Saturday, 23 October 2010

Obama: Consumers lose if financial law repealed

OBAMA FOR USA

President Barack Obama says consumers would lose if Republicans regain power in Congress and try to roll back his hard-won Wall Street overhaul.

He says the GOP's promised repeal of the law would mean the return of a financial system whose near-collapse led to the worst recession since the Depression.

"Without sound oversight and commonsense protections for consumers, the whole economy is put in jeopardy," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "That doesn't serve Main Street. That doesn't serve Wall Street. That doesn't serve anyone."

The law passed despite nearly unanimous Republican opposition. It sought to rein in a financial system that had sped ahead of outdated rules, allowing banks, traders and others to take increased risks.

Separate legislation tackled bank overdraft fees and abuses such as retroactive interest rate increases on credit card balances.

The financial overhaul law came in the wake of a $700 billion bank rescue passed in the final months of George W. Bush's presidency. While the bailout is credited with providing stability, it's deeply unpopular with voters angry of taxpayer money being used to help prop up huge banks.

Obama promised that the measure ensures that taxpayers will "never again be on the hook for a bailout."

Obama's address came less than two weeks before elections in which Republicans have a good chance of taking over the House, if not the Senate. The financial regulation measure hasn't been a central campaign issue.

House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio has called for a repeal, as have top Senate Republicans. But Obama still would stand in the way through his veto power.

In the GOP's weekly message, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota denounced Obama's economic stimulus bill, overhaul of the health care system and plans to allow Bush-era tax cuts for wealthier people to expire.

"We have learned the lessons not only of what hasn't worked over the past two years, but what didn't work the last time Republicans controlled Congress," Thune said. "We are determined to take this country in the right direction."Added Thune: "Are you better off today than you were two years ago?"

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

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Thursday, 21 October 2010

Obama: US a 'pushover' on trade with nations like China

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OBAMA FOR USA

President Barack Obama said Thursday the United States had been a pushover on trade with developing nations like China and vowed to drive a tougher bargain for American products.

Obama, on a four-day swing through western states less than two weeks before congressional elections, argued that the global trading regime needed to be restructured so that it was more fair.

"When a lot of the trade rules were initially set up, I think we neglected to drive as tough of a bargain as we could have," Obama said, specifically mentioning China amid rising trade and currency tensions with Beijing.

Obama said that US trade negotiators had initially allowed China to base its economy on low wage or low skilled assembly line production which at the time was not a huge loss to the US economy.

But, he argued, at the latest of his nationwide series of "backyard" conversations with voters, that inevitably China had wanted to begin making more advanced products like computers and cars.

"They move up the value stream of the economy.

"If we have the same rules as we had where they are able to keep our products out but we are wide open to anything they want to send in then we are going to be at a huge disadvantage."

"I want to expand trade ... but I want to do so by driving a better bargain with our trading partners," Obama said.

"The truth of the matter is they probably expect it. They are probably trying to figure out why we have been such pushovers the last couple of decades anyway."

Obama has made repeated calls on China over its yuan exchange rate, which his administration contends is grossly undervalued to boost Chinese exports.

However, last week his administration delayed a controversial report on China's currency until after a key Group of 20 summit in Seoul in mid-November, averting for now a showdown between the two superpowers.

Beijing pledged in June to allow limited currency reform, since when the yuan has risen less than three percent against the dollar.

The US trade deficit with China ballooned to a new record in August, sharply widening the overall trade gap, according to official date released this month.

And in another side of rising tensions over US-China trade, the House of Representatives last month passed a bill allowing the government to impose countervailing duties on imports from nations found to be manipulating their currencies.

(AFP)

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Obama to meet Apple supremo Steve Jobs

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US President Barack Obama will meet Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in the San Francisco area on Thursday, to discuss technology's role in the economy, the White House said.

Obama, visiting California on a campaign swing ahead of mid-term elections on November 2, wanted to talk to Jobs about the "economy, innovation and technology education," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One that the meeting would last around 45 minutes, and that Obama last met Jobs on the presidential election campaign trail in 2008.

The meeting will take place a day after Jobs unveiled Apple's new MacBook Air notebook computer inspired by its winning iPad tablet devices.

Obama was also expected to attend a Democratic Party political fundraising event on Thursday hosted by Google executive Marissa Mayer.

(AFP)

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Obama seeks to boost Hispanic achievement

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President Barack Obama signed an executive order Tuesday intended to boost Hispanic education achievement, a priority for a key voting bloc two weeks ahead of critical midterm elections.

The measure is intended to widen the scope of a long-standing White House initiative on Latino education by increasing partnerships with the private sector and soliciting more input from the community. The objective is to focus on the educational challenges faced by the Hispanic community in order to increase enrollment and outcomes.

In a ceremony in the East Room, Obama noted that Latinos make up the largest minority group in the country's public schools, accounting for more than 1 in 5 students, but are likelier to attend low-performing schools and drop out.

"This is not just a Latino problem. This is an American problem. We've got to solve it," the president said. "Because if we allow these trends to continue, it won't just be one community that falls behind. We will all fall behind together."

Tuesday's announcement broke little new policy ground but allowed the White House to showcase an issue important to the Hispanic community ahead of midterm elections that will determine whether Democrats maintain control of Congress. Hispanic leaders and educators were invited, and were greeted by a mariachi band in the Grand Foyer outside the East Room.

Hispanics were 9 percent of all voters in 2008 — similar to the 8 percent they represented in 2006 and 2004 — and account for an even larger share of the electorate in several states where key Senate races are under way, including California and Nevada.

And, Hispanics put a higher premium on education than Americans overall do, according to an Associated Press-Univision Poll conducted earlier this year. Eighty-seven percent of Hispanics said a college education is extremely or very important, compared with 78 percent of the overall U.S. population.

(AP)

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