2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary Clinton opposes breaking up the megabanks, opposes reinstating Glass-Steagall [View all]portlander23
(2,078 posts)A few points:
1. Asserting that Mr. Sanders would contend with a GOP Congress is moot because Mrs. Clinton would labor under the same constraint. At worse, all things here are equal, at best there's a cogent argument that Mr. Sanders would start every fight from a further left position, whereas Mrs. Clinton would not. The idea that Mrs. Clinton would strike better bargains with the GOP is based in the faulty thinking that the GOP is interested in compromise. I think everyone has been frustrated with Mr. Obama in these respects, and in this case I would expect Mrs. Clinton to carry on Mr. Obama's failed campaign of negotiation with the GOP.
2. I'm no expert, but I believe anti-trust authority is vested in the executive branch and the judicial branch by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, not the legislative branch. That would put Mr. Sanders in a position to do a lot about the banks in spite of a GOP congress.
3. Anti-Trust action aside, one would have to assume that a Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in a Sanders administration would be much more aggressive prosecuting criminal behavior on Wall Street than under a Clinton administration.
While of course it is arguable that Mr. Sanders might not be ultimately successful given the rocky history of anti-trust action and prosecutorial actions against the banking sector, I think it's clear that Mrs. Clinton would not even try. At worst Mr. Sanders stands to galvanize the people and shed light onto criminal wrong doing which was responsible for the 2007-8 financial collapse. At best, he might win.
I'm with Bernie.