How Bernie Sanders's Supporters Would Punish Wall Street Bankers

Back during the darkest days of the financial crisis, President Barack Obama summoned the heads of the big Wall Street banks to the White House and told them they had better get their act together. “My administration,” Obama said, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

Obama’s administration will soon come to an end, a prospect many bank executives anticipate with joy. But the pitchfork-wielding populists haven’t exactly gone away. Instead, many have rallied to the presidential candidacy of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. At a Feb. 7 rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Sanders made it clear that unlike Obama, he would channel, rather than deflect, anti-Wall Street anger if elected president. To a throng of 1,500 voters packed into a community college gymnasium, Sanders vowed to crack down on Wall Street bankers. As he spoke, Sanders was continually interrupted by shouts from the audience of “Break ‘em up!” and “They should go to jail!”