Nightmare on Wall Street: Ben Bernanke (Capitol Hell)

Nightmare on Wall Street, September 29, 2008
by Pete Von Sholly
(See more of Pete's political work at Capitol-Hell.com!)

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Wassup Wall Street? Foreshadowing Disaster with Cartoonist David Willson

September 19th was the one year anniversary of the day David Willson illustrated this cartoon for his "Managing 2 Laugh" feature. At the time, as Willson recalled on his MediaPro blog, this week:

"Cramer was pitching fits on television for Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to wake up and smell the impending subprime meltdown. Bernanke was, in a word, detached concerning the whole thing and held out for quite some time before he eventually started cutting rates. But then after that, started cutting them with abandon. Today, he's been heard to say he's got $800 billion at his disposal, if need be, to bail out failing Wall Street institutions. Which is, of course, exactly what the third character in my cartoon wants. Back then, the Investment Banks and Funds were mainly lobbying Washington to have their $ billions in profits classified as capital gains rather than income. Now, they have Congress exactly where they want them ... soiling their pants, with Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. doing their lobbying for them."