Jesse Jackson Holds Press Conf. On Economic Crisis

Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks near Wall Street in the Financial District September 22, 2008 in New York City.

Jackson, a founder of the National Rainbow Coalition, spoke critically about a culture of greed on Wall Street and how the current financial crisis is adversely affecting middle class and poor Americans.

Jesse Jackson on the crises:

“Well, first of all, the events that led up to the crisis were all legal, which means that law was perverted, where you globalize capital and don’t globalize workers’ rights, human rights, women’s rights. You have an imbalance at some point. That structural default just simply comes apart.

Second, it’s the result of unregulated banks without transparency, in some instances without integrity, and unenforced law, unenforced lending laws, which led to the housing crisis, as well as risky investments without any monitoring. So we see the logical conclusion of the lack of check and balance, the lack of transparency.

Now the government must intervene to protect the workers, the consumers and the economy itself, much like Roosevelt had to do.” -DemocracyNow.com

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(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)