure, "despite the furious efforts of industry lobbyists" to try to weaken the proposals.
Obama, who has in the past referred to Wall Street executives as "fat cats," said some of the huge pay packages in the industry encouraged "perverse incentives to take reckless risks," although he added that he does not begrudge anyone success "when that success is earned."
Obama spoke at the historic Great Hall at Cooper Union college in Manhattan, the venue for important addresses by leading Americans, including Abraham Lincoln.
Democrats hope cracking down on Wall Street will help them win voter support at congressional elections in November.
One of Obama's aims in the speech was to put pressure on Republicans to support reform legislation amid signs several in the opposition party may be willing to back the bill.
The legislation got a boost from fraud charges brought against Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs last week, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he was "absolutely confident" that the reforms would happen.
Obama addressed an audience of about 700, including financial leaders, members of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, local officials and Cooper Union students and faculty.
Obama listed five essential elements to the legislation.
Those include the "Volcker Rule," which would ban banks from engaging in proprietary trading, or trading for their own account.
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