Obama Wall Street Speech To Focus On Regulation

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to use the first anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse to talk about plans to wind down the government role in a financial sector that needed a Washington bailout last year, an administration official said Sunday.

Obama's speech in New York on Monday will push Congress to take action on regulatory reform to prevent the kind of tailspin that the economy went through last year. Obama also plans to repeat his call for global partners to coordinate to prevent future crises.

An administration official, who discussed details of the speech on the condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the president, said Obama will also discuss his team's efforts to repair the economy.

As part of that effort, Obama has called on Congress to pass a sweeping overhaul of how financial institutions behave but has seen slower-than-sought action. An administration official said the president will again decry the hands-off approach from Washington that allowed Lehman Brothers and other firms to engage in irresponsible lending, which eventually led the nation's largest financial institutions to the brink of collapse.

Obama will also tell the New York audience that the financial community must take responsibility, not just to support his proposed overhaul but also to police itself, the official said.

Comments

[LeftLeaner]

09:40 AM on 09/14/2009

blah, blah, blah.

We need more than speeches, Mr. President.

How about some reform?

[PWM]

10:34 AM on 09/14/2009

How do you think reform is made? without words!

All presidents worked this way.

[LeftLeaner]

11:28 AM on 09/14/2009

When do words stop and actions begin?

[potrerohillman]

11:41 AM on 09/14/2009

pwm: i have one word in response "aig" or maybe you would like two words "goldman sachs" or maybe even three words "group of thirty." wow i see reform in that combo. actually, roosevelt for all his patrician establishment ties was a revolutionary. ob is simply keeping the establishment in place, because it is too big to fail.

hmmmm, that hardly seems the voice of reform. it's like telling an addict, that he or she just needs to cut back a little and it will be ok.

[mikebarden]

08:23 AM on 09/14/2009

If they made a cartoon of Obama sittin' at a desk, I'd put under it:
Doen't need a speechwriter.

[Da-king]

01:27 AM on 09/14/2009

Too many people in congress are already bought by wall street nothing is going to change.