Ralph Nader takes on Wall Street

Nader: Wall Street has turned into a 'speculative casino'

By David Schepp BBC News Online North America business reporter

Could consumer-advocate Ralph Nader do for Wall Street what he did for Detroit?

Inflatable icons of greed at the stock exchange

The thousands of vocal protesters who turned up on Friday in New York's financial district to cheer him on certainly hope so.

Mr Nader, who became famous for taking on the US auto industry and ushering in a wave of regulation that led to safer cars, is now calling for greater regulation and enforcement of the securities industry.

Under dreary Autumn skies, angry investors and others gathered near the steps of the New York Stock Exchange to cheer on the former Green Party presidential candidate and his crusade to "crack down on corporate crime."

"We're gathered here because we're concerned that not enough is being done about the most gigantic grand larceny episode in American history," Mr Nader said.

The result of that theft, he said, is that millions of Americans have been robbed of billions of dollars in stock and pension savings.

Broken trust

The recent wave of accounting scandals and bankruptcies have cost American workers over $175bn (£112bn) in retirement savings, with pension losses from the Enron bankruptcy alone totalling $1.69bn as of February.

Nearly 3,000 backers showed up to protest

Mr Nader, who resembles a modern-day Abraham Lincoln, peered down from the podium on the steps of historic Federal Hall and told his audience that Wall Street is corrupt and something must be done about it.

"They have turned the New York Stock Exchange into a speculative casino ridden by corruption, deception and crime."

He said the trust held by millions of Americans in the country's institutions, including investment banks, and state and federal regulators, had been broken.

No American would be happy until busloads of crooked executives are hauled off to jail, he said.

In that vein, he praised the work of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose high-profile investigations into the practices of investment banks and corporate executives have resulted in numerous lawsuits.

Mr Spitzer announced on Thursday that New York had filed complaints against five former and current executives at four troubled telecommunications firms.

'Recipes for reform'

Asked by BBC News about the arrest of Andrew Fastow, the former chief financial officer at disgraced energy giant Enron, Mr Nader said it should send a message about corporate crime.

A mock choir sang the praises of excess

"But remember we're talking about tens of thousands of corporate crooks who were involved in these schemes and these deals, who aided, who abated, who implemented [and] who covered up," he said.

"If a dozen of these guys go to jail, that simply is not enough."

Mr Nader listed 12 "recipes for reform" that he called on his followers to push Congress to implement.

They include a crackdown on corporate corruption, a call for more protection for workers and investors, and a rollback of the "tide" of corporate deregulation.

"Corporations were never designed to be our masters," Mr Nader said.

"They were designed to be our servants in the public interest."