Bernie Sanders

Greek Financial Crisis: The Cruelty of Austerity & The Warning for US

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austerityAusterity means that people is [sic] expulsed of their homes. Austerity means that the social services don’t work anymore. Austerity means that public schools have not the elements, the means to develop their activity. Austerity means that the countries have not sovereignty anymore, and we became a colony of the financial powers and a colony of Germany. Austerity probably means the end of democracy. I think if we don’t have democratic control of economy, we don’t have democracy. It’s impossible to separate economy and democracy, in my opinion.
– Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos, Spain’s grassroots anti-austerity movement

Austerity is a lie. It is a cruel economic policy that starves economies, puts people out of work, privatizes public services, closes public facilities, eliminates benefits for the needy, and crushes governments with unsustainable debt. And as Iglesias says above, austerity diminishes democracy because the banks hold the economic power– not the people and the governments they elected.

Greece has been suffering under austerity imposed by the European banks since 2010. Instead of growing the Greek economy, austerity has starved it.

Does this sound familiar? Arizonans should pay close attention to the Greek financial crisis because Governor Doug Ducey is leading us down the same road to ruin.

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Progressives: Let’s Move Hillary and Bernie to the Left (video)

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Several long-term politicians and a few wannabes have thrown their hats into the ring for the 2016 presidential bid (or are at least hinting at it). Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and Republicans Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, and Carly Fiornia have declared. (See the complete list on the New York Times here.) Progressives– disappointed … Read more

Nonpartisan League

Sanders Echos Warren with Call to ‘Bust Up the Big Banks’

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Teddy Roosevelt
President Teddy Roosevelt was America’s original “trust-buster,” taking on monopolies and big banks in the early 20th century.

One day after Senator Elizabeth Warren rekindled the spirit of President Teddy Roosevelt and called for breaking up the Wall Street banks because they have too much political power, Senator Bernie Sanders has seconded that proposal.

From Sanders’ press release:

“Over the last several days, it has become abundantly clear that Congress does not regulate Wall Street but Wall Street regulates Congress.  If Wall Street lobbyists can literally write a provision into law that will allow too-big-to-fail banks to make the same risky bets that nearly destroyed our economy just a few years ago, it should be obvious to all that their incredible economic and political power is a huge danger to our economy and our way of life,” Sanders said.

Lobbyists for Citigroup drafted the measure and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly called congressmen to lobby for the provision that would gut a key provision of Dodd-Frank, the Wall Street reform law passed in 2010.

“Enough is enough,” Sanders said. “Today, almost all of the too-big-to-fail banks are bigger and even more powerful than they were before we bailed them out. The six largest financial institutions have over $9.8 trillion in assets — the equivalent of more than 60 percent of GDP.  They issue over half of the mortgages and more than two-thirds of the credit cards in America.

“If Congress cannot regulate Wall Street, there is just one alternative.  It is time to break these too-big-to-fail banks up so that they can never again destroy the jobs, homes, and life savings of the American people.

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