U.S.: Obama Unveils Broad Banking Industry Reforms

WASHINGTON, Jan 25, 2010 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama has delivered his plans for far-reaching banking and financial industry reforms, which mark a noticeable shift to the left in the administration's domestic policy and an acknowledgement of the public anger at Wall Street for its role in the financial crisis.

The White House's rollout of what is being billed by experts as the biggest overhaul of Wall Street since the Great Depression came in the same week that the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate with the loss of Edward Kennedy's Senate seat - a loss widely seen as a referendum on the Obama administration's first year in office.