Bernie Sanders channels Theodore Roosevelt

“These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of the newspapers and the columns in those papers to club into submission or drive out of office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.”
 – Theodore Roosevelt
(New York Times)

Bernie: 'Break up the big banks'

• Shades of Theodore Roosevelt  -  Actually I think Bernie is on the right track here. The super-sized banks that were "too big to fail" in 2008 are now far, far larger. When these monster banks go bust in the next Wall Street dump they will drag down the entire economy.
• We are not talking about "free markets". These banks are backed by the U.S. Treasury. Remember no one went to jail for the fraudulent real estate loans from the last crisis.

(Associate Press) — Characterizing Wall Street as an industry run on "greed, fraud, dishonesty and arrogance," Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders pledged to break up the country's biggest financial firms within a year and limit banking fees placed on consumers, should he become president, in a fiery speech on Tuesday.

He coupled that promise, delivered in front of a raucous crowd just a few subway stops from Wall Street, with a series of attacks on rival Hillary Clinton, arguing her personal and political ties make her unable to truly take on the financial industry.

"To those on Wall Street who may be listening today, let me be very clear: Greed is not good," said Sanders, in a reference to Oliver Stone's 1980s film, "Wall Street."

"If Wall Street does not end its greed, we will end it for them," he said, as a cheering audience jumped to its feet.

Sanders has made regulating Wall Street a focus of his primary bid, with calls to curb the political influence of "millionaires and billionaires" at the core of his message. But the attacks on Clinton marked an escalation in his offensive against the Democratic front-runner. Clinton's policies, he said, would do little more than "impose a few more fees and regulations."

"My opponent says that, as a senator, she told bankers to 'cut it out' and end their destructive behavior," he said, to laughter. "But, in my view, establishment politicians are the ones who need to cut it out," he said.

Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have made tens of millions in speaking fees from addresses to Wall Street banks, insurance companies and other financial firms — a fact Sanders alluded to in his speech, saying the banks give "very generous speaking fees to those who go before them."

Sanders vowed to create a "too-big-to-fail" list of companies within the first 100 days of his administration whose failure would pose a grave risk to the U.S. economy without a taxpayer bailout. Those firms would be forced to reorganize within a year.

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