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Barack Obama says Wall Street looking for 'easy way out'
Paul Thompson11 Feb 2009
Barack Obama today accused Wall Street of seeking an "easy" way out of the financial crisis.
The president went on the attack after US stocks plunged following the announcement of his latest bank rescue plan.
Within hours of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlining a $2 trillion plan to stabilise the banking sector, stocks fell sharply.
The Dow Jones closed at a three-month low as investors showed their lack of enthusiasm. Many claimed there was a lack of detail in the plan.
But Obama warned Wall Street bankers would have little choice but to accept what he is proposing, describing the plan as "tough love".
"Wall Street I think is hoping for an easy out on this, and there is no easy out," he said during an interview for the ABC show Nightline last night.
"You've got a set of banks that have not been as transparent as we need... And we're going to have to hold out the Band-Aid a little bit, and go ahead and just be clear about some of the losses that have been made because until we do that, we're not going to be able to attract private capital into the market place."
Obama, who has promised a clampdown on bonuses for CEOs, yesterday secured Senate approval for a slimmed-down $838 billion economic stimulus package.
Reader views (3)
To Mike,
Markets react quickly, in fact they usually act before an expected event because if you waited until the event you will find that no else waited, the price has shifted and you have lost out. As Geithner's announcement was clearly the biggest news of the day to suggest that the slide was caused by something else is either naive or disingenuous. Likewise Obama is being naive or disingenuous when he fails to distinguish between the market and Wall St. If you actually believe that the market can just be used as an expression of Wall St political opinion would you like to explain the share price collapse of Lehman, Bear Stearns, etc and the freeze in the credit markets? When it comes down to choosing between the aggregated opinion and information of millions of people with their investments on the line or a politician I know which I would prefer.
- Tim, Lambeth, 13/02/2009 10:15
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Barack Obama is going to tax capital when it is in short supply already, protect American jobs when it was protectionism that worsened the Great Depression,and throw hard working Americans money into bust banks.He will shortly catch Gordon Brown up in the Buffoon Race.
- Alan, Llandrindod Wells, 11/02/2009 16:17
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Wall Street started their Dow slide yesterday even before the US treasury Secretary had finished his submission to the Senate. I sometimes believe that Wall St thinks it is in the Politics of governing America.
Obama is right to put them straight, after all lots of Taxpayers dollars are involved in this financial system bailout package. The reaction of Wall st. was as expected hyper active and very premature.
- Mike, France, 11/02/2009 14:53
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