Bernie Sanders Just Won Support from the Most Unlikely Person

[UglyGreed]

Bernie Sanders is receiving some unlikely support as of Wednesday.Asher Edelman, the inspiration for Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street,” was asked on CNBC’s “Fast Money” who would be his choice for the next President of the United States. He quickly responded, “Bernie Sanders… No question.”

{snip}

“When you have the top one percent getting money, they spend five-ten percent of what they earn. When you have the lower end of the economy getting money, they spend a hundred, or a hundred and ten percent of what they earn. As you’ve had a transfer of wealth to the top, and a transfer of income to the top, you have a shrinking consumer base, basically, and you have a shrinking velocity of money.”

“Bernie is the only person out there who I think is talking at all about both fiscal stimulation and banking rules that will get the banks to begin to generate lending again as opposed to speculation.”

http://usuncut.com/politics/gordon-gekko-sanders/

[FreakinDJ]

1. because Bernie represents true economic growth

Rather than casino style speculation as usual

And there is money to be made rich and poor alike

[Bread and Circus]

2. Wow...goddam...

[kgnu_fan]

3. wow!

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. Fantastic.

A lot of people in Asher Edleman's world are basically "practicing economists," and understand very well how severe capital concentration at the top works to suppress the overall economy. It's just that most are also personally benefiting from those trends and aren't inclined to talk about the matter in public. Kudos to Mr. Edleman for his honesty.

[Coincidence]

5. Wow amazing! Could this grow into an enormous game changer?

Economists can't seem to lend credence to Bernie's economic platform, a plan that is hyper-focused on calling out the mega-wealthy and holding them accountable.

If Wall Street 1%ers, just one today but who knows maybe more to follow, come out in support of Bernie's plan while yelling "HEY IDIOTS, STOP BABYING US YOU, YOU'RE HURTING EVERYONE!", not only could that legitimize Bernie's plan like nothing else, maybe it would be what it takes to finally drive a stake through the heart of trickle down Reagonomics for good.

On top of that, I can see this granting hordes of Trump fatigued conservatives with no palatable alternatives an authoritative right-wing permission slip to cross party lines and join Sanders once they see some of their heroes have given it the thumbs up. Am I reading too much into this?

[Arazi]

6. Welcome to DU!

[appalachiablue]

7. Greed, for Lack of a Better Word, IS NOT GOOD! For the Economy, People or the Planet!

[Plucketeer]

8. Amazing!

Let's hope it seeds fresh consideration far and wide.

[Jefferson23]

9. Yes, should be the choice for most Americans, no matter the party affiliation. K&R

[Jack Rabbit]

10. Mr Edelman expresses what Sandernistas know

The neoliberal economic model is unsustainable. The sooner it is scrapped, the better.

[Myrina]

11. Predator ....

"When you have the lower end of the economy getting money, they spend a hundred, or a hundred and ten percent of what they earn" ...

Translation: "My cronies & I can focus on easy credit & exorbitant interest rates to chew up whatever disposable income these poor folk end up having."

He sees potential profit. Bastards in the financial industry never, EVER, want people to have more income for the sake of having a better living situation. It's all about "they have it, how can we get it from them?"

[DaveT]

13. Henry Ford was an odious human being, too,

but he grasped this simple and plainly obvious fact. John Maynard Keynes explicated it through scholarship, and it created the middle class in the USA and Western Europe, while also financing the various social democratic safety nets around the industrialized world.

This regime was supplanted by what is called "neoliberalism" which turned that idea upside down. It is amazing how pervasive its influence remains in the absence of any palpable evidence that it is either true or good policy. Nevertheless, public policy from Greece to Germany to the UK, to the USA and just about everywhere in-between favors wealth accumulation as the source for capitalist "investment." From the days of Thatcher and Reagan, the neoliberal movement espoused the Supply Side as the principal component of economic growth while denigrating Keynesian emphasis on the Demand Side as irrelevant.

Of course, what happens is exactly what this Gordon Gekko guy says -- you put more cash in the hands of rich people and they just play the market with almost all of it. Instead of capital investment in useful products for the mass consumer market, they just create speculative bubbles that invariably burst in a few years.

The Sanders campaign does not talk about economic history because that is not what angry voters want to hear. Instead, he is talking about what is happening in real time -- the Gordon Gekkos of the world have gone too far to sustain social stability.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. That he is; he is the model for Gordon Gekko, after all

However, that's no reason to dismiss what he's saying here out of hand.

Mr. Edleman is practicing a bit of enlightened self-interest by supporting Bernie. Thirty-six years after Ronald Reagan was elected president and ushered in the neoliberal era, the middle class is shrinking, the income gap is widening, wages are low while productivity is up (something akin to defying the law of gravity). He recognizes what this means to him. He can't make money in this kind of environment. If wages are too low, as they are, the economic engine dries up. Neoliberalism is an abject failure.

Capitalism cannot thrive without a middle class. Mr. Edelman knows that. The neoliberal model has turned classical economics on its head and tries to prove that a middle class (i. e., buyers in the market) is not necessary for economic growth. That is just nonsense. It doesn't take a saint to figure that out.

[Raster]

17. So tell me, Debbie Wasserman-shitz, do you really think hyping predatory payday lenders...

...is a good Democratic principle and position?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Banks should offer interest on savings again....

They can't DO that thanks to Alan Greenspan lowering interest rates to zero for the rich.

[cantbeserious]

14. Most Interesting

eom

[Duval]

15. K&R. nt

[Ivan Kaputski]

18. K & R