The screenshot is a link-over item for today from: Senate homepage, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Because links on a screenshot are not active, the ending part of the item, with live links, is:
To read more of Bernanke’s own words, click here.
To read the senator’s statement, click here.
To read the Wall Street Journal editorial, click here.
To watch the senator on MSNBC discussing the hold, click here.
A hat tip to Janet O'Connell, a Minnesota Senate District 56 resident, and her newsletter emailings for her focus on this story, at this link.
I have been aware of the Bernanke reappointment hearing scheduled for today, but the fact of the Sanders hold was news to me.
The link O'Connell provided quotes a Sanders press statement saying J'accuse:
“The American people overwhelmingly voted last year for a change in our national priorities to put the interests of ordinary people ahead of the greed of Wall Street and the wealthy few,” Sanders said. “What the American people did not bargain for was another four years for one of the key architects of the Bush economy.”
As head of the central bank since 2006, Bernanke could have demanded that Wall Street provide adequate credit to small and medium-sized businesses to create decent-paying jobs in a productive economy, but he did not.
He could have insisted that large bailed-out banks end the usurious practice of charging interest rates of 30 percent or more on credit cards, but he did not.
He could have broken up too-big-to-fail financial institutions that took Federal Reserve assistance, but he did not.
He could have revealed which banks took more than $2 trillion in taxpayer-backed secret loans, but he did not.
“The American people want a new direction on Wall Street and at the Fed. They do not want as chairman someone who has been part of the problem and who has been responsible for many of the enormous difficulties that we are now experiencing,” Sanders said. “It's time for a change at the Fed.”
The Federal Reserve has four main responsibilities: to conduct monetary policy in a way that leads to maximum employment and stable prices; to maintain the safety and soundness of financial institutions; to contain systemic risk in financial markets; and to protect consumers against deceptive and unfair financial products.
Since Bernanke took over as Fed chairman in 2006, unemployment has more than doubled and, today, 17.5 percent of the American workforce is either unemployed or underemployed.
Not since the Great Depression has the financial system been as unsafe, unsound, and unstable as it has been during Mr. Bernanke's tenure. More than 120 banks have failed since he became chairman.
Under Bernanke's watch, the value of risky derivatives held at our nation's top commercial banks grew from $110 trillion to more than $290 trillion, 95 percent of which are concentrated in just five financial institutions.
Bernanke failed to prevent banks from issuing deceptive and unfair financial products to consumers. Under his leadership, mortgage lenders were allowed to issue predatory loans they knew consumers could not afford to repay. This risky practice was allowed to continue long after the FBI warned in 2004 of an "epidemic" in mortgage fraud.
After the financial crisis hit, Bernanke's response was to provide trillions of dollars in virtually zero-interest loans and other taxpayer assistance to some of the largest financial institutions in the world. Adding insult to injury, Bernanke refused to tell the American people the names of the institutions that received this handout or the terms involved.
“Mr. Bernanke has failed at all four core responsibilities of the Federal Reserve,” Sanders concluded. “It's time for him to go."
The link from the O'Connell newsletter continues:
WASHINGTON – Leaders on opposite sides of the political spectrum joined forces today on a letter to the Senate demanding that Congress mandate an audit of the Federal Reserve Bank before voting to reappoint Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term. Although the groups may not agree on all the elements of financial reform, they do agree that the Federal Reserve should be held accountable to taxpayers.
The left-right coalition sent a letter to members of the Senate today includes Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage, Americans for Taxpayer Reform president Grover Norquist, FireDogLake blogger Jane Hamsher, Eagle Forum president Phyllis Schlafly Campaign for Liberty president John Tate and Center for Economic and Policy Research president Dean Baker.
The letter coincides with the announcement that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is placing a hold on the Bernanke nomination for the reasons cited in the joint letter.
The Federal Reserve took extraordinary actions in the financial crisis, committing trillions of dollars to bolster private institutions, and the letter says that these actions must be reviewed before any decision is made on Bernanke's nomination. Bernanke has opposed a detailed review and has not answered questions from Congress about the trillions of taxpayer dollars the Federal Reserve lent to banks and other private companies.
Bernanke and his supporters have argued that auditing the Federal Reserve would constitute a takeover of monetary policy, but signers of the letter believe this is disingenuous. What is at issue is not monetary policy, but an unprecedented assertion of fiscal authority.
The complete letter follows: [...]
Go to the underlying link, see all the supporting names, see the letter text - fair use is to set the hook, but to know the details, for interested readers, go here.
Last, you can do specific searches on Google news, or look at search returns, here and here.