Obama would update financial market regs

NEW YORK, March. 27 (UPI) -- Immediate relief for homeowners hit by the housing crisis and updating the regulatory framework are key to U.S. economic recovery, Barack Obama said Thursday.

Bankruptcy laws must change so homeowners could renegotiate predatory or fraudulent mortgages, the Democratic presidential hopeful told a New York audience. He also highlighted his sponsorship of legislation that would create a Federal Housing Administration program to help stabilize the housing market.

The time is ripe to revamp the regulatory framework that deals with financial markets, said the senator from Illinois.

"First, if you can borrow from the federal government, you should be subject to government oversight and supervision," Obama said, referring to the Federal Reserve's financial assistance in the Bear Stearns purchase by JPMorgan Chase.

Other reforms include streamlining duties of regulatory agencies, regulating institutions "for what they do, not what they are," cracking down on trading activities that "cross the line to market manipulation" and developing a process to identify risks to the financial system.

"The core of our economic success is that each American does better when all Americans do better," he said and the goals of markets and people are aligned.