Barack Obama, U.s. Financial System Overhaul | featured news

President Barack Obama singled out financial institutions for causing much of the economic tailspin and criticized their opposition to tighter federal oversight of their industry....

President Barack Obama on Tuesday embraced a House bill that would give the government unprecedented power to seize bank holding companies and other large financial firms teetering on the brink of collapse and stick their competitors with the cost....

The Obama administration's proposal to overhaul financial regulations, aimed in part at restoring global confidence in America's economic system, triggered a welcome but largely wait-and-see response from overseas investors and analysts.

President Obama said he was looking for a "careful balance" when sketching his blueprint to stabilize the nation's financial sector and wring from the system the kind of risky practices that propelled the country into economic turmoil.

The Obama administration's aggressive plan for strict scrutiny of hedge funds and other freewheeling investors, part of the biggest expansion of financial restraints since the Great Depression, is drawing instant opposition from Republican lawmakers and the rules' targets. And skeptics are questioning whether the new rulebook would work anyway.