“To rein in Wall Street, we should begin by reforming the Federal Reserve,” Sanders wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times. “Unfortunately, an institution that was created to serve all Americans has been hijacked by the very bankers it regulates.”
Sanders spoke about chief executives of banks who serve on various boards of the Federal Reserve, and compared that conflict of interest to an Exxon CEO running the Environmental Protection Agency.
Sanders has had a tough career-long stance on big banks. But his opponent, the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, has accepted more donations from those same institutions than any other candidate except for Jeb Bush, Reuters reported.
In his op-ed, Sanders stated that, as a rule, the Fed should not be allowed to raise interest rates unless unemployment is down.
“The recent decision by the Fed to raise interest rates is the latest example of the rigged economic system. Big bankers and their supporters in Congress have been telling us for years that runaway inflation is just around the corner. They have been dead wrong each time,” Sanders wrote. “Raising interest rates now is a disaster for small business owners who need loans to hire more workers and Americans who need more jobs and higher wages. As a rule, the Fed should not raise interest rates until unemployment is lower than 4 percent. Raising rates must be done only as a last resort — not to fight phantom inflation.”
Describing what he would do as president, Sanders stated that a president should nominate board members, and the Senate should vote to accept them.
“The sad reality is that the Federal Reserve doesn’t regulate Wall Street; Wall Street regulates the Fed,” Sanders wrote.
