Is escape to a regulatory clubbing that would kill the recovery is quick there to add

One year after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Barack Obama sought to draw lessons from the financial crisis in the heart of Wall Street yesterday. He did close to the epicentre of the crisis, a few metres from the New York Stock Exchange, the site of the Federal Hall. Ten days of the G20 in Pittsburgh, the American President, speaking before a bankers and industrialists, thus wanted reassure those concerned about a possible standstill of the reform of the financial regulation, relegated to second by the priority given to the overhaul of the system of health since a few weeks. He also claimed a leading role in the development of solutions for the "post-crisis" at the global level.

"We will not return not to the days of unscrupulous behaviour and excess without control which have been at the heart of the crisis." "History must not be repeated," promised Barack Obama, recalling that "5,000 billion in wealth of households are taken three months after the fall of Lehman. "Unfortunately, instead of the lessons of the crisis, some have chosen to ignore them", he added, denouncing those who still have a "misreading" of the crisis. "This is why we need strong rules to prevent systemic risks and protect consumers, taxpayers and our economy as a whole," even if they must be developed so that they "are not harmful to innovation and entrepreneurship". "We call on the financial industry to join with us in a constructive effort to revise the rules and regulatory bodies to meet the challenges of this new century."

Slow process

Further strengthening the protection of consumers through the creation of a new agency, Barack Obama is committed to "fill the regulatory gaps in the heart of the crisis" by giving the Fed the role of systemic regulator and by creating a Board of supervision of regulators. A way to show that, despite doubts about the determination of the democratic administration to change the rules of the game, Washington means well force Wall Street to break with the "bad habits" and put the Conference before its responsibilities.

"I urge Congress to adopt the reform of the financial regulation this year," insisted Barack Obama, echoing the words of his economic adviser, Larry Summers, on the urgency of the reform, this weekend. The latter also referred to the imposition of fees to discourage the excessive growth of banking groups. But some analysts lament again the process of developing new rules both in Washington and the G20. For the Nobel Prize in economics Joseph Stiglitz, the banking sector problems are same "worst than before the crisis", ""too big to fail"banks (too big to fail) being become even larger."

Despite sending to Congress of a first outline for reform on 22 July, the redesign of the system of supervision of Wall Street remains suspended from the green light from Parliament. However, the project of strengthening the role of systemic super-régulateur of the Federal Reserve faces still the scepticism of some elected officials on the record of Ben Bernanke and his predecessors at the head of the Central Bank. So far, the US Treasury especially focused on the strengthening of the "leverage ratio" (more favourable today in European American banks). However, despite the willingness displayed by Barack Obama break with "the culture of irresponsibility from Wall Street", Washington is still visibly reserved on the European proposal for strict cap on the bonus.

By declaring recently that "multi-year guaranteed bonuses" should be banned now, the boss of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein, showed that Wall Street is ready to give tokens of good will. Is escape to a regulatory "clubbing" that would kill the recovery is quick there to add.