From the WSJ Washington Wire Blog today: 

Sen. Barack Obama described the Bush administration’s sweeping changes to financial market regulation as “inadequate” on Saturday.

While noting that he had not yet seen the full proposal, which Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will unveil on Monday, the Illinois senator said that, based upon news reports, he believed the proposed regulatory reforms didn’t go far enough, though he lauded the proposed consolidation of regulatory agencies.

Obama laid out his own proposals to boost regulation of the financial industry during a speech in lower Manhattan earlier this week. Speaking to reporters in Johnstown, Pa., on Saturday, he criticized the lack of any increased capital reserve requirements for investment banks, which can now use the discount window from the Federal Reserve.

“If I’m a commercial bank right now, I’m still not clear why it is that investment banks… are able to do things I can’t do, aren’t subject to the same capital requirements and liquidity requirements that I am and yet they’ve got the same fallback with the