President Obama made good use of the bully pulpit on Thursday to chastise Wall Street for fighting reform of the nation's financial system. As Mr. Obama made clear, Wall Street's leaders have a responsibility to cooperate with efforts to head off another crisis.
The speech at Cooper Union represents a welcome effort by the president to regain control of the economic debate. The banking industry has sought to block reform and convince the public that Wall Street is blameless and that attempts to tighten regulation endanger the smooth operation of capital markets.
This is a fairy tale. The economy went under because of the irresponsible practices of Wall Street bankers -- rampant speculation, hidden transactions, blatant disregard for ethics. The Democratic bill in the Senate would bring transparency and accountability to financial dealings and impose new requirements to make it harder, and less desireable, to become "too big to fail."
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