Nader's 4-Point Plan to Reverse Bailout
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Toby Heaps, 202-441-6795, toby@votenader.org
RALPH NADER RALLIES ON WALL STREET AGAINST THE BAILOUT,
PRESENTS ECONOMIC PLAN THAT PUTS MAIN STREET FIRST
Ralph Nader, running mate Matt Gonzalez and local community leaders rallied on Wall Street yesterday in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to protest the $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of casino capitalists.
Mr. Nader spoke out against the bailout supported by Bush, Obama and McCain which requires taxpayers who had nothing to do with the current economic turmoil to shoulder the entire burden for socializing the liabilities and debt of Wall Street. The Wall Street fiasco is the result of banksters who tanked other people’s money in a "sustained orgy of excess and reckless behavior," as Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fischer puts it.
Mr. Nader presented a four-point plan to reverse the bailout:
1. Make Wall Street pay for its own bailout by implementing a securities speculation tax, starting with derivatives, which would have the additional benefit of deterring some of the worst excesses of casino-capitalism. Taxing speculative securities transactions is a common feature of many Western European and Asian stock markets, as well as being supported by Warren Buffett.
2. Criminal prosecution and jail time for corporate crooks that perpetrated these high economic crimes, including the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.
3. Provide capital injections to prudent (as verified by independent ratings agencies) financial institutions to create a protective wall to contain the domino effect, while ensuring full taxpayer equity.
4. Protect homeowners from foreclosure by passing a law with a sunset clause allowing below median-value homeowners facing foreclosure the right to rent-to-own their homes at fair market value rates. This would provide the majority of distressed homeowners sufficient bargaining power to restructure their mortgages along fairer more affordable terms.
About Ralph Nader
Attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.
About Matt Gonzalez
Matt Gonzalez was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2000 representing San Francisco’s fifth council district. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Board of Supervisors President. A former public defender, Gonzalez is managing partner of Gonzalez & Leigh, a 7-attorney practice in San Francisco that represents individuals and organizations in mediation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings before state and federal regulatory bodies. Gonzalez graduated from Columbia University and received a JD from Stanford Law School.
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
The Nader/Gonzalez independent presidential campaign, on the ballot in 45 states + DC, is polling at 5 percent nationally (representing about 10 million voters) in the most recent WSJ/NBC poll, and a Time/CNN poll shows Ralph Nader polling 8 percent in New Mexico, 7 percent in Colorado, 7 percent in Pennsylvania, and 6 percent in Nevada — all key battleground states.
