'No thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers': Obama

'No thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers': Obama

Chicago, Nov 16 (PTI) The "greatest economic challenge of our time" has taught him that "we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers," US President-elect Barack Obama has said, signalling that he plans to overhaul the American financial markets.
"If this financial crisis has taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers -- in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people," Obama said in his second radio address after his historic election to America's top office on November 4, indicating his resolve to clean-up the current mess in the US financial sector.

In his message coinciding with G-20 summit, Obama noted the leaders of the world's largest economies were seeking solutions to the "ongoing turmoil in our financial markets." In his pre-poll speeches, Obama has said he sees an overhaul of Wall Street regulations as crucial to restoring trust in US markets.

The housing-market meltdown and credit crisis that have pushed the US economy to the brink of a recession have led to debates in Washington over how US regulations could be revamped to head off future crises.

Backing incumbent President George W Bush for initiating the meeting, the 47-year-old Democrat senator said the global economic crisis required a coordinated global response.

"Make no mistake: this is the greatest economic challenge of our time. And while the road ahead will be long, and the work will be hard, I know that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis -- because here in America we always rise to the moment, no matter how hard," he said and voiced confidence that the American economy would be revived soon.

"I am more hopeful than ever before that America will rise once again," he said, stressing the US government should act in concert with other nations. PTI