Senator Christopher Dodd unveiled a bill today to tame the financial markets and give the government new powers to break up firms that threaten the economy.

The bill calls for a special council to oversee financial markets and will be headed by an independent chairman.

It comes 18 months after Wall Street failures helped plunge the nation into a deep reecession.

"The far worse damage has been done to millions of American families who did nothing wrong at all. A staggering 8.4 million jobs have been lost," says Senator Dodd.

The bill would be the biggest overhaul of regulations since The New Deal.