This is an idea that is gaining traction and is whizzing around the electronic ether in London. A US Senator is demanding that Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, identify which banks are “too big to fail” and break them up. Bernie Sander, an independent from Vermont, has a record for populist rhetoric. He puts out a weekly video on YouTube, “Senator Sanders Unfiltered”, on which he claims: “The middle class today in this country is in desperate shape and the gap between the very, very wealthy and everyone else is going to grow wider.” He has now brought the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act”, which requires Geithner to say within 90 days which banks fall into this category and to break them up within a year.
He says that the disappearance of various rivals means the four biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup — now issue one in two mortgages, two out of three credit cards and hold $4 in every $10 on deposit. “No single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure could send the world economy into crisis.”
Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent, is taking aim at banks that are considered too big to fail. He introduced legislation on Friday that would force the Treasury Department to break up all financial institutions whose failure could cause a major disruption to the nation’s financial system.
“If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement. “We should end the concentration of ownership that has resulted in just four huge financial institutions holding half the mortgages in America, controlling two-thirds of the credit cards and amassing 40 percent of all deposits.”
The four banks cited by Mr. Sanders are Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. Three of those banks have made major acquisitions as a result of the financial crisis. But Citigroup, which received a $45 billion government bailout, is in the process of selling off nonbanking assets.
Mr. Sanders’s legislation would give Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner 90 days to compile a list of commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds and insurance companies that he deems too big to fail or “any entity that has grown so large that its failure would have a catastrophic effect on the stability of either the financial system or the United States economy without substantial government assistance.”
Within one year after the legislation became law, the Treasury Department would be required to break up those banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions identified by the secretary.
The bill has no co-sponsors, but Mr. Sanders told DealBook that support would be coming. “I have talked to a number of senators and I think that there will be support,” he said.
But Mr. Sanders acknowledged that he had yet to talk to Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and set to introduce the Senate’s version of the financial overhaul bill next week.
American banks have argued that they need to be large to compete with other big banks overseas. They contend that the larger the bank, the greater its ability to back major projects around the world. But Mr. Sanders is no longer buying that argument.
“I have heard that lie for 16 years,” Mr. Sanders said. “They were wrong. We deregulated them, and they caused the greatest financial crisis in the modern history of America.”
Mr. Sanders, who has described himself as a socialist, sees a need to go after investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as commercial banks.
“Goldman Sachs has done irreparable harm to this economy,” Mr. Sanders said. “Let them gamble without any support from the federal government. That they are getting insured” — through implicit government assurances — “is beyond comprehension.”
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced new legislation on Friday that should, he claims, solve the phenomenon of massive and failing financial institutions holding the nation’s economy captive.
It’s all of two pages long.
The Vermont Democrat-Socialist unveiled the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act” — which he billed as a succinct remedy for tackling financial risk and avoiding a repeat of the taxpayer-funded bailouts that occurred just one year ago.
The act is straightforward. It would require that 90 days after its passage, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner “submit to Congress a list of all commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds and insurance companies that the Secretary believes are too big to fail.”
Subsequently, one year after the law is enacted, the Treasury Secretary would be required to “break up entities included on the Too Big To Fail List, so that their failure would no longer cause a catastrophic effect on the United States or global economy without a taxpayer bailout.”
The rest of the details — like, say, how to do that, how the broken-up entities would be structured, and what authorities would be granted for preempting institutions from becoming too big to fail in the first place — would be filled in during the legislative process, Sanders’s office said. The goal is simply to immediately preempt a duplication of last year’s economic meltdown.
“Here is an example of amazing irony,” the senator said in a video shot by Brave New Films accompanying the legislation’s release. “Three out of the four largest financial institutions in the country who led us to this financial disaster are now bigger then they were before the collapse. So we have got to break these guys up so we don’t see a recurrence of what we saw a year ago.”
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The brevity of the Sanders bill is, in some ways, its selling point. The Senator notes in the video that, “unlike the health care bill, which is 1,990 pages, this is all of two pages.” An easier contrast, however, is between the senator’s efforts to tackle Too Big To Fail and those being pursued by others in Congress and the White House.
Last week, Geithner, in cahoots with House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank, released a proposal to not only structure a new system for bailing out failing institutions but also for improved regulations over those institutions. Clocking in at 253 pages, the plan would empower regulators to essentially shut down banks or firms that threatened the stability of the economy. Should a bailout be necessary, other financial firms and not the taxpayers would have to front the bill.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has joined Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold is declaring that the United States needs to start thinking about how to extract its military from Afghanistan.
