WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama used his weekly radio address to once again defend the Dodd-Frank Act in light of JPMorgan Chase's $2 billion-plus loss, which he said illustrates the need for reforms.
The president decried the "army of financial industry lobbyists" working to water down the reform law and — without calling out JPMorgan by name — said the $2 billion loss shows why "we can't let that happen."
"While that bank can handle a loss of that size, other banks may not have been able to," Obama said. "And without Wall Street reform, we could have found ourselves with the taxpayers once again on the hook for Wall Street's mistakes."
He said banks that don't employ business models built on cheating consumers, or making risky bets that could damage the economy, have nothing to fear from the new regulations. He called on Congress to "stand on the side of reform."
"We can't afford to go back to an era of weak regulation and little oversight; where excessive risk-taking on Wall Street and a lack of basic oversight in Washington nearly destroyed our economy," he said. "We've got to finish the job of implementing this reform and putting these rules in place."
