Greed, fraud, dishonesty, and arrogance: these are the words that best
describe the reality of Wall Street today.
We can no longer tolerate an economy and a political system that have
been rigged by Wall Street to benefit the wealthiest Americans in this
country at the expense of everyone else. While President Obama deserves
credit for getting this economy back on track after the Wall Street
crash, the reality is there is a lot of unfinished business.
That's why today in New York City I announced my plan for taking on Wall
Street. We must break up the banks, end their casino-style gambling, and
fundamentally change the approach of the financial industry to focus on
helping the American people.
When I am president, we will reform Wall Street and our financial system
to make it work for all Americans. I want to tell you about what I will
do, then ask you to add your name to endorse our plan. Add
Your Name here.
To those on Wall Street, let me be very clear. Greed is not good. In
fact, the greed of Wall Street and corporate America is destroying the
fabric of our nation. And here is a promise I will make as president: If
Wall Street does not end its greed, we will end it for them.
As most people know, in the 1990s and later, financial interests spent
billions of dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions to force
through Congress the deregulation of Wall Street, the repeal of the
Glass-Steagall Act, and the weakening of consumer protection laws.
They paid this money to show the American people all that they could do
with that freedom. Well, they sure showed the American people. In 2008,
the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street nearly
destroyed the U.S. and global economy. Millions of Americans lost their
jobs, their homes, and their life savings.
Meanwhile, the American middle class continues to disappear, poverty is
increasing, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is
growing wider and wider by the day. But the American people are catching
on. They also know that a handful of people on Wall Street have
extraordinary power over the economic and political life of our country.
We must act now to change that. Our goal must be to create a financial
system and an economy that works for all Americans, not just a handful
of billionaires.
There are eight points to my plan, and I want to go through each of them
here because I think it's important for our campaign to discuss specific
policies with our supporters. Some of this may seem a little in the
weeds, but I trust our supporters to be able to handle this kind of
policy discussion.
Here's my plan for what I will do with Wall Street when I am president:
Break up huge financial institutions in the first year of my
administration. Within the first 100 days of my administration, I will
require the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a “Too Big to Fail”
list of commercial banks, shadow banks, and insurance companies whose
failure would pose a catastrophic risk to the U.S. economy without a
taxpayer bailout. Within one year, my administration will break these
institutions up so that they no longer pose a grave threat to the
economy.
Reinstate a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act to clearly separate
traditional banking from risky investment banking and insurance
services. It is not enough to tell Wall Street to "cut it out," propose
a few new rules and slap on some fines. Under my administration,
financial institutions will no longer be too big to fail or too big to
manage. Wall Street cannot continue to be an island unto itself,
gambling trillions in risky financial instruments. If an institution is
too big to fail, it is too big to exist.
End too-big-to-jail. We live in a country today that has an economy that
is rigged, a campaign finance system which is corrupt, and a criminal
justice system which often does not dispense justice. The average
American sees kids being arrested and sometimes even jailed for
possessing marijuana. But when it comes to Wall Street executives — some
of the most wealthy and powerful people in this country whose illegal
behavior hurt millions of Americans — somehow nothing happens to them.
No jail time. No police record. No justice.
Not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for causing the
near collapse of our entire economy. That will change under my
administration. “Equal Justice Under Law” will not just be words
engraved on the entrance of the Supreme Court. It will be the standard
that applies to Wall Street and all Americans.
Establish a tax on Wall Street to discourage reckless gambling and
encourage productive investments in the job-creating economy. We will
use the revenue from this tax to make public colleges and universities
tuition free. During the financial crisis, the middle class of this
country bailed out Wall Street. Now, it’s Wall Street’s turn to help the
middle class.
Cap Credit Card Interest Rates and ATM Fees. We have got to stop
financial institutions from ripping off the American people by charging
sky-high interest rates and outrageous fees. In my view, it is
unacceptable that Americans are paying a $4 or $5 fee each time they go
to the ATM. And it is unacceptable that millions of Americans are paying
credit card interest rates of 20 or 30 percent.
The Bible has a term for this practice. It's called usury. And in The
Divine Comedy, Dante reserved a special place in the Seventh Circle of
Hell for sinners who charged people usurious interest rates. Today, we
don't need the hellfire and the pitchforks, we don't need the rivers of
boiling blood, but we do need a national usury law.
We need to cap interest rates on credit cards and consumer loans at 15
percent. I would also cap ATM fees at $2.
Allow Post Offices to Offer Banking Services. We also need to give
Americans affordable banking options. The reality is that, unbelievably,
millions of low-income Americans live in communities where there are no
normal banking services. Today, if you live in a low-income community
and you need to cash a check or get a loan to pay for a car repair or a
medical emergency, where do you go? You go to a payday lender who could
charge an interest rate of over 300 percent and trap you into a vicious
cycle of debt. That is unacceptable.
We need to stop payday lenders from ripping off millions of Americans.
Post offices exist in almost every community in our country. One
important way to provide decent banking opportunities for low-income
communities is to allow the U.S. Postal Service to engage in basic
banking services, and that's what I will fight for.
Reform Credit Rating Agencies. We cannot have a safe and sound financial
system if we cannot trust the credit agencies to accurately rate
financial products. The only way we can restore that trust is to make
sure credit rating agencies cannot make a profit from Wall Street. Under
my administration, we will turn for-profit credit rating agencies into
non-profit institutions, independent from Wall Street. No longer will
Wall Street be able to pick and choose which credit agency will rate
their products.
Reform the Federal Reserve. We need to structurally reform the Federal
Reserve to make it a more democratic institution responsive to the needs
of ordinary Americans, not just the billionaires on Wall Street. It is
unacceptable that the Federal Reserve has been hijacked by the very
bankers it is in charge of regulating. When Wall Street was on the verge
of collapse, the Federal Reserve acted with a fierce sense of urgency to
save the financial system. We need the Fed to act with the same boldness
to combat the unemployment crisis and fulfill its full employment
mandate.
So my message to you is straightforward: I’ll rein in Wall Street's
reckless behavior so they can’t crash our economy again.
Will Wall Street like me? No. Will they begin to play by the rules if
I’m president? You better believe it.
That is our plan to create an economy that works for all Americans, not
just a handful of billionaires. If you agree with what we want to do, add
your name to say that you stand with me.
No president alone, not Bernie Sanders or anyone else, can effectively
address the crises facing the working families of this country without a
powerful grassroots movement. When we stand together, there is nothing
we cannot accomplish.
Thank you for standing with me.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
Categories:
Bernie Sanders
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