While almost 100 members of the House (including many conservative Republicans) have signed on to Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern’s call for the development of an Afghanistan exit strategy, Feingold has been a relatively lonely Senate advocate for a rethink of the eight-year-old occupation.
At the annual “Fighting Bob Fest” gathering in Baraboo, Wisconsin, however, Sanders drew loud and sustained applause from the crowd of 8,000 when he said, “We need to take a very, very hard look at our war in Afghanistan. We need to be clear in our goals and we need a real discussion about an exit strategy to bring our troops home.”
Sanders made his statement at the largest annual gathering of grassroots activists in the Midwest, where there was no question of the crowd’s enthusiasm for the “Health Care Not Warfare” message that was promoted at the festival by activists with Progressive Democrats of America.
Prior to coming to Wisconsin for the event, Sanders explained his views on the need to rethink Afghanistan in a video produced as part of the Brave New Films “Senator Sanders Unfiltered” project. Responding to a question from British singer Billy Bragg, Sanders said:
My major concern about the war in Afghanistan, and why I voted against the recent defense authorization bill is tat we seem to be getting sucked into a quagmire without the kind of debate, without the kind of discussion that this country desperately needs and that the people of our country are entitled. What we know now is that the number of troops that the general are requesting is going up and up. We know that we… have already poured several hundred billion dollars into Afghanistan; that number is going to go up. But we don’t know what the goals of our efforts in Afghanistan are or what kind of exit strategy we have.I worry that Afghanistan will be another Vietnam. I worry that Afghanistan will be another Iraq. We’ve been there eight years already, and how many more years are we supposed to be there? How many more American troops are supposed to die? How many more American troops are supposed to die? How many more tens and tens of billions of dollars are we supposed to be spending at a time when we have a record-breaking deficit? I find it amusing that some of my more conservative friends are saying, ‘Well, we can’t afford to spend more money on health care in this country. We can’t afford to spend more money on education or environmental protection. But, yes, we can afford to pump tens and tens of billions more into the war in Afghanistan.
Sanders says: “We need a real national discussion of an exit strategy, a real national discussion about what our goals are. We haven’t had that and the American people should be demanding it.”
Sanders is doing his part to open the discussion. And the muscular reaction to his statements made it clear that the American people are making the demand.
BRATTLEBORO — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has partnered with media pioneer Brave New Films to produce a weekly online series.
The “Senator Sanders Unfiltered” program will air once a week in five-minute segments featuring the Vermont Independent answering questions submitted by viewers nationwide via Twitter and Twitvid. Producers hope the show will provide an unprecedented look at the political and policy-making process on Capitol Hill while hearing the concerns from regular citizens.
“It is important that we as Americans have direct access to voices that are truthful, dauntless and unapologetic like that of Sen. Bernie Sanders. [This series] is going to provide that access,” said Robert Greenwald, producer and founder of Brave New Films. “Every week, he will talk about the issues that people are concerned about … and really be able to reach a large audience without any reservations or anything standing in the way.”
Sanders is the first senator in history to release a weekly online show addressing the concerns from everyday Americans. He said the move gives him another vehicle to publicize a more progressive perspective that is often overlooked in the national media.
“Frankly, I think that the media in general does not do a great job of keeping people informed about what’s going on in Washington (D.C.),” said Sanders. “I’m going to use this opportunity to provide a progressive analysis to the people of this country, and I feel good about it.”According to Sanders, there is a strong need for progressive voices in the mainstream to counter the right-wing voices and ideologies.
“Our nation is on the brink of tremendous change, with issues like health care reform, the environment and banking regulations. This series will provide alternative, progressive perspectives that are not being covered by the mainstream media, he said. “It just gives me, as a U.S. Senator, the opportunity to speak with people without a filter and respond to the questions they have.”
Greenwald said the Vermont senator has stayed in touch with his constituents throughout his political career using the latest technological advances. Sanders was one of the first to recognize how important the Internet would become for alternative news outlets and reaching out directly to Americans, he said.
“One of my jobs as an elected official is to do my best to explain to people why things are the way they are and what we can do to improve it,” said Sanders. “I think that’s part of what our job is about … not sitting in an office away from people.”
The first online episode (or Webisode) aired Monday, about a week after the site’s trailer appeared showing Sanders arguing against corporate greed and the high costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 41,000 viewers have checked out the initial episode.
“I think we’re off to a good start … it’s kind of an interesting experiment and we’ll see how it works,” said Sanders.
“The response to the first show was really overwhelming,” said Greenwald. The success should come as no surprise to Greenwald — Brave New Films’ online videos have reached more than 45 million viewers.
