Obama to Wall Street: Do not Fight Financial Reform

President Obama also directed attention to an ongoing and enormously sensitive issue for Americans - multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses and other compensation paid to industry executives.

22 April 2010

US President Barack Obama speaks about financial reform at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York, 22 Apr 2010

Comparing the U.S. economy to a house on shifting sands, President Barack Obama has appealed to the U.S. financial industry to support reforms he describes as vital to avoiding another economic collapse. The president spoke in New York.

Aiming his appeal directly at the financial industry and skeptics within it, and at Republican critics in Congress, the president warned of the danger of a repeat of economic collapse.

Calling the financial crisis the outcome of a failure of responsibility from Wall Street to Washington, he said the time has come to seize the moment to make fundamental changes in the rules of the financial road.

"It is essential that we learn the lessons of this crisis, so we do not doom ourselves to repeat it," said the president. "And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we allow this moment to pass. That is an outcome that is unacceptable to me and it is unacceptable to you, the American people."

With many, but not all, of the most prominent executives of Wall Street firms present, the president outlined key aspects of legislation the Senate will debate in coming days.