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Presidential candidates take aim at Wall Street

Other News Materials 17 September 2008 05:26 (UTC +04:00)

( dpa ) - US Senators Barack Obama and John McCain took aim at Wall Street and each other's economic policies on Tuesday, a day after stocks plummeted on news of Lehman Bros bankruptcy and a Merrill Lynch buyout.

Republican McCain called for a commission to investigate Wall Street excesses.

"In short order, we are going to put an end to the reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed that have caused a crisis on Wall Street," McCain said at a campaign event in Florida.

Obama insisted that the idea didn't amount to much and covered up McCain economic policies that mirror those of unpopular President George W Bush. He particularly took McCain to task for repeated statements that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

"We are in the most serious financial crisis in generations. Yet Senator McCain stood up yesterday and said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong," Obama said at a rally in Colorado.

"Now I certainly don't fault Senator McCain for all of the problems we're facing, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to," Obama added, deriding McCain's record of promoting deregulation and economic policies that he claimed benefited the wealthy at the expense of workers.

McCain, however, spoke out against overly "casual oversight by regulatory agencies in Washington" and called for "comprehensive regulations that will apply the rules and enforce them to the full."

Obama recapped his calls for increasing government oversight of financial firms, streamlining regulatory agencies, cracking down on market manipulation and other regulatory changes.

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