To watch the online series or to submit a question to the senator, interested residents can visit www.sandersunfiltered.com.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an adamant advocate for a real healthcare reform, has been vocal about holding Wall Street accountable for the recent market crash since the very beginning. Now, after a scandal with head of Citigroup’s energy-trading unit Andrew J. Hall, who had allegedly been promised $100 million in bonuses, Sanders is growing even more indignant and impatient with bankers and financiers and yet again calls for more responsibility on their part. “What we need is a new type of Wall Street, a Wall Street that is not interested in bubble economics, in quick speculations but a Wall Street that wants to invest in America, in our rural economy, rebuilding our manufacturing, creating descent paying jobs, and not just enriching a handful of people who are already extremely wealthy,” concludes Sanders.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and filmmaker Robert Greenwald have teamed up to create “Senator Sanders Unfiltered” — a roughly two-minute online “TV show” in which Sanders offers an unscripted take on major issues facing the country.
The inaugural episode of “Senator Sanders Unfiltered” was launched this afternoon. In the future, each new episode will air on Thursday.
While viewers in other parts of the country may be hearing and seeing Sanders for the first time, we in Vermont have to ask: When is Bernie ever truly “filtered”?
Each episode begins with a TwitVid question from a viewer. This week’s question asked how Sanders felt about Wall Street bankers seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses from taxpayer bailout money.
Guess how he answered?
“I think the greed on Wall Street is absolutely out of control,” said Sanders. “These people have no shame. Remember, this handful of Wall Street speculators are precisely the people who caused the greatest economic downturn and recession since the 1930s.”
After they destroyed the economy, were bailed out by taxpayers and then asked for hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, Sanders noted, “This is basically insane. Enough is enough.”
Sanders is urging regulators to fire some of Wall Street’s top CEOs, not reward them with more taxpayer money. (Click here for a PDF of Sanders’ letter.)
We need a Wall Street looking to put more people back to work on Main Street, argued Sanders, not just stuff taxpayer dollars into the pockets of tailored suits. One such Wall Street speculator wants a $100 million bonus.
The show came about because Greenwald said Sanders “gets it” in terms of new media and what ails the country.
“The country is in a pretty deep crisis and Sen. Sanders is one of the few voices speaking truthfully, not pulling his punches, and identifying the reasons that we’re in the situation today economically, in terms of social inequities, and in terms of the wars,” Greenwald told Seven Days via phone. “Everyone at Brave New Films felt strongly that we wanted to increase his megaphone and his platform. While Vermont is lucky to have him as a senator, we want the rest of the country to have him, too.”
Greenwald said he and Sanders have been in contact for years.
“He, like I, probably struggles with his Blackberry, but he got it immediately when we started releasing our films,” said Greenwald. “He called me up and said, ‘These films are great, but the real thing is that you’re breaking the gatekeepers’ hold on distribution.”
Greenwald said he and Sanders understand that you sometimes have to remove the filters of the mainstream media in order to get out a message. Greenwald is perhaps best known for his documentary Outfoxed, which posits that the popular cable news station Fox is a conduit for right-wing propaganda.
In total, Brave New Films has generated more than 45 million viewers to its various online TV segments taking on FOXNews, presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, and other conservative factions.
“There is a strong need for progressive voices in this country. For too long, this country has been under attack by right-wing voices and ideologies,” said Sanders in a statement. “This show will provide alternative, progressive perspectives that are not being covered by the mainstream media.”
This isn’t the only program in which Sanders reaches millions of Americans.
He is also the featured guest on the weekly “Brunch with Bernie” segment on the nationally syndicated radio talk show, “The Thom Hartmann Program.” Sanders’ segment airs from noon to 1 p.m. on Fridays, and can be heard in Vermont on WDEV-FM (96.1 FM / 550 AM).
Bernie Sanders, the iconoclastic US senator from Vermont, is launching his own series of weekly “webisodes” where he will answer questions from constituents.
Sanders, the only avowed Socialist in Congress, is partnering with Brave New Films in the venture, called “Senator Sanders Unfiltered.”
A trailer shows Sanders railing against greed and economic inequality, arguing that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing too much money, and assailing insurance companies for lobbying Congress to stop healthcare overhaul that provides universal, affordable coverage.
The first webisode will be available on his Senate website on Monday, then subsequent ones regularly on Thursdays.
Constituents can submit video questions via Twitter on twitvid.com by using the #sanders tag, and Sanders’ office is encouraging them to share the trailer video via Facebook and other social networking sites.
For press inquiries, please contact Martha de Hoyos at or 310-204-0448 x225.
