Progressive NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio has endorsed Hillary Clinton’s plan to take on Wall Street and the big banks over her rival Bernie Sanders even as he plans a major address on that very topic in New York City in an attempt to inject new life into his flagging campaign.
“Having studied all the Wall Street reform proposals, I firmly believe Hillary Clinton has put forward the toughest, farthest-reaching plan of anyone running for President,” de Blasio said in a statement to POLITICO. “She would not only go beyond Dodd-Frank to ensure the needed authority exists to break up or downsize banks that are too large, but she also imposes new constraints on activities in the shadow banking sector, which is too often overlooked.” He added: “Hillary Clinton’s plan confronts risk-taking wherever it occurs, from investment and commercial banks to insurance firms to hedge funds. Her plan goes the farthest to crack down on the true causes of the last financial crisis, and to prevent the next one.”
Clinton is refusing to back down on this issue, one of Sanders’s most important, and her campaign continues to point out that her plan is tougher and more comprehensive than Sanders’s.
“Senator Sanders has so far taken a hands-off approach to some of the riskiest institutions and activities in our economy, which were among the biggest culprits during the 2008 crisis,” Gensler, a former top Wall Street regulator, said. “Senator Sanders should go beyond his existing plans for reforming Wall Street and endorse Hillary Clinton’s tough, comprehensive proposals to rein in risky behavior within the shadow banking sector.”
The Sanders campaign responded to Gensler, arguably one of the toughest Wall Street regulators during the Obama Administration, with a rather desperate attack. They dismissed Gensler as a creature of Wall Street, continuing the tradition of throwing progressives under the bus. Gensler’s hire by the campaign (made before Sanders was even running) was hailed at the time as a sign that Clinton was listening to the “Elizabeth Warren wing” of the party.
We will see if Sanders moves beyond the rhetoric and follows Clinton in laying out specific proposals that address the issues in a comprehensive manner in his speech today. In the meantime, Clinton’s strong approach has drawn the support of progressive economists, politicians, and economists.