CHICAGO: President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday named three veteran regulators to round out his economic team and vowed to revamp regulatory rules to prevent a repeat of the financial and economic debacles the country is suffering through.
His announcement came as he lays the groundwork for a giant economic stimulus package, possibly $850 billion over two years, aimed at reviving the flagging economy. It would rival drastic government actions taken to fight the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Obama blamed regulators for the financial debacle, saying they “dropped the ball.'' Regulators, he said, "have been asleep at the switch.''
American people, watching their investments tank, are frustrated that “there's not a lot of adult supervision out there,'' Obama added.
At a Chicago news conference, Obama named Mary Shapiro to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Daniel Tarullo to fill an empty Federal Reserve seat. All three will need to be confirmed by the Senate next year.
In announcing the appointments, Obama mentioned disgraced Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff, saying that the latest investment scandal “has reminded us yet again of how badly reform is needed.'' The president-elect said his new team will help put in place new rules that will help “crack down on the culture of greed and scheming.
His announcement came as he lays the groundwork for a giant economic stimulus package, possibly $850 billion over two years, aimed at reviving the flagging economy. It would rival drastic government actions taken to fight the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Obama blamed regulators for the financial debacle, saying they “dropped the ball.'' Regulators, he said, "have been asleep at the switch.''
American people, watching their investments tank, are frustrated that “there's not a lot of adult supervision out there,'' Obama added.
At a Chicago news conference, Obama named Mary Shapiro to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Daniel Tarullo to fill an empty Federal Reserve seat. All three will need to be confirmed by the Senate next year.
In announcing the appointments, Obama mentioned disgraced Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff, saying that the latest investment scandal “has reminded us yet again of how badly reform is needed.'' The president-elect said his new team will help put in place new rules that will help “crack down on the culture of greed and scheming.
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