Senator Bernie Sanders called for a ban on bonuses for employees of banks propped up with a $125 billion infusion of taxpayer funds. He also wants to freeze shareholder dividends for investors in financial institutions rescued with the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. Alan Greenspan conceded that he made mistakes during his long tenure as Federal Reserve chairman that helped cause the current crisis. As a member of the House Banking Committee during Greenspan's reign, then-Representative Sanders locked horns with the Fed chief over his advocacy of deregulated markets, unfettered free trade, abolition of the minimum wage and tax breaks for millionaires. Looking forward, Senator Sanders detailed a Rebuild America program that Congress should take up when it reconvenes. At a town meeting in Vermont, Sanders focused attention on who will be left out by the coming conversion to digital TV.

Ban Bonuses, Freeze Dividends Sanders on Friday made the case for the bonus bans and dividend freeze in a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Big year-end bonuses totaling more than $70 billion already have been budgeted, according to a report in Forbes, by Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others. "The same people who created the financial crisis are in line to collectively reap billions of dollars while the middle class is left to pick up the tab," the senator told the treasury secretary. Instead of fat paychecks for financiers, Sanders said the Treasury Department should redirect the funds to help homeowners refinance troubled mortgages at affordable rates. In calling for the dividends freeze, Sanders cited the work of Harvard economists David S. Sharfstein and Jeremy C. Stein, who projected that dividends paid out next year would route $25 billion in taxpayer funds to troubled financial firms' shareholders. Among the biggest beneficiaries, the economists said, would be the officers and directors of the nine banks who stand to pocket about $250 million in dividends. "All of us have a responsibility to make sure that the insatiable greed on Wall Street is not allowed to continue and that we do everything possible to ensure taxpayer dollars are protected," Sanders said.

Greenspan's Legacy "After years of confrontation about the role of government regulation, I'm glad to see he now recognizes that his ideas are flawed," Sanders said. Greenspan's profound influence dominated a whole economic era. The rich got steadily richer, stock markets soared, and deserved or not, Greenspan was given credit for economic blessings. Bernie Sanders was one of the very few who challenged the oracle, the Canadian Broadcasting Company reported on its nightly network newscast, The National. "You had trillions of dollars being played with, which have led us to the brink of an international financial collapse...How could it be a good thing that we don't know who owns these things, we don't know who's trading these things, we don't know the impact it has on the world economy?" To listen or watch classic Sanders exchanges with Greenspan, click here.

What to Do When Congress reconvenes, it must pass a massive "Rebuild America" program in order to address the economic crisis. "If we can put up $700 billion to rescue bankers from their irresponsible decisions, we must make a major investment putting millions of Americans to work rebuilding our country. In order to get our country back on sound economic footing, we should make a major investment in repairing our crumbling transportation systems and electric grid. After decades of delay, we must end our dependence on fossil fuel and foreign oil and move boldly to energy efficiency and new sources of sustainable energy. We also need to address the social crises we face in terms of education, health care, nutrition, and poverty. In the midst of the current economic crisis, we must minimize the suffering of the most vulnerable among us, and we must ensure the future of our country by developing the best-educated workforce in the world." To read Sanders column published by The Huffington Post, click here.

What Do You Think? In the past few days, more than 5,000 of you took our survey on the Wall Street bailout. It's not a scientific poll, of course, but the numbers are overwhelming. More than 82 percent of you, like Sanders, opposed the $700 billion bailout. (John Nichols, a correspondent for The Nation, told Democracy Now radio that "very few people...have the consistency of a Bernie Sanders or a Marcy Kaptur on this issue." McCain, he added, "would be leading in the polls today if he had opposed it.") Back to our online survey, there was one question on which there was even greater agreement. The question: How important is it to you that any government plan to deal with the financial problems set limits on compensation for executives at corporations that participate in the plan? The answer: More than 96 percent say it is important. If you haven't taken the survey and want to add your voice, click here.

Digital TV On February 17, 2009, there will be Vermonters who may no longer get television reception. On that day, the whole country will be transitioning from analog to digital TV signals. If you get your TV over the air with an antenna or rabbit ears, you need to act now to ensure that you will still be able get TV in your home." Many of the more than 30,000 Vermonters reliant on over-the-air free television service could lose their signal altogether if they do not take appropriate actions beforehand. Sanders hosted a town meeting Wednesday in Burlington with Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Michael Copps. More information on the digital television transition is available here. To read The Burlington Free Press article about the meeting, click here.