Wednesday 9 December 2009 13.30 GMT
Under Bernanke's watch, the value of risky derivatives held at our nation's top commercial banks grew from $110tn to more than $290tn, 95 per cent of which are concentrated in just five financial institutions. While Bernanke was asleep at the wheel, Warren Buffett, as early as 2003, called derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction" and warned that they posed a "mega-catastrophic risk" to the economy.
Bernanke failed to prevent banks from issuing deceptive and unfair financial products to consumers. Under his leadership, mortgage lenders were allowed to issue predatory loans they knew consumers could not afford to repay. This risky practice was allowed to continue even though the FBI warned in 2004 of an "epidemic" in mortgage fraud that had the potential to become "the next S&L crisis".
READ MORE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/dec/08/ben-bernanke-bernie-sanders
