On Monday, September 14, the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a crowd assembled at Wall Street’s Federal Hall – steps away from the New York Stock Exchange – to hear President Obama speak on the necessity of comprehensive regulatory reform. Urging his audience to “embrace serious financial reform, not fight it” while prodding bankers to check their “reckless behavior,” the President received a cool, if polite, response.
Alex Koppelman of Salon.com wrote: “Executives from places like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank Americas, American Express, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley can't exactly be expected to do the wave when the president says "there are some in the financial industry" who are ignoring "the lessons of ... the crisis from which we're still recovering" and says he's proposing "the most ambitious overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the Great Depression."”
Although the President took pains to reassure the crowd that he is not anti-capitalist, it will be a major challenge to enforce more aggressive government oversight over finance. In June, Mr. Obama proposed giving the Federal Reserve more power, creating a new agency for consumer protection, toughening oversight of exotic financial products and making it easier for the government to close down out-of-control mega-financial firms. Wall Street, however, is already battling to prevent any meaningful regulation. Significantly, not one CEO from a top U.S. bank attended President Obama’s speech, and Republicans have strongly criticized it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) vowed to work towards pushing legislation through Congress despite the resistance of banks and conservative lawmakers. And Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), spoke of the importance of moving forward soon. “Memories fade very quickly,” he said.
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