President Barack Obama's administration, in a massive overhaul of the US financial regulatory system, is seeking the power to keep watch on all types of financial firms and to seize failing companies integral to the health of the system, according to dpa. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the plans in congressional testimony today, arguing that the current financial turmoil has proven the system is "too unstable and fragile" to be allowed to manage itself. "To address this will require comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game," he said in testimony before the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives. Obama's plan would strengthen regulation primarily on the largest financial institutions, whose failure can effectively threaten the entire economy. The new regulator could, for example, order firms that are taking on too much debt to increase their capital holdings.
