Vermont (I) Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been a constant critic of the fed, and of Bernanke, said on Dylan Ratigan’s show he will vote against the reconfirmation of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. During the interview Sen. Sanders slams the Fed Chief saying it is unacceptable that the central bank risks taxpayer money without detailing where the funds go. Sanders recalls his testy exchange at a hearing before the Senate Budget Committee back in March with the Fed Chairman where he pressed Bernanke to name the firms that borrowed from the Fed, the central bank chairman replied, ‘No, I won’t tell you’.
“If the taxpayers of this country have spent $700 billion bailing out Wall Street because they are too big to fail” said Sander, “why is it that 3 out of the 4 largest financial institutions today are bigger than they were before the bailout. Why is it okay that 4 large financial institutions write half the mortgages, two thirds of the credit cards in this country and control 40% of the deposits. The bottom line to me is that the middle class in this country is collapsing…we have seen this trend downward for many many years. We need a new direction.”
A large part of Obamas campaign was financed by Wall Street. What did he think would happen. Obama shows the door to the people who gave him the money to get elected. The people on Wall Street have Obama on a short leash and they are not about to let go.
Wall Street owns most politicians. The clearest proof of that is the appointment of bankers to positions of government, often without any record of public service.
Indeed, I suspect many staff at the Pentagon serve defence contractors first and the American people a very, very distant second.
The revolving door needs to shut, to ensure those who enter government cannot profit from it.
Bernanke says his job is to maintain a stable economy, but really he looks after the interests of the banks; ordinary Americans are an irrelevance, its all about looking after the wealthy elite.