Obama to Shrink Wall Street?

Apparently, Wall Street’s power and might is going to shrink. President Barack Obama said as much in an interview in this week’s New York Times Magazine. Obama foresees the regulations that are gripping Wall Street more tightly will result in shrinking its financial impact on the U.S. economy.

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“Wall Street will remain a big, important part of our economy, just as it was in the ’70s and the ’80s,” he said. “It just won’t be half of our economy.”

Wow. Does that mean the government will be brokering the deals instead of Wall Street?

Someone’s got to broker deals, and if not Wall Street, then…oh wait! Foreign companies would be happy to broker deals for U.S. companies. I know they would. Cha-ching. Unintended consequences are something Obama has yet to bone up on, apparently. And if the government is going to dictate that they broker all deals, well then, I have absolute faith that the government will handle deal-making in a much more efficient and transparent way. Just like they’re handling the Chrysler bankruptcy.

That’s not all. Obama thinks the Wall Street shrinkage will result in more people working in other industries.

“That means that more talent, more resources will be going to other sectors of the economy,” he said. “I actually think that’s healthy. We don’t want every single college grad with mathematical aptitude to become a derivatives trader. We want some of them to go into engineering, and we want some of them to be going into computer design.”

Huh? Does that mean our government is going to have a say as to which careers young Americans go into? Some people with mathematical talent don’t want to become an engineer; they might be interested in ….being a trader…gasp…or being an equity portfolio manager! Just because you have great mathematical aptitude doesn’t automatically relegate you into a particular career like engineering. Now, if you were born in a communist country that’s a different matter. The Communists were famous for dictating the career paths of talented young people.

I’m still wondering about the less-dominant role Wall Street is going to play in Obama’s dream world. How’s that gonna work again?

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