FINANCIAL
REFORM
A Wishlist for the President
By MARK GONGLOFF
WHEN PRESIDENT Barack Obama
first swore the oath of office, the
backdrop was a financial system in
flames. Four years on, the fires are
out, but those who hoped Obama
would make capitalism fundamentally safer are disappointed.
Barring another crisis in the
next four years, the president may
have missed his best chance for
a more significant overhaul of finance. But there are still things he
can do in a second term to at least
ensure that the accomplishments
of his first term, embodied in the
Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act,
don’t go to waste.
Obama can’t rewrite laws or
bend independent agencies such
as the Federal Reserve to his
whim. Any reform efforts are
countered by a multitude of tireless financial lobbyists who have
resisted every step of the way —
often successfully — bankrolled
by a deep-pocketed industry with
influence over regulators, lawmakers and the media.
But Obama can set the agenda,
with his words and with the people he puts in key jobs, to let Wall
Street know that Main Street will
always come first.
Because Main Street may be
starting to wonder.
“We are losing public support,”