"Sanders comes across as a pure insurgent, entirely uninterested...
in any of the policy details his ideas would require. There is a valuable role for this kind of politician, but it's not in the White House."
There are many pertinent and pointed comments like this below the TPM article now appearing on the LBN page. I've had the same doubts about the Bern, but couldn't express them so well:
Bernie Sanders Struggles To Explain How He Would Break Up The Banks
http://forums.talkingpointsmemo.com/t/discussion-bernie-sanders-struggles-to-explain-how-he-would-break-up-the-banks/35916/8
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Well, that was a pretty dispiriting exchange. And really, it's not such a hard question: there is a long history of anti-trust enforcement that shows how to break up a large corporation. Given that this is a centerpiece of Sanders' campaign, I would have expected him to be able to talk about it, at least.
If the banks were to be broken up, the editorial board asked, what would happen to the hundreds of thousands of employees who would be affected?
How could he let a ridiculous claim like that go unchallenged? If a big bank is required to divest assets - which is all a break-up has to involve - it would do so by selling them to smaller banks. For the great majority of those "hundreds of thousands" of employees, the only thing that would change is the name on the branch office that employs them. Instead of pointing this out, Sanders retreats to blather about a stronger economy making everything all right.
Sanders comes across - not for the first time - as a pure insurgent, entirely uninterested in any of the policy details his ideas would require. There is a valuable role for this kind of politician, but it's not in the White House.
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He has been talking about breaking up the banks for how long now... and this is his response...
Reminds me of Trump talking about his wall.
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While Bernie is great at articulating the problem in a way the average person can appreciate, he is not very good at explaining how he will solve it without resort to magical incantations. Just the opposite of Hillary who is great at getting things done within but doesn't really want to change the existing reality all that much. I wish we had someone who is both a big thinker and a big doer, but they are rare and very scary. Maybe that is why we don't have giant leaders on big white horses all that often.
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If the banks were to be broken up, the editorial board asked, what would happen to the hundreds of thousands of employees who would be affected?
"What I foresee is a stronger national economy. And, in fact, a stronger economy in New York State, as well. What I foresee is a financial system which actually makes affordable loans to small and medium-size businesses," Sanders responded.
This answer is so horrifying in its cluelessness. He doesn't actually answer the question of unemployment of all those people affected. He just spits out the bromide of a supposedly stronger economy. How those people find other jobs just isn't on his radar.
And on the point of loans, he's dead wrong. I say that because I remember back in '09 banks of all stripes were NOT giving their smaller business customers loans. These businesses were furious because they needed the loans to cover things like payroll, purchases, etc. The banks flat out refused because they were holding onto every penny they could. Instead, what they did was to give these small business customers credit card lines to draw down on. The banks held onto as much cash as they could to prop up payments to shareholders. They aren't connected to the economy as a whole.
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I read the transcript and actually started to laugh! It is clear that Sen. Sanders hasn't thought out any of the details of one of his key proposals. In many ways he is a mirror image of The Donald. I'm not comparing their character. The Donald is now a vulgar, racist demagogue. Sen. Sanders is a well-meaning progressive. However, neither of them have fleshed out any of the details of their major proposals and their answers to all questions about how they will enact them are basically 'Trust me. I will get it done'.
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