Obama Repeats Reform Proposals to Wall St.

President Obama delivered his much-publicized speech to Wall St., in which he first asserted that the nation's financial situation has improved since the collapse of Lehman a year ago and that government intervention was effective in dealing with the crisis.  Perhaps in response to many news reports about non-existence of regulatory reform in the past year, he then addressed the principal proposals in the Treasury's White Paper that was released some months ago.  Specifically, he advocated;

1. new rules to protect consumers and a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to enforce them (although the President did not mention it, the proposed agency has been the target of fierce opposition by the credit industry.)

2. close regulatory loopholes

3. the Federal Reserve as systemic risk regulator for the big banks, an oversight council and "resolution authority" to deal with failures that pose a risk to financial stability

4. coordinating international policies.

Will this jump-start regulatory reform?  Let's hope so.