Obama Vows Regulators Will Crack Down on ‘Greed and Scheming’
President-elect Barack Obama named three new members of his economic team with a promise they would "crack down on the culture of greed and scheming" that has led to a crisis in U.S. financial markets, Bloomberg reported.
Obama today announced his choice of brokerage regulator Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. He named Gary Gensler, a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary, to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and picked economic policy adviser Daniel Tarullo to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve Board.
He took the occasion to sharply criticize the ethos of some on Wall Street and the Bush administration's approach to regulation.
"Instead of allowing interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales and CEOs run off with excessive golden parachutes, we're going to ensure openness, accountability and transparency in our markets," Obama said at a news conference in Chicago. "And instead of appointing people with disdain for regulation, I will ensure that our regulatory agencies are led by individuals who are ready and willing to enforce the laws."
The president-elect vowed to strengthen regulation, updating both the rules and systems to match the demands of modern financial markets. He said it is premature to give details of what changes may be in store, though he said they may include consolidating some agencies. Among the potential changes is a merger of the SEC and CFTC, which has jurisdiction over $5 trillion in trades.
