“Well, I would say very generally I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what’s happening.  They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington.  And at some level, I can’t blame them.”–Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman

October 5, Ben Bernanke was answering questions from a U.S. Senate panel (yet again), when he was asked about the growing, and spreading, “Occupy” demonstrations.  Senators wanted to know if the protestors were justified in blaming Corporate America for the economic fall of the United States.

“Did Wall Street’s greed and recklessness cause this recession, that lead to so many people losing their jobs?” asked Senator Bernie Sanders.  Bernanke replied that excessive risk taking on Wall Street and the failure of financial regulators “had a lot to do” with the recession.