06 December 2018

Bernie Sanders: Concentrated Wealth Is Concentrated Power


"I will never forget, Lloyd Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs, came to Congress a few years ago. And this is after the taxpayers of this country bailed them out because of their greed and their illegal behavior.  This is chutzpah.  These guys, after being bailed out by the middle class and working families of this country, after causing incalculable harm, which–the Wall Street crash cost us millions of jobs, people lost their homes, they lost their life savings.

These guys, after getting bailed out, they come to Congress.  They say, you know, what we think Congress should do is you gotta cut Social Security, and Medicare, and Medicaid.  And by the way, lower corporate tax rates and give more tax breaks to the wealthy. 

That’s power. That’s chutzpah.  We have it all, we can do whatever we want to do.  And I think the power of Wall Street—  you’ve got a half a dozen banks that own over 50 percent, equivalent to 50 percent of the assets in our GDP. 

And we have got to stand up to them."

Bernie Sanders

Financial reform is necessary and essential, but of little interest to the established elite.

And so it receives little attention and even less meaningful discussion.

They will discuss any other distracting issue, event, meaningless squabble and gossip, first.  They will play the fear card, and identity politics, but won't touch the flow of money that helps to make a few and their enablers, unbelievably rich.

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.


The source and a transcript for this interview are here.