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Obama: Fix Financial System or Risk Another Meltdown


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U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States must craft better rules to govern its financial system, or risk another financial crisis.

He said the financial meltdown cost millions of jobs, trillions of dollars and wrecked the dreams of families and small businesses across the nation. The president spoke Thursday in New York City, a short distance from the most important financial district in the United States.

Mr. Obama urged key financial executives in his audience to stop "furious efforts" to lobby Congress and block reforms that the president says will help Wall Street as well as ordinary people.

He said reforms must include consumer protection, limits on how large banks can grow and how much risk they can take, changes in the way executives are paid, and an orderly way to deal with failing financial institutions.

The president also said without reform, current rules make trading derivatives a kind of gambling, and he urged more public disclosure of the details. Derivatives are the complex financial deals that sometimes went sour and are blamed for much of the financial crisis.

A bill addressing concerns about derivatives passed a key committee vote on Wednesday. An overall reform bill may come up for Senate consideration next week. The lower House has already passed its own version of regulatory reform.

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