“The rubber band eventually snapped,\" said Ralph Nader of the recent investment bank troubles. Nader on bank woes: 'I predicted this'

As banks reeled and presidential campaigns scrambled to react to the crisis on Wall Street Monday, color one man unsurprised.

“I predicted this,” said Ralph Nader, the independent presidential candidate. “All this I’ve written about five, 10 years ago.”


In a meeting with Politico reporters and editors, Nader laid the blame for the current economic upheaval squarely at the feet of corporate America.



“Pure greed, coupled with concentrated power on Wall Street and elsewhere” brought about the crisis, Nader said.

Though Nader would not comment specifically on the news of the Lehman Bros. decision to declare bankruptcy — “I just heard about it this morning,” he explained — he argued that banks and other corporations had engaged in “a massive, imprudent acceptance and transfer of risk.”

Nader, who made his reputation as a consumer advocate, concluded: “The rubber band eventually snapped.”

It wasn’t just banks that Nader criticized. In a letter to congressional leaders, Nader also attacked the idea of a government loan to major automakers, alleging that Congress was rushing to pass “panic legislation without due deliberations, without even having public congressional hearings.”

As Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain attempt to present themselves as plausible economic stewards, Nader told Politico both major party candidates fall short of addressing the root causes of the latest bank failures. According to Nader, Obama and McCain are too worried about containing fallout to take on the banks’ irresponsible behavior.



“Look at how they are knee-jerking similar approaches,” Nader said, chiding the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees for their support, earlier this year, for bailing out Bear Stearns. “McCain, Obama: Rubber stamp. No detail. We will go along with the bill.”

“They’re twins,” Nader continued. “If you look at their economic policies, other than taxes and so on … they’ll curtsy to the, quote, prestige of the Treasury.”

Though Nader attacked both major political parties — alleging that their platforms showed ideological “convergence” — he suggested the GOP is in a particularly tenuous position as it responds to continuing economic turbulence.

“The Republicans are going through ideological schizophrenia,” he said, noting that many conservatives continue to support government-backed bank bailouts even though “they’re supposed to be capitalists.”

Nader, 74, is in the midst of his fourth bid for the White House; he ran in 1996 and every election cycle since then. As in his previous campaigns, he has struggled to gain traction with the electorate and has expressed frustration at limited media attention to his campaign.

“Our main problem is the uniquely pronounced blackout by national TV,” Nader said, adding that television networks had devoted 10 seconds of news coverage to his campaign. “This is not journalistically sustainable.”

Nader recounted a recent meeting with editors at The Washington Post, who he said told him the paper wasn’t covering his campaign because he had no chance of winning. According to Nader, he replied: “Then why are you covering the Nationals?” a reference to Washington’s long-suffering baseball team.

Along with his running mate, former San Francisco supervisor Matt Gonzales, Nader held rallies in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., during the major party conventions that failed to generate media interest. More recently, he held a news conference with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the former GOP presidential candidate, and several other independent candidates to urge voters to consider third-party options.

The event attracted some attention, but not enough to ease Nader’s anger at the news media.