Obama Glosses Over Regulators’ Deficiencies

I had the privilege of being at President Obama’s speech today on financial reform in New York. The speech took place in the Great Hall of Cooper Union, a free college in lower Manhattan. The Great Hall has been the site of legendary speeches in the past, including Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1860 address calling for the abolition of slavery.

Like most presidential addresses, this speech was highly choreographed. The Great Hall, which probably seats about 700 people, was packed. The address was to start at 11:55, but everyone was in the hall by just after 11. There must have been 40 TV cameras set up along the back row. At around 11:40, a Secret Service agent walked up to the podium, took out the presidential seal from a zippered pouch, and affixed it to the podium. He had clearly done this before.

Obama largely stuck to the scripted speech the White House press office handed out earlier this morning. But there was one glaring omission. At a certain point in the speech, Obama talked about “derivatives and other complicated financial instruments” Wall Street brought to market. The prepared remarks had him say the following:

In fact, many practices were so opaque and complex that few within these companies — let alone those charged with oversight — were fully aware of the massive wagers being made.

But when he actually made the speech today, Obama nixed the reference to “those charged with oversight.” I think the omission is telling. A subtext to the pending financial regulation is the question of whether the federal government is equipped to enforce the new rules. Certainly, “those charged with oversight” failed miserably before and during the recent credit crisis. Obama made no other reference to regulators.

This points to my overall takeaway from the speech. Obama makes a fine argument that “these reforms are designed to respect legitimate activities but prevent reckless risk taking.” However, his arguments are through his prism. For example, he made a case that “with a dedicated agency setting the ground rules and looking out for ordinary people in our financial system … companies will compete the old-fashioned way: by offering better products.” But what about the results of added regulation and compliance costs on the profitability of those “better products”? He argued that result of his legislative action “will mean more choices for consumers, more opportunities for businesses, and more stability in our financial system.” Will it really? Won’t banks rein in product development because of compliance costs? Won’t declining profitability actually weaken our financial system, not strengthen it?

These questions remain unanswered. The list of business leaders who were invited to the speech was long. Among them was Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. But like that line about oversight, I didn’t see Blankfein there. Perhaps Blankfein was absent because he knew the questions about the president’s financial reforms would remain.

FOOTNOTE

I vote for Obama as the most auto finance-focused president in our nation’s history. Again today, he cited auto loans as a prime example of consumer credit, along with mortgages and credit cards. I wonder if another president has ever uttered the words “auto loans” in a speech.