Political Quotes

“Mr. President, more than 18 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers put our financial system into a deep freeze, we are at a crossroads in history. We can continue to turn a blind eye to the very real threat that excessive risk taking and reckless deregulation pose to our economy or we can choose to learn from the financial disaster that nearly brought our economy to a screeching halt. I urge my colleagues to choose reform. We can't wait any longer to take on the challenge of overhauling the rules of the road for our financial system. We have a regulatory system based on the 1930s and 1970s and a financial world in the year 2010. We have an economic imperative to pass a strong set of financial reforms. The shock waves in the real economy that resulted from the financial crisis are still being felt today by the millions of Americans who can't find a job or are facing foreclosure, who can't pay their children's college tuition or have to put off retirement because their savings have been decimated. We have 9.7 percent unemployment in this country, not because of any reform proposal that has yet to become law but because of an irresponsibility in the financial system and a broken-down financial regulatory system that was last updated in the 1930s and allowed too many firms, and even whole markets, to slip through the cracks. If we do nothing, we will surely find ourselves facing a similar crisis in the not too distant future.…”