Top Business & Political New 7/11/09

President Obama feels Stimulus will kick in later this year. President Barack Obama said Saturday more time was needed for his $787 billion stimulus package to work, predicting the spending would have a bigger impact on the economy later this year.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday proposed clamping down on dealers in freewheeling markets for little-understood derivatives that helped create a crisis in U.S. and world financial markets. In testimony at a joint hearing by two congressional panels that will play a role in writing legislation on derivatives, Geithner set out proposals that would make big dealers like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs subject to much stronger supervision than was the case in the past. Geithner told the House Financial Services and Agriculture committees that the existing system allowed some financial institutions to sell large amounts of derivatives, which are intended to offset or manage risks, even when they do not have the capital to back those commitments. Geithner said that, among reforms, it wants the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to have authority to impose recordkeeping and reporting requirements on all over-the-counter derivatives. "Our plan will help prevent market manipulation, fraud and other abuses by providing full information to regulators about activity in the OTC derivative markets," he said.

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