Obama Attacks Bank Reform Bill Critics

Barack Obama has chastised Wall Street for rampant greed and urged its financial leaders not to block his reforms and risk another economic meltdown.

Mr Obama was speaking to an audience of bankers and financial experts at the Cooper Union college in New York.
He bemoaned that a "few companies made out like bandits" putting the entire economy at risk in the worst crisis in decades.
And he urged his audience not to block what he has termed the most sweeping financial overhaul since the 1930s Great Depression.
The bill proposing tighter regulation is due to be debated in the US Upper House, the Senate, next week.

I'm here today specifically, when I speak to the titans of industry here, because I want to urge you to join us instead of fighting us in this effort.

Barack Obama

It was approved by the Lower House, the House of Representatives, at the end of last year.
The planned rules would include a special body to safeguard consumers' rights.
However many people in the financial sector are against the proposed changes.
Mr Obama said: "I'm here today specifically, when I speak to the titans of industry here, because I want to urge you to join us instead of fighting us in this effort.
"We will not always see eye to eye. We will not always agree.
"But that does not mean we have to choose between two extremes," he added, calling for new, "common sense" rules to quell abuses but retain the "power of the free market."