Biden Blasts "Cowboys on Wall Street"

Vice President Joe Biden blasted the "cowboys on Wall Street" Monday, squarely placing blame on the nation's financial center for "an economy built on a bubble."

Biden's remarks came during a campaign event in Detroit for a pair of Michigan Democrats in Congress, as reported by Dawson Bell of the Detroit Free Press.

Discussing the economy, Biden said it was easy to forget "just how horrible things were back in January." But now, as a largely jobless recovery begins to take shape, Biden told the crowd that the administration's measure of success will be whether the nation's middle class emerges from the recession in better shape.

It's the second time this month Biden has referred to the "cowboys" on Wall Street.

During a Nov. 2 campaign event for then-Congressional candidate Bill Owens, Biden said:

Ladies and gentlemen, derivatives, gambling with your money, taking risks that exceed anything reasonable, leveraging things 30 to 1 is still permissible if we do not and if you wondered whether or not they'd go back to their same old ways, I just ask you to pick up the paper. What will -- what will Bill's opponent do about that? I know what he'll do; support reasonable, rational means by which we can get banks starting lending money again. We can make sure that people have a fighting chance and that we do not leave our future in the hands of a bunch of gamblers and cowboys on Wall Street.

Owens, a Democrat, won the race to represent New York's 23rd Congressional District. Meanwhile, various reform proposals for the financial services industry are making their way through Congress.