The Volcker Rule

Here's something President Obama is doing right. Cracking down on the banksters would make me very happy.

— President Obama on Thursday will publicly propose giving bank regulators the power to limit the size of the nation’s largest banks and the scope of their risk-taking activities, an administration official said late Wednesday.

The president, for the first time, will throw his weight behind an approach long championed by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve and an adviser to the Obama administration. The proposal will put limits on bank size and prohibit commercial banks from trading for their own accounts — known as proprietary trading.

Of course a proposal is not a law and I have my doubts that Congress will ever get serious about financial reform of their biggest funders, but I'm willing to hold on to some hope that it could happen. I'm an optimist that way.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]