Posted on 02/21/2016 7:46:26 AM PST by Kaslin
Bernie Sanders, everyone's favorite socialist running for the American Presidency, has been exciting his urchins by telling them how the big, bad wolves of Wall Street are stealing their breakfast, lunch and dinner. The other night he stated "The business model of Wall Street is a fraud." Many people think Sanders is just a cute old Grandpa type. But since he just slandered everyone in the financial and banking business in America, I thought it might be a fine time to defend them and dispute the spurious statements he is making.
I don't doubt that Sanders believes what he says. The press attacks Trump for some of the dubious statements flowing from his mouth, but they are not jumping on the filth flowing from Bernie's, probably because of two reasons: First, they don't know enough to question it; and, second, because they are on his team. But the ignorance of his followers is what Sanders feeds on and helps to perpetuate.
Let's start with a straight-out statement: We have the finest banking and investment system in the world. It is also the safest. It is where the world flows its money as a safe haven. Is it perfect? Nothing is perfect. But our financial system has allowed our citizens to finance homes, finance cars, buy things instantaneously on a credit or debit card, gain monies to build businesses etc., etc., etc. Are there people who participate in that system who do illegal things? Yes. Are there people who prey on others outside the system to steal their money? Yes. But for a candidate for the American Presidency to make the statements Sanders has made is not only irresponsible, it shows his own ignorance of the problems he has helped create.
Let's start with the banks being too big. I agree. They are, but what has caused the consolidation of the banks? Dodd-Frank, the overreaction to the debt crisis of the last decade. This was delineated in my column "Beers vs Banks."
Since the inception of Dodd-Frank, which attempted to deal with the "Too Big to Fail" problem of the big banks, the law has made them bigger and their competition smaller. The immense cost of regulation has stalled the natural growth of competition in the business. As of June 2015, only three new banks had opened since 2010 where the norm was 100 new banks a year. The number of U.S. banks shrunk again in 2013 and 2014. While Sanders rails against the Big Banks there is blood on his hands for this and for what has he done to help open community banks or stem the loss of smaller banks - which is ZERO.
Sanders likes to spew "let's break up the big banks." Yes, Bernie, exactly what is your plan to do that? Reporters like to ask Trump where his plans are, but no one seems to ask Bernie about his plan to completely rearrange the foundation of our banking system. That is because he does not have one and he could not even conceive of how to do it. He and his followers would prefer to live in ignorant bliss.
Or there is the fault for the banking mess and the market crash in the first place. That I wrote about ages ago in "Kill All the Bankers." The government ginned up all the home loans in a foolhardy attempt to expand homeownership, would not put a plug in it when it became obvious there was a problem, and then scurried like rats when the collapse came. Bernie likes to argue bankers should go to jail. How about the designers and implementers of these government policies? They never get blamed. Bernie also likes to argue the monies extracted from the big banks (ransoms to stay in business) are proof of their guilt. No, it is just proof of the legalized theft the government can do today not only to banks, but to you in their ability to confiscate assets. My favorite story of this mess is how the Feds begged Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch and Countrywide and then fined them for the failed loans in the portfolios.
Where is Sanders arguing for the most important aspect of our financial system that is unaddressed: educating Americans about it? He is nowhere, just like his twin sister Elizabeth Warren. Americans graduate from high school with an agrarian understanding of our financial system. I have been arguing for years that it is mandatory to have a high-school-level financial class that teaches our citizens about our modern economy. Students need to learn what a bank account means. They need an understanding of establishing credit and the proper use of credit or debit cards. They need to understand pension plans and why they are important and what it means to buy a home and take out a mortgage. Most importantly they need to know if they are going on to college what the ramifications of taking out large student loans may mean to the rest of their lives. Sanders does not argue for education because he would rather keep us fat and sassy and down on the farm -- steeped in ignorance while he and the intelligentsia rule our lives.
Sanders is a demagogue. He is a man who has never had a place in the private economy and only wants to control the efforts of the people attempting to support their families and succeed in America. Bernie, please leave the economy to the grownups. You and your ilk created the rules for the income inequality that exists. Please leave and let us clean up your mess.
A socialist is good only when he has a capitalists money.
I could give a feckless what Bernie says or thinks.
Bernie is Marxist, to start his revolution all he has to do is taken impressionable stupid youth, point them at the enemy (capitalists) and say kill. Its like Obama and the black youths
I have serious reservations as to whether Bernie is totally sane, but it is very important to keep him running to keep the pressure on The Beast, keep her spending campaign cash instead of hoarding it for the general election. The pressure is showing on that evil bitch, even though it is abundantly clear that the dem nomination is rigged for her.
Yeah, well we’ve had to bail them out ... and big corporations like GM ... more than once, some more than twice.
If finance is business is so great, why do they need so many subsidies and bailouts and regulations limiting competition for some of them to do well?
So Sanders may not have a good point but neither does this guy.
A scarey as wall street is this guy is scarier
I agree with him about Wall Street. But what he doesn’t talk about is that the liberal politicians in Washington are even worse than the bloodsuckers on Wall Street, and Sanders is a good example. Yes there are Wall Streeters who should be in jail because of the role they played in causing the 2008 crash. There are just as many in Congress who should be as well.
Actually, we did not bail out GM. GM went bankrupt. The shockholders were wiped out. Only the UAW was bailed out.
Bernie could have kicked Hillary’s butt, but he is really just a wimp. Imagine if at every stop a screen behind him ran through the list of every Hillary speech and her fees, or even better, if he bought the list to every debate, and just started reading them off.
What is scarier are the chimps who vote for him proof that dumbing down paid off.
Many people think Sanders is just a cute old Grandpa type.
This old, kook, whack job never had a real job in his life, and now wants to run our country? Give us a break! Go home, Bernie, you are a fraud and an embarrassment to our country.
Excellent point and suggestion.
Go work for Wells Fargo for 4 years, and you’ll want to burn down every bank and financial institution in sight. Guaranteed. Yeah, I know it’s wrong.
Banks have historically played a role in destroying nations/borders/culture in their quest for money, and today that is clear to anyone watching the push to “normalize” illegals in the US. While Americans must jump through hoops to open bank accounts (see the Patriot Act), our banks can’t work fast enough to have the illegals as customers - accepting ID issued by foreign governments (matricula consular?) as valid ID (and of course not reporting these people as illegals to ICE). They want customers, and since we failed to breed a new generation for them they’ll just use those imported illegally instead.
Wells Fargo is the most tone-deaf bank I’ve ever dealt with in terms of customer service & complaints; they seem focused on larger relationships and could care less as others leave.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.