Obama on Financial Rescue and Recovery: market regulation and the "false choice"

In case you missed it, President Obama spoke this morning on the financial crisis and recovery efforts (see Obama Remarks on Financial Rescue). In terms of regulatory overhaul, President Obama remarked that it is a "false choice" to believe that entrepreneurism and innovation are sacrificed by regulation. Something President Obama has stressed is "common sense" rules of the road. People's memories seem to falter once a crisis begins to pass. After all, government intervention seems to work, so why burden business with onerous regulations? For my part, I believe the United States has been lucky in its ability to slow the financial crisis and begin rebuilding. Recovery, though, may turn out to be much slower than we might hope (see Recovery Slower). As we've said here before (see War of Wealth), this country has been down the road of bank failures and financial crisis before. President Obama and Chairman Bernanke (see Bernanke Sees Progress) are telling us that something substantial needs to change. With competing issues like health care and impending flu concerns, will we heed the warnings that are Obama, Bernanke and others have delivered? Or, will we continue on with business as usual? Hmm, the markets are up today (see Bloomberg) .

- JSM