President Barack Obama highlighted Saturday the need to create a new federal agency to champion consumer rights against predatory lenders and enforce rules governing credit firms. "We can now say that we have stopped our economic freefall. But we also know that stopping the bleeding isn''t nearly enough," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
"To protect our economy and people from another market meltdown, our government needs to fundamentally reform the rules governing financial firms and markets to meet the challenges of the 21st century," the US leader said. There need to be "clear rules, clearly enforced," Obama added, saying his proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency could do just that.
Recalling the trip to New York this week to address Wall Street bosses, Obama said he warned executives that "a return to normalcy can''t breed complacency." The United States "cannot allow the thirst for reckless schemes that produce quick profits and fat executive bonuses to override the security of our entire financial system," he said. A year after Lehman Brothers failed, Obama called on Monday for Congress to act this year on regulatory reforms he hailed as the most sweeping bid to tame industry over-exuberance since the Great Depression.