Financial reform

“ We will deepen reform of the financial sector. We will move faster in the reform to improve the modern financial regulatory system and ensure that the financial sector serves the real economy more efficiently and that regulation covers all financial risks. ”

“ Five years ago, after the worst financial crisis in decades, we passed historic Wall Street reform to end the era of bailouts and too big to fail. As part that reform, we created an independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with one mission: to protect American consumers from some of the worst practices of the financial industry. ”

“ And again -- and on that, and I've said this before, you know, we are working on the process, along with Capitol Hill, on financial regulatory reform to ensure that the conditions that allowed some of the things to happen that have us where we are now don't happen again -- the foreclosures, financial stability, the -- really all of that has to happen; that not one -- any one single thing is going to solve a series of problems, but instead a series of things will address a series of other challenges. ”

“ That is why our goal with this fee – and with the common-sense financial reforms we seek – is not to punish the financial industry. Our goal is to prevent the abuse and excess that nearly led to its collapse. Our goal is to promote fair dealings while punishing those who game the system; to encourage sustained growth while discouraging the speculative bubbles that inevitably burst. Ultimately, that is in the shared interest of the financial industry and the American people. ”

“ So unless you run a financial institution whose business model is built on cheating consumers, or making risky bets that could damage the whole economy, you have nothing to fear from Wall Street reform. Yes, it discourages big banks and financial institutions from making risky bets with taxpayer-insured money. And it encourages them to do things that actually help the economy – like extending loans toentrepreneurs with good ideas, to middle-class families who want to buy a home, to students who want to pursue higher education. ”

“ As to our national finances and the defects of our currency system, there is much that calls for reform, but there seems to be little or no prospect at this session of Congress of the passage of a comprehensive financial measure, although it is a remedy we need. ”

“ We will deepen the reform of state-owned financial institutions, and steadily develop small and medium-sized financial enterprises under multiple forms of ownership and new types of rural financial institutions. We will actively encourage healthy development of informal financing. We will continue to carry out reform of capital markets, and stabilize stock markets. We will develop and standardize the bond market, and steadily develop the futures market. We will deepen reform of the insurance sector to make the most of its guarantee and financing functions. ”

“ Therefore, let the march of reform be unimpeded, for it will lead us to a higher financial and commercial eminence than even that on which we already stand, and hasten the time when this country will be the world’s greatest financial and commercial centre. ”

“ We will not always see eye to eye in our work. We may disagree -- and disagree strongly -- about particular provisions. But there are certain core principles that I believe must shape any proposal for reform -- and these are the principles that will guide our work.
First, financial institutions that pose serious risks, systemic risks, to our market should be subject to serious oversight by the government. ”

“ As we address the current crisis, we also need to make broader reforms to adapt our financial systems to the 21st century. So during this summit, I will work with other leaders to establish principles for reform, such as making markets more transparent and ensuring that markets, firms, and financial products are properly regulated. ”

“ And it means reforming a weak and outdated regulatory system so that we can better withstand financial shocks and better protect consumers, investors, and businesses from the reckless greed and risk-taking that must never endanger our prosperity again. ”

“ To develop and strengthen the financial system, we shall encourage bank mergers and consolidation, longer-­term spending, regional dispersal of financial institu­tions; strengthen supervision and control of government financial institutions; and develop the capital market.
Let there be no doubt about our commitment to help our financial institutions to strengthen themselves and stabilize their operation. ”

“ Second, our plan looks beyond today's business cycle because our aspirations extend into the next century. The heart of this plan deals with the long term. It is an investment program designed to increase public and private investment in areas critical to our economic future. And it has a deficit reduction program that will increase the savings available for the private sector to invest, will lower interest rates, will decrease the percentage of the Federal budget claimed by interest payments, and decrease the risk of financial market disruptions that could adversely affect our economy. ”

“ First, in this time of financial uncertainty, we must maintain America's hard-won fiscal discipline. Our economic expansion is built not on the illusion of Government debt but on the solid foundation of private sector growth spurred by low interest rates. ”

“ I don't think there's any doubt, as I've said, that the economy is going to need a financial stability plan that moves lending forward for other banks, for small businesses, for families, and the regulation efforts that this White House is working through. ”

“ At the same time, we know that this recovery and reinvestment plan is only the first part of what we need to do to restore prosperity and secure our future. We also need a strong and viable financial system to keep credit flowing to businesses and families alike. ”

“ On the other hand, the stress it lays upon the necessity of reforming the issuance of government currency and the national banking system so as to prevent financial convulsions shows plainly the direction in which they look for the restoration of that confidence which alone can, and which certainly will, bring on a new period of prosperous activity. And in this they are certainly right. Excepting that confidence, all the conditions for such a revival of prosperity actually exist. For years the people — all but the government — have been practising economy. ”

“ We must also work with the same sense of urgency to stabilize and repair the financial system we all depend on. That means using our full arsenal of tools to get credit flowing again to families and business, while restoring confidence in our markets. ”

