Why President Obama has Wall Street worried

The industry's new top cop has a stellar record as a prosecutor

"You don't want to mess with Mary Jo."
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

This week, President Obama nominated Mary Jo White, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency whose reputation as a watchdog was badly battered in the wake of the financial crisis and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Obama signaled that White's appointment would mark a new era of reinvigorated government oversight of the financial industry. "You don't want to mess with Mary Jo," Obama said. "As one former SEC chairman said, Mary Jo 'does not intimidate easily.'"

The response to White's appointment has been largely positive among those who would prefer to see stricter regulation of Wall Street. She has developed a reputation as a tough prosecutor — in fact, she would become the first prosecutor ever to lead the SEC. According to Dylan Matthews at The Washington Post:

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.