President Barack Obama is to make a speech a year after the Lehman Brothers’ collapse, to outline his plan for unwinding government involvement in the financial sector and to argue that new regime of rules to prevent a market crisis is essential. Obama will use the backdrop of Federal Hall in New York City to try and revive efforts at revamping market regulations, reports Bloomberg. He will urge the financial community to support that goal and emphasize the need for global coordination on financial oversight, according to an unnamed administration official. The administration’s focus on health-care legislation has overshadowed work being done to craft a new set of financial regulations that the president called for earlier this year. “This is the year, after what has happened, to overhaul the system of financial regulation,” White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers told reporters last week. In response to the financial crisis, the Obama administration proposed on June 17 changes to U.S. financial regulations, including oversight of the systemic risk large financial institutions pose to the economy, new ways for the government to dismantle failed companies and a regulator to oversee financial products for consumers. During his 30 minute-long speech tomorrow, Obama will recount steps taken by the administration in response to the financial crisis and discuss steps the government is taking to reduce its involvement in the financial sector, the source said. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, said that even with the focus on health care, new financial regulations can be enacted this year. Congressional committees have begun hearings on financial regulations and preparing draft legislation and a bill may reach the House floor by next month.
A Year After Lehman, Obama to Argue for New Market Rules
Obama will recount steps taken by the administration in response to the financial crisis and discuss steps the government is taking to reduce its involvement in the financial sector.
September 14, 2009