Though symbolic at this point, Sanders' Senate floor maneuver will serve as a reminder of the malignant reality that has been Bernanke's record as the Wall Street-captured, couldn't see a damn thing coming, Greenspan free-money offspring, central banking Oedipus Rex, quantitative-easing sponge of the entire debt-induced bloody mess. We applaud the move by Senator Bernie Sanders to announce late yesterday that he will place a legislatively technical hold on the reconfirmation vote of Federal Reserve Chairman Benji Bernanke, when it reaches the floor, requiring an increasingly difficult 60 'yeas' to bring his re-upping to a final vote.
Amen and from Reuters:
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday that he was placing a hold on Ben Bernanke's nomination for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, a move that could slow the confirmation process.
If the hold is not withdrawn, the move by Sanders, an independent from Vermont, means that Senate leaders will not be able to bring up the nomination for a vote by unanimous consent. Instead, they may need to garner 60 votes in order to consider the nomination.
In a statement, Sanders blasted Bernanke, whose current term expires on January 31, for doing too little to help ordinary Americans, while going too easy on big financial institutions.
"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," Sanders said. "It's time for him to go."
President Barack Obama nominated the former Princeton University economics professor to another term as central bank chief in August, praising his handling of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.
Many lawmakers, however, are upset at the large-scale bailouts of financial firms the Fed helped engineer. Many also accuse the Fed of having failed to stem the risky lending practices that helped fuel the financial crisis.