Volcker stepping down from White House advisory post
(CNN) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is stepping down as chairman of President Obama's outside economic advisory panel, according to Democratic sources familiar with the move, as the reshuffling of the White House's economic team continues.
The announcement comes as senior officials say Obama is expected on Friday to make a much more substantial move by officially naming Gene Sperling to replace Larry Summers as the chairman of the National Economic Council, the key policymaking office inside the White House.
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Senators cool to 'Volcker rule'
Washington (CNNMoney.com) - The fate of President Obama's latest proposal to rein in banks was thrown into doubt on Tuesday after it got a chilly reception from key lawmakers.
The Senate Banking Committee grilled Obama adviser Paul Volcker who has, for months, been championing a proposal to curtail so-called proprietary trading.
The aim is to stop big banks from making trades on their own accounts, especially since commercial banks have access to funds back-stopped by the government.
President Obama, in formally announcing the proposal last month, dubbed it the "Volcker rule."
Obama wants to limit bank size
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/21/art.bopaul0121.gi.jpg caption="President Obama announced the 'Volcker rule' Thursday. The proposal is named after Paul Volcker, an Obama economic adviser who is also a former Federal Reserve chief."]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - President Obama on Thursday publicly signed on to a message that former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker has been giving for a year: Let's limit the big banks.
Volcker, an economic adviser to Obama, will join the president Thursday in announcing new measures to narrow the size and scope of banks' investment activities, according to a senior administration official.
Calling it the "Volcker rule," the president proposed prohibiting commercial banks from making trades for their own accounts. He also proposed prohibiting banks from owning or investing in hedge funds.
"We should no longer allow banks to stray too far from their central mission of serving their customers," Obama said in a White House address.
Obama also proposed tougher rules aimed at limiting bank mergers and consolidation. New, yet to be determined, caps would curb banks' marketshare, going further than existing caps.
Volcker: More financial reform needed
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said Thursday that more needs to be done to regulate the financial system before the lessons of the recent crisis are forgotten.
"We must not shrink away from change but accept the need for basic financial reform," said Volcker, currently chairman of President Obama's Economic Advisory Board, in remarks to the Economic Club of New York.
He said the economy appears to be growing slowly, and that the financial crisis is beginning to seem to some like a "bad dream."
But the magnitude of the crisis showed that the underlying problems are "more fundamental" and require "broad reform" of the financial system, he warned.
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Obama to name economic recovery advisory team Friday
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama will name the members of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board and lay out its mandate at a White House event tomorrow, the White House confirmed Thursday.
Obama will appear with Paul Volcker, who is heading the new group. That panel is tasked with assisting the president as he looks to reduce unemployment and stabilize the markets.
Volcker calls for changes in financial regulatory system
WASHINGTON (CNN) - One of President Obama's leading economic advisors called Wednesday for major changes in the way the financial system is regulated - especially firms whose failure could sink the nation's troubled economy - and warned that this oversight would come with a major price tag.
“It’s not going to be cheap,” Paul Volcker told the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday, suggesting that it would cost "billions of dollars" more.
Volcker, chairman of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and former Federal Reserve Board chairman, called for radical changes in the regulation of the country’s financial system. His recommendations were based on the global financial report, “Financial Reform: A Framework for Financial Stability.” The report was released in January from the Group of Thirty (G30), a committee he co-chaired that included Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Director of the White House National Economic Council Larry Summers.
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