Obama, citing Madoff, vows tougher regulation

(JEFF HAYNES/Reuters)
President-elect Barack Obama announced the newest members of his economic team today, citing the still-unfolding fraud case of money manager Bernard L. Madoff as the latest evidence of how weak Washington's financial regulation has been.
Obama reiterated his vow to overhaul the regulatory system in announcing long-time financial regulator Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, former Clinton administration official and Senate Banking Committee adviser Gary Gensler as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Georgetown law professor Dan Tarullo as a governor on the Federal Reserve Board.
Obama said the economic stimulus plan his team is crafting with Congress is only one piece of the financial recovery he envisions for the struggling country. "What will be just as important to our long-term economic stability is a 21st-century regulatory framework to ensure that a crisis like this can never happen again," he said.
The president-elect called the Madoff case "a massive fraud that was made possible in part because the regulators who were assigned to oversee Wall Street dropped the ball."
"That's a failure we can't afford," he said, also casting blame on Congress and President Bush for being "asleep at the switch."
Obama also responded to criticism -- from gay-rights activists and others -- of his decision to ask prominent California evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Warren opposes abortion rights, and he advocated for the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which outlawed gay marriage.
Obama, who supports abortion rights but opposes gay marriage, said being able to disagree civilly is part of the "magic" of America.
"It's part of what my campaign's been all about -- that we're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans," he said. "There are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that will be represented and that's how it should be, because that's what America is about."
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He's going to govern from the middle. An end to "winner take all" politics is the first step toward a civil, functioning political system. Hooray!!
Obama's on the right track.
But he forgot to ask for Barney Frank's resignation!!
Now that the horse has left the barn. . . .let's put a saddle on it.
I do not believe the Madoff case is just a single bad apple. We have no idea as yet at the amount of corruption going on today as I write this Comment. Without regulation, greed has overcome many people in the financial industry, who believe they are above the law, as they are all well connected.
The sentences imposed on these men, should reflect zero tolerance with this kind of fraud. Where they live for the duration of their sentence should be a Federal prison, not a white collar holiday camp. We expect educated people to act differently, and we hold them to a far higher standard, so that when they commit huge crimes like this, they should be punished in the most severe way to try and make this type of crime not worth it. Put 20 men in a high security lock down facility for 20 years and this sort of crime will diminish considerably. They should have no chance of Parole and all their assets should be confiscated and used to pay off the poor victims of this crime, and by poor, I mean people who have lost all their pensions.
If we make sure that the family is also without assets, including their wives and children, they will also try and dissuade their husband's and father's to not commit fraud, a family policing is what is needed, self regulation from within their own family is a very powerful deterrent.
So strong regulation, and severe punishment, will not wipe out all corruption, but it would put a damper on it. When other men see their friends off to federal prison and their wives see their friends the wives out on the street, they will tremble should their husbands ever think of doing something like Madoff!
Had Rick Warren actively worked to remove ANY other minority's Constitutionl Rights from being covered by the equal protection clause.
We wouldn't be having this conversation.
There also wouldn't be ANYONE telling that minority to just get over the insult
Viewed from the bottom up, the free reign era of business as usual must come to an end. The ideals of less government regulation is a painfull failure. Apologies are not needed, only long prison sentences. The American taxpayer should not be paying for lax investment oversight from antics of the likes of Mr. Madoff to AIG. How about no off shore tax dodges, no gov. bailout golden parachutes or bonuses, no give aways without colllateral. CEO's across the nation are mute here because they don't want the light to shine on them...so much for integrity and trust from within. Big business needs more not less government regulation.
Thanks for the perfect beautiful quote: I love it your majesty B. Obama. Please keep this quote for history. Thanks God we going to have someone with sense in Washington.
Clearly, the regulation apparatus is inherently flawed. The government is not above the free-market. Madoff was called out by a few vocal "investors" who were bilked. The SEC and other regulatory commissions are just window dressing. It doesn't matter what the scandal-du-jour is. It could be Madoff, Enron or Global Crossing. They are always behind the eight-ball.
You do not act with "civility with people who would deny you your basic rights under the law. These people are bigots and religous zealots who do not understand that the law is free of religion, race or sex.
Obama is wrong on this and the gay/lesbian community should never commit any resources to his campain.
He's going to govern from the middle. An end to "winner take all" politics is the first step toward a civil, functioning political system. Hooray!!
Posted by nedinky December 18, 08 12:40 PM
ha ha ha
this is the funniest thing i have ever read