Battles Over Reform Plan Lie Ahead

Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, said “Our financial system failed in fundamental ways,” in a New York Times article on March 26, 2009. It sounds as though both lawmakers and financial industry lobbying groups completely agree with Geithner that smarter tougher regulation is needed.

It took years to overhaul regulation of the financial industry which was related to Depression-era laws that separated commercial banks from investment banks. Geithner says that hedge funds and private equity funds would have to now register with the S.E.C. Credit-default swaps would also come under supervision for the first time. He has proposed to allow the government to seize control of troubled institutions whose bankruptcy might further damage the financial system.

I feel that supervision on financial institutions must happen in order to save what economy that we have left. It is such a shame that no one thought this was a good idea 18 months ago when thing started going bad.

Obama's Secret Letter

In a secret letter sent to Russia’s president Dmitri A. Medvedev, President Obama proposed abandoning the idea of a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would assist the United States in stopping Iran from developing long range weapons. As reported in a New York Times article on March 3, 2009, the letter was hand-delivered three weeks ago by officials. The letter stated that the United States would have no need for the interceptor system, if Iran put a stop to the idea of building nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

President Medvedev has not yet responded to the letter. A Russian official did comment that Foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov would speak with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the subject when they meet in Geneva on Friday. President Obama and President Medvedev will be meeting in London on April 2.

This secret letter was sent in response to a letter that President Medvedev sent to President Obama shortly after he took office. He hopes to “press the reset button” on Russian-American relations.

I feel this is a good move on both parties. It shows that Russia wants a new start with the Obama presidency, and that President Obama is willing to entertain this idea. If we can work with Russia in a so-called “partnership,” I think it could be a win-win situation for both countries.