John Nichols: Bernie Sanders: Put Wall Street Under Oath

[marmar]

from The Nation:



Bernie Sanders: Put Wall Street Under Oath
posted by John Nichols on 01/30/2009 @ 3:06pm



The current economic crisis is often compared with the Great Depression, especially when it comes to making calls for rapid and sweeping responses to the mess that has been made by Wall Street bankers and speculators.

But what is not so frequently noted is that Franklin Roosevelt and his congressional allies did not merely act. They also investigated wrongdoing and pointed fingers of blame at the practices and practitioners that created the crisis.

The powerful Senate Banking and Currency Committee, prodded by its brilliant chief counsel, a New York prosecutor named Ferdinand Pecora, unearthed and revealed what the New York Times referred to as "a secret financial history of the 1920s, demystifying the assorted frauds, scams and abuses that culminated in the 1929 crash."

Roosevelt and the congressional leaders with whom he was aligned left no doubt that they thought Percora's eyes-wide-open examination--which actually began during the waning days of the failed presidency of Herbert Hoover, the man FDR swept from office--was an essential part of making a clean break with the thoughts and deeds that led to the collapse of the stock market, the shuttering of banks, factory closings, farm foreclosures and mass unemployment. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/403452/bernie_sanders_put_wall_street_under_oath?rel=hp_currently

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. Actually an investigation is what's needed, if only for the reason,..

that we know what to change in the regulatory statutes.
How the hell would we know what changes need to be made if we don't understand exactly what the greedy bastards were doing.
Also, throwing them in jail would go a long way in restoring confidence in the economy.

[navarth]

2. Hell yes

Thank the godz for Senator Bernie. I wish we had more like him.

This reminds me...I need to re-up my Nation sub.

[snot]

3. k&r'd

[DCKit]

4. Preaching to the DU choir.

Then again, I've been asked recently, in almost too many ways to count, "Why do you hate bankers (and CEOs, etc... they're really very nice people, you know)?" One of them actually try to paint the banking industry as a coalition of Mom and Pop/family owned businesses - an economic segment made up entirely of George Baileys, with nary a Mr. Potter in sight.

I'm really beginning to think there's a job title of "professional apologist" and they're working the tubes for various PR and lobbying firms. Given the mess BushCo allowed, it's got to be a growth industry.

[leftstreet]

5. K&R