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In addition to handling monetary policy, under the Obama plan the Fed would regulate "systemic risk" and try to prevent future financial crises, working in tandem with an inter-agency council. "The Federal Reserve system was not designed to carry out the systemic risk oversight mission the administration proposes to give it," Senator Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, said at a hearing.

OBAMA PLAN: SUPERVISION OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL FIRMS

The president is set to announce the details of a massive reorganization of financial market oversight, according to a published report. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Barack Obama is set to release on Wednesday the details of his proposed overhaul to how financial markets are regulated, according to a report published in The Wall Street Journal Monday.

Biden: 'Save the markets from free marketeers' @ 3:45 pm by Michael O'Brien Vice President Biden, echoing President Franklin Roosevelt's famous admonition about saving capitalism from capitalists, urged world leaders on Saturday help "save the markets from free marketeers." Biden made the remarks while speaking Saturday at the Progressive Governance Conference in Vina del Mar, Chile. The assembled leaders "have to, in a sense, save the markets from free marketeers right now," Biden said in remarks released by the White House. "And the essence of that requires transparency and accountability." The remarks could be interpreted as an ideological shot-across-the-bow at...

The chief executive of financial bookmaker IG Group has called the recent stock market gains a "false rally" and predicted the FTSE 100 and Dow Jones will tumble almost 30pc. Tim Howkins said he expects there to be further gloomy economic news around the world, causing the blue-chip index to fall to as low as 2,800 and Wall Street's leading index to crash to 5,700. The FTSE 100 is now at 3898.8 and the Dow Jones is at 7810.2 "Those falls would be pretty apocalyptic from where the markets are now," he said. "But the world is getting worse rather...

So is that it? Is the downturn over? After bouncing off of 6500, or more than half its peak value, and with Citigroup briefly breaking $1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied back more than 1200 points. So, is it safe to go back in the water? Best to figure out what went wrong first -- what I like to call a bear-raid extraordinaire.The Dow clearly got a boost from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new and improved plan, announced on Monday, to rid our banks of those nasty toxic assets. The idea is to form a "Public-Private Investment Fund"...

WASHINGTON -- Confidence in the overall financial system has failed and a major overhaul of regulations is needed, Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner told a House panel Thurday. Calling the U.S. financial system the most stable in the world, Geithner said dangerous levels of risk were taken for short-term gain. "Over the past 18 months, we have faced the most severe global financial crisis in generations," Geithner said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. "To address this will require comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game."

In a bid to quash Wall Street excesses that nearly caused the collapse of the U.S. financial system, the Obama administration will propose tough restrictions on financial firms, hedge funds and derivatives markets. The U.S. Treasury will work with Congress to form a powerful systemic risk regulator with the authority to look deep into financial firms other than banks, such as hedge funds and private equity companies, administration officials said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will outline the plans in testimony before Congress on Thursday, and the proposals will form the basis for...

The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — "our partners in the government," as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout. The mistake most people make in looking at the financial crisis is thinking of it...

Obama Sinks the Markets Wednesday, March 11, 2009 By L. Brent Bozell III On March 3, President Obama said something remarkably stupid, wrong and politically tone-deaf. Our Obama-loving media either ignored it – or actually quoted it without comment. He claimed “The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong.” The Dow has now fallen more than 50 percent from its peak. Last month, it saw its biggest one-month...

As if investors didn't have enough to worry about, a new land mine is lurking: "the Obama market." That's what I heard over the weekend from a veteran investment adviser, Charles Allmon. "Political ramifications represent a significant added market risk that should not be ignored," he says. Initial polling suggests that Senator Obama will be the next president, a view Mr. Allmon shares. An Obama presidency is certain to mean a big tax increase, he says. Further, the veteran adviser, who publishes a 46-year-old monthly investment newsletter, the Growth Stock Outlook, out of Bethesda, Md., made a marvelous market call...

Some WallStreet economists think President Obama could have voiced some sympathy about the plight of frightened shareholders when he compared the stock market's plunge to an election tracking poll that "bobs up and down, day to day." They worry that the president is underestimating the important role the stock market plays in the economy's performance, and that the markets' precipitous slide is actually a vote of no confidence in the administration's handling of the economy. There's also a suspicion that Mr. Obama and his advisers think only wealthy people own stocks. "There is some of that feeling that rich people...

Some Wall Street economists think President Obama could have voiced some sympathy about the plight of frightened shareholders when he compared the stock market's plunge to an election tracking poll that "bobs up and down, day to day." They worry that the president is underestimating the important role the stock market plays in the economy's performance, and that the markets' precipitous slide is actually a vote of no confidence in the administration's handling of the economy. There's also a suspicion that Mr. Obama and his advisers think only wealthy people own stocks. "There is some of that feeling that rich...

Liberals are continuing their assault on investors, traders and the stock market. Peter DeFazio introduced the Let Wall Street Pay for Wall Street’s Bailout Act of 2009 bill in another utterly audacious attempt to stifle private enterprise. What is especially sad, the purpose of this bill as officially stated is to pay for TARP! TARP was shoved down our throats by the liberals, largely rejected by the GOP and force fed to the American public. This bill was introduced several weeks ago, but I am just learning about it now and someone that participates in the market find this to...