QUESTION: There’s been a lot of attention paid to a New York Times op-ed by a departing Goldman Sachs exec. I know the White House is very proud of the increased regulations on Wall Street under the Dodd-Frank bill, but I wonder if you could speak to the culture of Wall Street and whether you think that has improved at all since the financial collapse.
JAY CARNEY: Ari, I’m not going to comment on one employee of one firm. I think that the point I would make is the one that you reference in your question, which is that this President has been focused on the absolute need to ensure that we put into place rules of the road that prevent the kind of reckless behavior in our big financial institutions that contributed to the greatest financial crisis this country has seen since the 1930s. And that’s what the historic Wall Street reform that the President signed into law does. And that’s what the Volcker Rule, which is part of that historic Wall Street reform, is designed to do. So this President’s commitment on this issue — against a great deal of resistance and a considerable amount of post-law- signing attempts to undo — has continued to pursue. I’m not sure that makes sense as a sentence, but I’m doing my best. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Without talking about an individual, do you think the culture of Wall Street has changed at all since then?
JAY CARNEY: Well, I think that what we can — what leaders can do in Washington is make sure that Wall Street plays by the same rules as Main Street, and by insisting on that, effect cultural change by making it against the rules to, as the Volcker Rule does, to make risky bets with other people’s money, with your creditors deposits. That’s the kind of action that led to a situation where we had a global financial market meltdown.