They must to the American people he said

A piece broadcast this week on National Public Radio in the United States, a film for the télévision produced by the BBC scheduled for next month, the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers inspires! Twelve months after the bankruptcy of the world (613 billion dollars of assets), the President Barack Obama yesterday urged the US Congress to push the fires to vote a reform of the financial regulation "in order to avoid a return to the practices of Wall Street that led to the financial crisis, where too many people were motivated by the idea of Mount coups and bonus over-inflated(lirepage6). Today, while a semblance of stability returned to the market after months of recession, two questions remain. Lehman Brothers should disappear and things have changed on Wall Street

Of all interventions by public authorities and the American Central Bank last year, the choice to let Lehman Brothers fail has been the most criticized, as the insurer AIGa was rescued immediately after. The day of the announcement of the bankruptcy, markets are are collapsed to 500 points, a "mutual fund", the Reserve Primary Fund, closed shop, and financial institutions have ceased to lend money. At the end of the year, it remained more than two of the five banks d' invest - ment of Wall Street, and again, they had changed status.

Some, like the researcher Vincent Reinhart, American Enterprise Institute, believe that the original fault was to save Bear Stearns (transferred in the urgency to JP Morgan end of February 2008), because this has created a moral hazard that left assumed the banks that they would be always saved in extremis. Others reject much of the responsibility for the Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. In addition to its style managerial, is blamed for having overly optimistic vision of the firm and the have survendue the ultimate negotiations (with Bank of America) while the House was burning.

Sense of injustice

The Federal Reserve as Treasury justified their choice by the lack of tools at their disposal to trust one bank investment posed a systemic risk. But observers note that the will was not there while the federal authorities have agreed to save AIG and Citigroup and endorsed the transformation of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in bank holding. Hence a deep sense of injustice among the former Lehman employees.

Taken public opinion, for its part, is aback by the lack of change found on Wall Street, while billions of dollars of public funds have supported the financial industry. Large banks have published quarterly profit again exceed 1 billion, they resumed their remuneration practices from before the crisis, with some bonuses guaranteed over several years. Derivatives trade is not regulated as before.

Banks are not remained completely motionless for as much. They have greatly diminished their leverage effect, raised capital and sought to improve their risk management. Some, such as Citi, gave billions of assets. But this is far enough in the eyes of the White House. Barack Obama wants to finance the rules that promote "transparency and accountability."He launched yesterday, a vibrant plaidoyer so that banks do not expect the new regulation to change their practices. He asked them to support mortgage holders, students and small businesses in search of loans. "They must to the American people", he said.