Regulatory system needs to be changed: Obama

New York, Sept.22 : Democratic presidential candaiate Barack Obama has said that the country's regulatory system needs to be changed to ensure an improved economic performance.

Speaking with CBS's Steve Kroft, Obama said America's biggest financial crisis could be blamed on a lot of factors, but the main one appeared to be a badly-managed regulatory system that has not kept pace with the times.

"Instead of modifying the rules for this new economy, we just eliminated them. So we've got to change our regulatory system. But, Steve, there's a bigger problem. And that is that the economy has not been working for ordinary Americans," Obama said.

Obama also said that the government should not bail out shareholders.

"You don't bail out CEOs who are getting golden parachutes and 100 million dollar bonuses. That you are doing everything you can to protect taxpayers, making sure that people are able to stay in their homes, and that their mortgages don't go overboard because of bad decisions that other people make," he said.

He said that there was no doubt that the Americans were experiencing a recession, and at the moment, it was hard to say when this crisis would end.

Obama, who is campaigning in Nevada, said that as both candidates were getting closer to the election, they were both trying everything to remain on top.

He admitted that as far as the democrats were concerned, Sarah Palin was an unexpected Republican choice for vice-president.

"She sort of came out of nowhere. And so, it gave, I think, the McCain campaign some energy, a boost. Over time, people want to know, what are the policies? And the policies of John McCain haven't changed since Sarah Palin was named as the vice-presidential candidate," he said.

He also said that of the two, he seemed the ideal candidate for president.

"I think both by training and disposition. I understand where we need to take the country. I am a practical person. One of the things I'm good at is getting people in a room with a bunch of different ideas who sometimes violently disagree with each other and finding common ground, and a sense of common direction. And that's the kind of approach that I think prevents you from making some of the enormous mistakes that we've seen over the last eight years," he said.

Listing his immediate priorities as president, should he get elected, Obama said that the first thing he would do would be to call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and tell them to find a way to bring the war in Iraq to a close.

Secondly, he would create a working group to make an assessment of the economy, and to come up with recommendations for stabilizing the financial markets and the housing markets

Third would be to have an energy proposal moved through Congress and also to make sure that the economy is more energy efficient.

Fourth would be a health care plan that finally provides people health insurance at affordable rates.

ANI