Bernie Sanders winning support for Wall Street reform plan

Published Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, 1:27 pm Join AFP's 100,000+ followers on Facebook Purchase a subscription to AFP | Subscribe to AFP podcasts on iTunes News, press releases, letters to the editor: augustafreepress2@gmail.com Advertising inquiries: freepress@ntelos.net

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The Wall Street reform plan of Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has the backing of 170 economists and financial experts.

The group signed a letter supporting Sanders’ proposals to remake the financial system to serve America’s working families.

“Sanders’ plan for comprehensive financial reform is critical for avoiding another ‘too-big-to-fail’ financial crisis,” the letter, released by the campaign on Thursday, said. “The only way to contain Wall Street’s excesses is with reforms sufficiently bold and public they can’t be watered down. That’s why we support Senator Sanders’s plans for busting up the biggest banks and resurrecting a modernized version of Glass-Steagall.”

The letter was signed by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, University of Texas Professor James K. Galbraith, Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC., Brad Miller, former U.S. Congressman from North Carolina, and William K. Black, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Sanders presented a sweeping plan to rein in the greed of the nation’s biggest financial institutions a week ago in a speech in New York. He pledged to break up the biggest banks and fight to establish a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act which would restore a Depression-era law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt designed to prevent Wall Street speculators from crashing the economy.

The Vermont senator also said his administration will cap credit card interest rates and ATM fees, allow post offices to offer basic banking services and reform the Federal Reserve to focus on its mandate to promote full employment.

The Sanders campaign also released a new TV spot on Thursday touting his reform plan.

“There are two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street,” Sanders says in the 30-second ad that will be broadcast in Iowa and New Hampshire. “One says it’s okay to take millions from big banks and then tell them what to do. My plan: break up the big banks, close the tax loopholes, and make them pay their fair share. Then we can expand health care to all and provide universal college education.”

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