Name: President Obama Tells Wall Street to Back Reform
Uploaded: 2018-02-24T10:25:49.000Z
Duration: 26 min 4 s
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it is good to be back in the Great Hall at Cooper Union.

We've got some special guests here that I want to acknowledge.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is here in the house.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is here.

The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.

Dr. George Campbell, Jr., president of Cooper Union.

And all the citywide elected officials who are here.

It is wonderful to be back in Cooper Union,

where generations of leaders and citizens have come to defend

their ideas and contest their differences.

It's also good to be back in Lower Manhattan,

It really is good to be back, because Wall Street's the heart

Now, since I last spoke here two years ago,

our country has been through a terrible trial.

More than 8 million people have lost their jobs.

Countless small businesses have had to shut their doors.

Trillions of dollars in savings have been lost --

entrepreneurs to give up on the dream of starting a company.

And as a nation we were forced to take unprecedented steps to

rescue the financial system and the broader economy.

And as a result of the decisions we made --

some of which, let's face it, were very unpopular --

A little more than one year ago we were losing an average of

One year ago the economy was shrinking rapidly.

In fact, we've seen the fastest turnaround in growth in nearly

But you're here and I'm here because we've got more work to do.

Until this progress is felt not just on Wall Street but on Main

Until the millions of our neighbors who are looking for

work can find a job, and wages are growing at a meaningful

pace, we may be able to claim a technical recovery --

And even as we seek to revive this economy,

it's also incumbent on us to rebuild it stronger than before.

We don't want an economy that has the same weaknesses that led

And that means addressing some of the underlying problems that

led to this turmoil and devastation in the first place.

Now, one of the most significant contributors to this recession

was a financial crisis as dire as any we've known in

And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility --

from Wall Street all the way to Washington --

that brought down many of the world's largest financial firms

and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression.

It was that failure of responsibility that I spoke

about when I came to New York more than two years ago --

before the worst of the crisis had unfolded.

And I take no satisfaction in noting that my comments then

have largely been borne out by the events that followed.

But I repeat what I said then because it is essential that we

learn the lessons from this crisis so we don't doom

And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we

allow this moment to pass -- and that's an outcome that is

unacceptable to me and it's unacceptable to you,

I believe in the power of the free market.

I believe in a strong financial sector that helps people to

raise capital and get loans and invest their savings.

That's part of what has made America what it is.

But a free market was never meant to be a free license to

take whatever you can get, however you can get it.

That's what happened too often in the years leading up to this crisis.

but some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded

or leveraged, there's a family looking to buy a house,

or pay for an education, open a business, save for retirement.

What happens on Wall Street has real consequences across the

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President Obama Tells Wall Street to Back Reform

vulnerable

entire

process

significant