“ The measure, being approved by the National Government, had the desired effect of freeing to a great degree the financial world from its parasites of industrial malefactors, and to some extent established again the stability and integrity of honorable financiers, in the meanwhile safeguarding foolish persons from being fleeced out of their savings. ”

“ That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is so to improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at lower rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay, so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected.
7. The Government of the United States should be administered with the strictest economy; and the corruptions which have been so shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical reform. ”

“ At the same time we want to ensure that access to greater capital ensures that banks that are more healthy can lend money to the American people and to small businesses, and that that not be overly punitive. The policy I think stuck that right balance, and we believe will give the American people the confidence that they need in the financial system and as it relates to executive compensation. ”

“ The ability of Americans to plan, save, and invest is vital to their building wealth and pursuing the American Dream. One of my first actions as President was to issue an Executive Order entitled "Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System," and its first core principle is that financial regulation should "empower Americans to make independent financial decisions and informed choices in the marketplace, save for retirement, and build individual wealth." ”

“ Provide guidance and funds as necessary to credit unions that will contribute to stabilization of the nation's economy by helping to establish and maintain a sound economic base for continuing operations, combating inflation, maintaining confidence in public and private financial institutions, and promoting thrift.”. ”

“ There are many other things of prime importance to be secured through monetary reform, but if nothing were to be secured but emancipation from panics there would be abundant imperative reasons for immediate action by Congress. ”

“ Two such economies will be of infinite value to the people, whose riches will be proportionally increased. In the development of wealth, next to making money is saving money.
Bearing these things in mind, Financial Reconstruction is relieved of its difficulties. It only remains to find the proper machinery or process. And here we encounter the propositions of the Secretary of the Treasury in his Annual Report, [209] which are threefold:—
1. To refund twelve hundred millions of six per cent. Five-Twenty bonds in four and a half per cent. ”

“ The entire case may be presented by the statement that the day of sensible and sound financial methods will not dawn upon us until our Government abandons the banking business and the accumulation of funds and confines its monetary operations to the receipt of the money contributed by the people for its support and to the expenditure of such money for the people's benefit. ”

“ If it means failure to provide the necessary means to defray all the expenses of Government, and thereby repudiation of the public debt and pensions, then I am still more opposed to such kind of revenue reform. Revenue reform has not been defined by any of its advocates to my knowledge, but seems to be accepted as something which is to supply every man's wants without any cost or effort on his part.
A true revenue reform can not be made in a day, but must be the work of national legislation and of time. ”

“ We will continue to implement proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, develop new approaches to macro regulation, strengthen range-based, targeted, and well-timed regulation, use fiscal and monetary policies and industry, investment, and pricing policy tools in a coordinated way, and implement structural reform, particularly supply-side structural reform, so as to create an enabling environment for economic development. ”

“ This week, I signed into law a Wall Street reform bill that will protect consumers and our entire economy from the recklessness and irresponsibility that led to the worst recession of our lifetime. It’s reform that will help put a stop to the abusive practices of mortgage lenders and credit card companies. ”

“ I’m a pretty tough grader. These new rules are making our financial system more transparent, getting rid of a lot of fine print, and making sure that if a bank screws up, you have someone to call so you don’t get stuck with the bill. ”

“ No borrowing should run athwart the borrowings of the federal treasury, and no fundamental industrial values should anywhere be unnecessarily impaired. In the hands of many thousands of small investors in the country, as well as in national banks, in insurance companies, in savings banks, in trust companies, in financial agencies of every kind, railway securities, the sum total of which runs up to some ten or eleven thousand millions, constitute a vital part of the structure of credit, and the unquestioned solidity of that structure must be maintained. ”

“ But make no mistake that there are big challenges economically. The President talked this week with Republicans in the House and Senate about not just a recovery plan but a stability package, and there will be some meetings next week at the White House relating to reregulation of the financial industry to greatly assure that the structure that enabled some of what happened -- most recently to happen doesn't come again on this President or another President's watch ”

“ We intend to work with those in Congress who are striving to put us back on the road to budget sanity. And just as we've done with credit reform, the administration will propose additional elements in what will be a comprehensive budget-process reform package. These reforms are important to you because they're a key to continued economic growth and job creation. It's time to put politics aside and do what the Congress knows has to be done sooner or later anyway: give the American people a budget process that controls spending, a budget process we can be proud of. ”

“ But on the whole it may be said that where all the general conditions are favourable, and point conclusively to the possibility and probability of fairly rapid economic development, a bold financial policy may and should be adopted, even although it may not be easy to prove beforehand by very exact calculations that any special project under consideration will be directly remunerative. ”

“ So long as the rank and file even of business men fail to realize that they are daily gambling in changes in the value of money, a fact of which they are blissfully unaware, they will exert no demand for preventing those changes. They are the parties whose interests are chiefly involved, and the first essential step in the reform process is that they shall be made to comprehend the benefits of a stable purchasing power.*53 Until this time arrives, any political proposals will be premature. ”