President Obama should have thrown the banksters in jail.

That's more or less what former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said in an interview this weekend with USA Today.

Bernanke doesn't get off totally scot-free here.

If he really felt that way back in 2009, he could have said so publicly.

Yes, the Fed "isn't a law enforcement agency," but its word still carries a lot of weight in Washington and around the world.

If Bernanke, as the Fed Chair, had said that it was a good idea to prosecute bank executives, that would have put a ton of pressure on the Justice Department to do so.

But anyways, all questions of personal responsibility aside, Bernanke is right.

We SHOULD have jailed more banksters after the financial crisis, and the fact that we didn't -- and still haven't -- will go down in history as one of this administration's biggest screw-ups.

That's because the only thing that actually keeps big financial institutions in check is prosecutions.

Just ask Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

In the wake of the savings and loans debacle of the 1980s, the Reagan and Bush administrations prosecuted over 1,000 different individuals for their role in the crisis, and of those prosecutions, 839 resulted in convictions.

The Reagan and Bush administrations also stripped the S&L's of their assets, nationalized them, and then resold them to the public using a special agency called the Resolution Trust Corporation.

Not coincidentally, the S&L's have been remarkably stable ever since.

President Obama should have done what Reagan did.

He should have thrown the Wall Street banksters in jail.

Read more here.

-Thom

  

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Is TPP the End of America? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

 

The Daily Stack 

Article: "Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific Partnership" by Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki.

Article: "Commerce Clause" by Wikipedia.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Bernie Sanders 'Disappointed' By Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal" by Reuters.

Video: "In Depth with Thom Hartmann".

 

Article: "Anyone Can Be Speaker ... Even Kanye" Lauren Weber, Jason Linkins, Howard Fineman.

Article: "Sanders Outperforms Clinton in General Election Matchups in IA, NH" by Mark Murray.

Article: "Reaganism Has Been The Problem - Bernie Sanders Is The Solution" by John Atcheson.

Article: "'Good Guy With A Gun' Was On UCC Campus At Time Of Massacre" by Judd Legum.

Article: "Syndicated Radio Host Michael Berry: "Black People Don't Know How To Exist Without White People Around To Blame Their Problems On."" by Daniel Angster.

Book: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

Article: ""White on White" Crime: America, The Happiest Place On Earth" by R. Kenyatta.

Article: "Ben Bernanke: More execs should have gone to jail for causing Great Recession" by Susan Page.

Article: "Sound and Fury in Bank Settlements, Still Signifying Nothing" by William D. Cohan (Holder Doctrine).

Article: "A visibly angry Hillary Clinton just went off on Republicans for their Benghazi investigation" by Colin Campbell.

Article: "Kevin McCarthy: I'll 'fight to win'" by Tal Kopan. "...have the select committee get all the information, all the hearings. Win the argument to win the vote"

Article: "Kevin McCarthy Admits Benghazi Was All About Doing Political Harm To Hillary Clinton" by Karoli.

Article: "Texas Mother Outraged Her Son's Textbook Called Slaves 'Workers' And 'Immigrants'" by Casey Quinlan.

Article: "Jeb Bush Chooses Worst Possible Argument Against Gun Control" by Aviva Shen.

Article: "11-year-old Tennessee boy shoots 8-year-old girl over argument about puppy" by Jason Silverstein.

Article: "7 hurt in Amtrak Vermonter derailment; 1 flown to hospital" by Anthony Fay.

Book: "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate" by Naomi Klein.

Documentary: This Changes Everything.

Case: "Roe v. Wade", 1973.

Article: "11 Facts Proving "Free Trade" Has Been a Disastrous Failure for America" by James Moreland.

Article: "The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Perspective" by Economy in Crisis.

Article: "Stephon Marbury Reveals How Much Your Favorite Sneakers Actually Cost To Make" by Sam P.K. Collins.

Twitter: #MillionStudentMarch.

Article: "Andrea Mitchell just told a whopper about Bernie" by merrily.

Site: Andrea Mitchell.

Article: "Madam Secretary: The Show Must Go On".

Article: "Stein Calls for Abolishing Student Debt and Making Public Higher Education Free" by Joel Peissig.

 

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney 

Article: "Boehner might postpone elections for majority leader, whip" by Jake Sherman , John Bresnahan and Lauren French. "There is also widespread interest in considering a change in internal party rules that would force candidates to resign chairmanships and leadership slots to run for new office."

Article: "Boehner Delays House Majority Leader, Whip Election Dates" by Nicholas Salazar.

Article: "Obama says Syria 'is not some superpower chessboard contest'" by Christi Parsons and Michael A. Memoli.

Article: "Fiorina: 'We must be prepared' to use force on Russia" by Mark Hensch.

Article: "Syrian rebel 'cuts out soldier's heart and EATS it' in horrific propaganda video" by Matt Blake, 13 May 2013.

Article: "John McCain wants terrorists to shoot down Russian aircraft in Syria" by Pravda.Ru.

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 10/5" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Grover Norquist Blesses Trump Tax Plan" by Kenneth T. Walsh.

Article: "Hillary Clinton Tends Bar, Impersonates Trump in 'SNL' Cameo" by Monica Alba and Jillian Sederholm.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Is Going On 'The Ellen Show'" by Igor Bobic.

Book: Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker.

Video: Bernie Sanders Blasts Alan Greenspan (7/15/2003).

Article: "Bernie Sanders Wouldn't End Obama's Drone Program, Promises To Use It 'Very Selectively'" by Justin Salhani.

Article: "The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (Continued)" (Federalist 10) by James Madison.

 

Article: "The Real Reason for the Growing Gap Between Rich and Poor" by Robert Reich.

Article: "Want to lower your child's college bill? Tell him to live at home - or stop eating" by Suzanne McGee.

Article: "Trump Tax Plan Would Cost More than $10 Trillion Over 10 Years" by Citizens for Tax Justice.

Article: "How Can Federal Spending For Children Achieve The Same Protected Status As Spending On The Elderly?" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Has One Socialist Agenda Item On His Platform That No One Is Talking About" by Joe Fletcher.

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

    

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Sincerely,