Obama spells out major financial rules overhaul - Yahoo! News

The Obama plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the entire financial system and would also create a new consumer protection agency to guard against credit and other abuses that played a big role in the current crisis.Unveiling his proposal before an East Room audience, Obama blamed the financial crisis on "a culture of irresponsibility" and outdated financial rules that were created in the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s but had been "overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy."The Obama plan would give the Federal Reserve new powers to oversee the entire financial system, hoping that the central bank will be able deal with the kinds of problems that were allowed to build to such an extent that they ended up overwhelming the system last year, resulting in the collapse of some of America's largest financial institutions.

Obama spells out major financial rules overhaul - Yahoo! News