COMM 386: The disappearing 6-point economic plan

Since the turmoil on Wall Street went ballistic over the weekend, I've seen a couple of passing references to a six-point economic plan of Sen. Barack Obama's, but they didn't didn't say what the six points were. Frustrating.

Typical of the coverage we're getting from the national media was today's (Tuesday's) campaign story on Politico.com headlined "Obama, McCain duel over market turmoil." The lede:

GOLDEN, Colo. — The presidential nominees escalated their fight Tuesday to gain an edge in light of the economic downturn, as John McCain called for the creation of a commission to probe the financial market crisis and Barack Obama rejected the proposal as an attempt to “pass the buck.”

It was the second consecutive day that the campaigns sparred almost entirely over the economy, ratcheting up the pressure on McCain and Obama, neither of whom has established dominance of the issue, to gain the upper hand on a top concern for voters.

Then at the very end, beginning at the 35th to 40th graf (by my rather cursory and increasingly frustrated count), this summary:

The differences between McCain and Obama on their approach to the crisis became only bit more clear Tuesday.

McCain’s remarks focused on encouraging transparency, fighting speculation, and hinted at consolidating regulatory agencies along the lines that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has proposed.

The Republican nominee essentially blamed the regulatory agencies — not the administration — for failing their mission.

“And there are so many of those regulators that the responsibility for oversight is scattered, unfocused and ineffective,” McCain said. “Among others, we've got the SEC, the CFTC, the FDIC, the SIPC and the OCC. But for all their big and impressive-sounding names, the fact is they haven't been doing their job right, or else we wouldn't have these massive problems on Wall Street.”

Obama offered an indictment of deregulation and conservative economic policies. Like McCain, he advocated transparency and anti-manipulation measures, but he also called for increased oversight and capital requirements for investment banks.

The six points were summed up, as I later discovered, in the last graf.

Turns out Obama mentioned them when he spoke in Colorado. Here's how The Rocky Mountain News covered the speech. The lede:

GOLDEN — The federal government must adopt much stricter regulations of financial markets in order to stop the collapse we are seeing now, Barack Obama told a crowd at the Colorado School of Mines today.

The Democratic presidential nominee offered more specifics than he has in months on the kind of government oversight he said is needed to deal with the problems that wracked the housing and investment banking markets and which came to a boil this week.

Obama also drew sharp contrasts between himself and his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, who has described himself as "fundamentally a deregulator."

"We are in the most serious financial crisis in generations," the Illinois senator said. "Yet, Senator McCain stood up yesterday and said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong."

Obama laid out a six-point regulatory plan. It would subject all financial institutions that can borrow from the government to more oversight, crack down on trading practices he said border on market manipulation and create a financial advisory group to discuss potential problems with the president.

And so on. Long on substance, although it did get into the obligatory tit-for-tat "gotcha" games in the third and fourt grafs.

So why didn't the nationals get into the substance?

My guess: It's old news inside the New York-Washington Beltway axis. Obama, you see offered his six-point regulatory plan in a well-received speech at New York City's Cooper Union in March. If I noticed it at the time, when after all the headlines were full of the upcoming Pennsylvania primary and incendiary remarks by Obama's pastor, I forgot it. But I found it when I Googled, uh, performed a Google search engine keyword search on "Obama" and "six-point economic plan." It's archived in The New York Times (March 27). Worth a read sometime.

Later. This morning's Wall Street Journal had a decent overview of both candidates' proposals on the credit crisis. Specific. Balanced. Basically fair to each candidate. Its lede:

Whoever wins the presidency in November likely will turn a more skeptical eye to U.S. financial institutions. The candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, differ on their plans and their regulatory philosophies, but both are talking about shaking up Wall Street.

Amid the credit crunch's most wrenching phase, both support boosting the regulation of banks, investment banks and other financial institutions. Both say regulators should tighten rules on the type and amount of funds financial institutions should hold. Both say the government must consolidate the patchwork of financial regulators into a more streamlined system.

Sen. McCain emerged with tougher-than-usual rhetoric, including seeking the end of "wild speculation" in the market, which suggested a diversion from his deregulation record.

And down toward the end of the story (the 16th graf), this:

The Obama team reiterated steps Sen. Obama outlined in a speech in March after Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed and the Federal Reserve opened its lending facility to investment banks. He says the Fed should have supervisory authority over any institution with access to its funds, and that regulators should set standards for how much liquidity financial institutions have, not just how much capital.

The Journal, of course, is a specialized publication covering, well, yes, Wall Street.