Where Was the Fed?

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. What the American people did not

bargain for was another four years for one of the key

architects of the Bush economy.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in charge of the central bank since 2006, 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. It’s time for a change at the Fed.





We need a new chairman. We need somebody who is going to pay attention to

small- and medium-sized business, somebody who is going to do everything he or

she can to grow our economy and create decent paying jobs, somebody who is

going to protect consumers against outrageously high interest rates on their

credit cards, and somebody who is going to stand up for ordinary people.





I

am going to do my best to see that Mr. Bernanke’s nomination is defeated.

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