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The Democratic Platform Goes After Wall Street

The platform draft shows Democrats are willing to bite the hand that feeds them – but will they follow through?
(Photo: Flickr / Sam Valadi)
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(Photo: Flickr / Sam Valadi)

On the subject of Wall Street reform, the draft platform released by the Democratic Party reads much more like a Bernie Sanders stadium speech than a Hillary Clinton policy memo. “Democrats will fight against the greed and recklessness of Wall Street,” they pledge.

This tough talk is clearly intended to draw in voters who are still feeling the Bern. But it could also be a sign that Wall Street’s aversion to Donald Trump has strengthened the Democrats’ hand.

Sanders makes Wall Streeters’ hair stand on end because of what he wants to do to them directly: break up the big banks, hike their taxes and jail the executives who caused the 2008 crash.

Trump gives Wall Streeters the jitters because of what he might do to them indirectly. Launch a trade war with China! Throw out the immigrants! Whether Trump would ever follow through with such bellicose threats, Oval Office rhetoric of this sort could be enough to keep the markets reeling.

Wall Street hates unpredictability. And in the Republican presidential candidate, we have the very embodiment of unpredictability.

Read the full article on U.S. News and World Report’s website.

For press inquiries, contact IPS Deputy Communications Director Olivia Alperstein at olivia@ips-dc.org. For recent press statements, visit our Press page.

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