President Obama Calls on Congress to Pass Finance Reform

[cal04]

Source: ABC News

President Barack Obama said Saturday that Congress needs to enact comprehensive financial reforms to protect consumers, keep banks strong and ensure the U.S. economy doesn't sink into another Great Depression.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said "we need commonsense rules that will our allow markets to function fairly and freely while reining in the worst practices of the financial industry."

That, he said, is the central lesson of the current financial crisis that has cost millions of Americans their jobs and nearly caused the collapse of the entire financial system.

"And we fail to heed that lesson at our peril," Obama said.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10155444

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Weekly Address: Time for Action on Financial Reform for the Economy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address

[jody]

1. Makes sense, increase government control over every function of our economy because politicians with

their infinitesimal wisdom can do a much better job than We the People when allowed to make our own decisions.

I recall "what goes around, comes around" and the truth of the "Camel's Nose In The Tent" parable.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would never believe how their dream has become a nightmare.

We the People are dead, long live an omnipotent, omniscient government bought and paid for by We the Corporation.

[Mopar151]

2. So what should we do?

It's the government that makes laws, like anti-trust laws, bank and insurance regulation, regulation of trading in securities and commodities. How would you handle Goldman-Sachs and Citibank? Laws to strengthen the power of shareholders would be a good start, as would a ban on many forms of short selling, including the ugly practice of "naked shorting".

How do you want to handle this? Assainations? Missles? Truck bombs? I'm listening....

[jody]

3. For a start. consider the items below.

1. Amend our Constitution to proscribe corporations from having any of the rights of a person.

2. Amend our Constitution to appoint Supreme Court justices for limited terms and their appointment to be approved by 3/4 of the members of the House of Representatives.

3. Pass a law eliminating the limited liability of owners of a corporation's stock.

[No Elephants]

4. Reform worked very well when FDR undertook it.

Besides, "reform" often takes the form of requiring full and fair disclosure. Decisions made by "we the people" without that are no better than tossing a coin.

And please don't conflate government and corporations. They are not one and the same and can be separated. They just aren't very separate right now, since Democrats opted to act like Republicans.

[jody]

5. Our economy grew in the late 1930s as WWII began. You say "'reform' often takes the form of

requiring full and fair disclosure. Decisions made by 'we the people' without that are no better than tossing a coin."

Like we have in the current wrangling over HCR?

[No Elephants]

6. What does requiring disclosure have to do with the hcr bill? Or with our economy growing in the

1930's?


The reforms to which I was referring were the reforms FDR instituted to protect consumer savings and to regulate securities markets. Both sets of reforms worked very well until small government folks dismantled and/or ignored them.


BTW, although it had nothing to do with my post, the notion that only WWII saved our economy is a RW canard. FDR's programs created jobs and got the economy going--until he listened to the RWers whining about spending and backed off. It was the backing off that re-stalled the economy, not his jobs programs.

[No Elephants]

7. A consumer financial protection agency under the wing of the Federal Reserve is bullshit.

[bamacrat]

8. Re-institute Glass-Stegal, set a national limit on APR.

Eliminate payday loan sharks. I get that some may need payday loans but do not allow them to charge 300% interest. We need a consumers bill of rights.

[SandWalker1984]

9. Eisenhower Tried to Warn Us

A corporate criminal subculture brought us Camelot, the Bay of Pigs, and assassination-nomics.

An elite corporate subculture brought us Viet Nam expansion, the War on Poverty, opened China and impeachment-nomics.

A formally injured football player brought us trilateral and pardon gate-nomics.

Then, a submarine hand/ peanut farmer brought about 18% interest rates, the Iranian revolution and started us on deregulation-nomics.

Next came a sometimes B actor that destroyed unions, gave us Iran Contra, huge military budgets, cut taxes for the rich while raising social security taxes and put us on trickle by debt-nomics.

Then came Read My Lips no new taxes, Savings & Loan crisis and Desert Stormed the middle east-nomics.

Next came I Feel Your Pain, free trade, NAFTA, WTO, telecommunications bill, capital gains tax cutting repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, I didn’t have sex, impeached-nomics.

Then came I am a Christian, military industrial complex, 9/11, Patriot Act, Homeland Security, FISA, illegally invade and occupy multiple countries, endless wars for endless profiteers while bankrupting the US and the middle class TARP-nomics.

Last but not least, we have a progressive campaigning, ever changing spin shyster, CFR puppet that wants to bring about an un-transparent for too many, continuing 4 illegal wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan & Iran), corporate TARP, fascist heath care trickle-nomics, chains we shouldn’t believe in.

Whoa, I don’t know about you -- but I’m ready for a To Hell with the Rich that Steal and the Poor that are able but won’t Work for a Living, pro Middle Class Workers-nomics.


So now Orahma wants to put the foxes that looted the hen house in charge of regulating themselves. If he was really sincere, he would push for the re-institution of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932. Instead, we get more corporate chains instead of real change we can believe in.

[Speciesamused]

10. Housed at the Fed no less....

Chris Dodd said , well we don't want to 'punish' Wall Street. Yes we do. Yes, that's exactly what we need to do, because if we don't do it, they won't do anything to change. ... Instead what we did was, we wrote them more checks and said, 'Here. Thanks for stealing the money. Take some more.' I mean that's absolutely the wrong message to send to a thief." -- Michael Moore on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Monday, March 15th, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/user/speciesamused?feature=mhw4#p/f/26/tNGWkid0mHs

Sheila Bair, Elizabeth Warren and Eliot Spitzer are among the smartest and most out-spoken policymakers on how we need to restructure the regulatory frame work of the nation’s financial system and banking industry. In fact I think either one would be a tremendous improvement as Secretary of the Treasury as a replacement for Tim Geithner, who, in my humble opinion, is an industry tool.

The Obama administration’s regulatory overhaul plan would incorporate the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision – both of whom have a reputation of regulatory incompetence after its handling of IndyMac — into one national bank supervisor. The FDIC would then handle state-chartered banks and the Federal Reserve would act as a broader referee of sorts, overseeing the largest institutions and monitoring systemic risk. This last point leaves wide open legitimate concerns that the Federal Reserve would remain victim to regulatory arbitrage and influence peddling by Wall Street and the Banking industry lobby.