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Bernie Sanders calls for bank boycott
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) doubled down on his anti-Wall Street rhetoric over the weekend, encouraging protesters to withdraw money from the major banks and calling the financial industry “the most powerful, dangerous and secretive” institution in the United States.
“People might want to think about going to your local community bank and withdrawing funds from these large institutions,” Sanders said in tweet on Sunday.
“[People might choose to move their money out of the large banks and into local community banks or credit unions.]”
The Vermont senator has been a vocal supporter of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, but these latest comments were his sharpest to date. In a string of tweets leading up to his call for a run on the banks, Sanders offered ideas he says would “change the system to work for all Americans, not just the top one-percent,” including a Wall Street speculation fee and a cap on credit card interest rates.
Sanders continued criticizing the financial industry on Monday, both in an editorial at Roll Call and to a newspaper in his home state.
"I think the protesters deserve a whole lot of credit in focusing attention on Wall Street, which in my view, is the most powerful, dangerous, secretive major institution in the United States of America. And the more we learn about Wall Street, the more we learn about their reckless and illegal behavior, the better off we will be," Sanders told the Vermont Reformer on Monday.
"There is a lot to be said about people coming together at the grassroots level at this time. A lot of people are hurting, we are in the worst recession since the 1930s and this was caused by the greed and recklessness of Wall Street. And what the protesters are doing every day is reminding us of that reality," he added.
Monday marks the one-month anniversary for the Occupy Wall Street protests, which have spread to cities all over the world and led to more than 800 arrests in the United States.
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