Bernie Sanders Explains in 60 Seconds Why Congress Needs to Regulate Banks

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:35 pm

Bernie Sanders was on The Ed Show talking about the Volker Rule. Senator Sanders explained in a few seconds why, in the wake of JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon’s preschool gambling, the banks need to be broken up and regulated. Bernie also pointed out that Congress is regulated by Wall Street instead of the other way around.

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Bernie Sanders said the JPMorgan debacle is a great opportunity to finally make regulations of the financial industry a real issue. Sanders said, “I think it calls attention to the recklessness and the greed of Wall Street. It reminds people that four years ago, these people on Wall Street forced this country into worst recession since the 1930s. Forced us to have to bail them out. “

Then Sanders destroyed the Republican talking points about Wall Street in just a few seconds, “And while Dodd Frank was a step further, it did not go far enough. The American people are angry with Wall Street. You know what? They want our financial institutions to invest in the real economy. They want Wall Street to be lending money to businesses, so we can create jobs. They do not want Wall Street involved in a gambling casino, waging risky bets, and losing substantial sums of money and threatening the entire economy.”

Here Sanders drew the line in the sand between the Republican version of “Capitalism” and reality; Republican Capitalism is nothing more than a huge gambling casino where the rich get to play with the people’s money while never really taking a risk because they always win. If they lose, we bail them out. If they win, they get richer. Either way, they still get their huge salaries and their companies do not fail. That’s not Capitalism.

Citing a poll showing that the American people want President Obama to hold the banks accountable, Ed pointed out that the recent JP Morgan mess helps remind voters of how we got into this mess in the first place. (One wonders who is going to inform the American people that the President can’t hold the banks accountable on his own, he needs a Congress to pass laws.) The Dodd Frank attempt at regulating the banks was a push we wouldn’t have seen from the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, but it also didn’t go far enough. Why didn’t it go far enough? If you traced that bill’s struggle through Congress, you will see that it was cut and watered down by all of the so-called representatives of the people.

Sanders pointed out how hard it will be for the Senate to pass anything that really regulates Wall Street, “Some people think, well, gee, the Congress regulates Wall Street. I think the truth is that Wall Street regulates the Congress. They have untold, unlimited amounts of money, money which is used to get the deregulation, you recall during the ’90s, in a bipartisan way, to get the deregulation which drove us into the brink of financial collapse. They have all kinds of lobbyists on Wall Street. They make all kinds of campaign contributions, so it will be hard. But on the other hand, as your polls show, the American people understand how dangerous Wall Street can be. They want Congress to stand up and if we do what the American people want, it will be the right thing.”

While both parties have allowed this corporate takeover of the government, lest anyone tell you that “both parties are the same”, let us draw the contrast between the Presidential nominees with Mitt Romney’s comment yesterday, “I would not rush to pass new legislation or new regulation. This is, in the normal course of business, a large loss, but certainly not one which is crippling or threatening to the institution.”

Yes, Romney, nothing is crippling to the too big to fail institutions, but what about the stockholders? If Social Security were privatized as Republicans would like it to be, our investments in large companies like JP Morgan would be our Social Security, which means, your Social Security would be drained now. Tough luck for you, I guess.

Not to mention the fact that many average Americans invest in alleged safe companies like JP Morgan only to lose all of their money as the stock tumbles after another Wall Street recess at preschool. I don’t see the CEOs taking a hit, do you? I don’t see the banks growing up and taking responsibility for their actions, do you? I don’t see them paying the price for their utter lack of responsibility. And what about the American taxpayers who have bailed out JP Morgan and no doubt will be asked to do so again?

We need a Congress of the people again. Bernie Sanders has described in under a minute why Occupy Wall Street has such resonance with the American public. The public knows that the banks are getting away with murder. The public knows that they are paying for the children who run amok on Wall Street. Republicans think the children should be allowed to run wild with no discipline and no keeper, even when they lie on their financial statements so that honest investors get taken and the taxpayer has to bailout a billion dollar corporation while said taxpayer has no money for their children’s college.

Bernie warned the people that three of the banks are larger than they were at the time of the Bush Stock Market crash of 2008. Too big to fail is apparently also too big to regulate. Senator Sanders spoke for the American people when he warned banks, “So invest, whatever you want to do, but don’t come crawling from the federal government for insurance. That’s the key issue here”

Yes, JP Morgan’s mess is an opportunity, but it will be another miss because with this Congress, we will never see anything remotely resembling regulation of Wall Street. The only thing the people can do is keep shouting and demanding fairness. Call your representatives. Write the local newspaper. Point out the essential fairness and sanity of regulations for Wall Street.

After all, when you and I ask for a loan, they check us out and set up strict rules. Wall Street takes our money and buys off our representatives so that no one checks them out. To think anything but another financial disaster will result from these reckless practices is stunningly naïve, or more likely, an indicator of just how little representation the people really have in Congress.

The boys of Wall Street are like greedy children let loose in a candy store and told not to steal, but there aren’t any grown ups manning the store. The store is just full of temptations and opportunities, plus the children know that when the other kids were busted stealing candy, they got extra Christmas presents instead of a punishment. There is no reason why Wall Street would regulate itself and the market can’t do it when the free market has been distorted and usurped by conservative Republicans. There are only a few grown ups even peering in the windows at the children, who high on their endless supply of candy, are too busy looting the place to even care.

Sarah Jones

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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

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