Bernie Sanders: "Too big to fail -- Too big to exist"

[Armstead]

My main man Bernie says it right again:

http://sandersunfiltered.com/


"More than a year has gone by since Congress passed the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. The Federal Reserve has committed trillions of additional dollars in virtually zero-interest loans and other assistance to large financial institutions resulting in the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world.

President Bush and Ben Bernanke told us we needed to bail out Wall Street because we could not allow big financial institutions and insurance giants to fail because if they failed it would have led to the collapse of the U.S. and global economies.

Today, most of the huge financial institutions still standing have become even bigger -- so big that the four largest banks in America (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup) now issue one out of every two mortgages; two out of three credit cards; and hold $4 out of every $10 in bank deposits in the entire country.

If any of these financial institutions were to get into major trouble again, taxpayers would be on the hook for another massive bailout. We cannot let that happen. We need to do exactly what Teddy Roosevelt did back in the trust-busting days and break up these big banks.

That is why I introduced legislation that would give the secretary of the Treasury 90 days to identify every single financial institution and insurance company in this country that is too big to fail and to break up those institutions within one year.

If it’s too big to fail, it’s too big to exist."


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/too-big-to-fail---too-big_b_348251.html&cp

[polichick]

1. Absolutely right - and it's only common sense, which is pretty scarce in DC. nt

[Telly Savalas]

7. Yup -- and it's not really an exclusively left-wing idea.

If an organization is truly "too big to fail" then its management knows that its exposure to loss is limited. If they stumble badly, the government is pretty much forced to bail them out to save our economy. Therefore management has no incentive to avoid riskier decisions. This gives them an unfair advantage over their smaller competitors. Moreover, it's unfair to the public who have to bail them out when they fail, but don't share in the proceeds when they succeed.

This is an argument which really ought to have traction with people all over the political spectrum.

[Impedimentus]

13. They are big enough to go to the front of the line for Swine Flu vaccine!

Big US banks have been issued swine flu vaccines that were meant for priority groups.

The banks, already been bailed out by US taxpayers as they teetered on the brink in the wake of the global financial crisis, were issued with the H1N1 vaccines after a decision by local officials in New York, including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group according to Business Week. Also reported on Countdown this evening .

[wroberts189]

2. Go for it Bernie. KNR

[Armstead]

3. kick

[Odin2005]

4. I love Bernie!

[bluethruandthru]

5. Bernie is the best! n/t

[busymom]

6. I couldn't agree more! n/t

[Raineyb]

8. When he's right, he's right! n/t

[AzDar]

9. God, I loves me some Bernie!

:thumbsup:

[tilsammans]

10. Yay, Bernie!

:yourock:

[Vidar]

11. Way to go, Bernie! Recommended.

[and-justice-for-all]

12. Bernie is the shit! nt

:applause: