“Capitalism is a game where competitors play by rules on which everyone agrees. The government is the referee. You need rules to promote competition in the economy. Left to their own devices, firms will use any available means to crush their rivals. Today, the state, as referee, has not enforced rules that would increase competition, and through regulatory capture, has created rules that limit competition.”
Jonathan Tepper
“I will never forget, Lloyd Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs, came to Congress a few years ago. And this is after the taxpayers of this country bailed them out because of their greed and their illegal behavior. This is chutzpah. These guys, after being bailed out by the middle class and working families of this country, after causing incalculable harm, which–the Wall Street crash cost us millions of jobs, people lost their homes, they lost their life savings.
These guys, after getting bailed out, they come to Congress. They say, you know, what we think Congress should do is you gotta cut Social Security, and Medicare, and Medicaid. And by the way, lower corporate tax rates and give more tax breaks to the wealthy.
That’s power. That’s chutzpah. We have it all, we can do whatever we want to do. And I think the power of Wall Street— you’ve got a half a dozen banks that own over 50 percent, equivalent to 50 percent of the assets in our GDP.
And we have got to stand up to them.”
Bernie Sanders
