Say what you will about the recent Health Care Reform (I sure have), but I fully support Obama’s views and focus on economic overhaul.

In a speech at Cooper Union College, President Obama compared quotes from his 2008 presidential campaign speech with the disastrous economic events that unfolded later that year.

A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it.

– Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, 2008

It’s clear that financial group-think in corporate boardrooms are having fundamental impacts on the well-being of most Americans. Too many creative loan schemes and money-making from non-producing financial instruments have negatively affected middle-class and poor in the United States. Interest-only loans don’t belong in the consumer markets. They turn what should be investments (peoples’ homes) into debilitating liabilities. Speculators in the commodities markets (corn, grain, oil) and derivatives (investments that base their performance on the ups and downs of other investments) tie money to investments that do not contribute to the country’s productivity.

That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business or save for retirement. What happens here [at Wall Street] has real consequences across our country.

– President Barack Obama, April 22, 2010

Key provisions of the bill focus on regulating derivatives trading, establishing a consumer protection agency, and creating a council to monitor threats to financial stability. New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg supports these measures, as well.

This is the sort of leader I knew Obama could be. I hope this overhaul effort isn’t sullied by backroom deals and closed negotiations like the health care overhaul was.