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Obama: No More "Reckless Behavior" From Financial Firms

2009_09_pobfh.jpg This morning, President Barack Obama warned about Wall Street going back to its dangerous ways, "There are some in the financial industry who are misreading this moment. Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them. They do so not just at their own peril, but at our nation's." Though he did say, "We can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break," Obama added, "Normalcy cannot lead to complacency... I want everybody here to hear my words. We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses. Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall." Here's the full text.

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Comments [rss]

  • NannyState

    Make paper, bundle, sell.

    Make paper, bundle, sell.

    Make paper, bundle, sell.

    Make paper, bundle, sell.

    Make paper, bundle, sell.

    Switch Obama off.

    Make paper, bundle, sell.

    Make paper, bundle, sell...

  • babyhitler

    the dudes who work on wall street are ten steps ahead of the dudes in govt. In fact, they place dudes in the govt just to be in lockstep with them. America is controlled by the illuminati

  • valeriob

    you're on the right track here...

    i see the problem as the majority of government employees are dumb as a brick. (sorry to insult you, building block)

    They're content with their low level jobs and are kept there for decades because they're too slow to do any significant work. We can't fire them cause there's laws against firing shit-for-brain employees.

    A weeks' work takes a month, and the whole system gets backed up for MILES.

    F THAT. No more reckless behavior in Government.

  • JacqueMehoff

    the bankers are laughing at him and lighting cigars with $20 bills. why don't he just say the word? Greed.

    and accept the fact that the SEC is not doing it's job.

  • valeriob

    20's? come on, what is this monopoly?

    More like shares of GM.

  • Rocknrope

    Given that Goldman recently had their biggest reported quarterly profit ever, and that other banks will probably follow suit with pushing their risk and leverage, I'd say the banks didn't learn a goddamn thing, not when there's money to be made.

  • faprilano

    agree with what's said here. the time for reform is long past. the gov't stepped in, bailed them out and passed no additional regulations to date. this talk is too little too late. the bailout and subseqent lack of action only condones the behavior that got us into this mess in the first place.

  • Wza

    Yep. ^

  • longacre

    Baloney. The time to implement reforms was when the banks had their backs against the wall and desperately the government's help. The banks that were already "too big to fail" are now even bigger and have less competition. What incentive do they have to change anything at this point?

  • longacre

    *desperately needed the government's help.

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