Obama’s Financial System Overhaul Would Give the Fed Broad Powers Over Wall Street
by ilene - June 18th, 2009 1:23 pm
Obama’s Financial System Overhaul Would Give the Fed Broad Powers Over Wall Street
Courtesy of Don Miller, Associate Editor, Money Morning
U.S. President Barack Obama took a swipe at Wall Street yesterday (Wednesday) as he unveiled a sweeping 85-page proposal to reinvigorate government regulation of the U.S. financial markets by giving the Federal Reserve new powers to supervise the economy.
The proposal is part of an effort by the Obama administration to restore confidence in the nation’s financial system after last year’s collapses of The Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (OTC: LEHMQ). The failures of those two institutions caused a credit-market seizure that froze bank lending and paralyzed consumer spending – resulting in a near collapse of the U.S. economy. Those economic woes subsequently infected other economies throughout the world, forcing central governments from Washington to Beijing to rollout out hundreds of billions of dollars of stimulus packages.
President Obama’s comprehensive plan contains reforms aimed at almost every facet of the financial system, including the asset-backed securities and credit derivatives that are widely blamed for nearly bringing down the banking sector. Prior to releasing the proposals, President Obama singled out Wall Street for overreacting to government intervention in the financial markets. One of the administration’s most-heavily criticized moves was the limits it placed on executive compensation.
"Wall Street seems to maybe have a shorter memory about how close we were to the abyss than I would have expected," President Obama told Bloomberg News in an interview before the plan was released.
"When I hear some of the commentary that’s been creeping up about, ‘You know, it’s time for government to get out of the economy. And what’s the Obama administration doing?’ I have to try to remind them – all we’re doing is cleaning up after the mess that was made [by Wall Street]," Obama said.
Derivatives and Hedge Funds Under the Microscope
Obama pledged to bring more transparency to the murky derivatives market, which he called a system of "enormous risk." The proposal also promises further regulation of mortgage-backed securities, which fueled the housing bubble and ignited last fall’s credit crisis.
"Derivatives are a huge potential risk to the system," President Obama said. "We are going to make sure that they have to register, that they are regulated, that you have clearinghouses." Derivatives are defined as "contracts whose values are tied to assets…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site
