Obama spells out major financial rules overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama proposed sweeping new “rules of the road” for the nation’s financial system today, casting the changes as a critically important response to the economic crisis and the greatest regulatory transformation since the Great Depression.

Obama blamed the financial crisis on “a culture of irresponsibility” that he said had taken root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street, and he said regulations crafted to deal with the Depression of the 1930s had been “overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy.”

The Obama plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the largest and most interconnected players in the financial world. It would create a council of regulators, led by the Treasury Department, that would police the entire financial system for risky products.