Wall Street Gives Bernie Sanders a Pass…for Now
The market thinks he would lose to Trump, so what’s the problem?
Bernie Sanders’s blowout victory in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday made him the clear-cut Democratic frontrunner and infused his campaign with an aura of inevitability. That’s set off a new round of panic in some Democratic circles, as the campaigns of moderate candidates bicker over who should leave the race and fret that Sanders may already be unstoppable.
Sanders has plenty of strengths: a clear message, a committed following, an ability to raise lots of grassroots money. But he’s also benefited because he hasn’t been challenged by the interest groups who’d be expected to oppose him. The most obvious Sanders opponent on the planet is the financial industry. But on Wall Street, concern over Sanders’s rise has been practically nonexistent, so he never faced the attacks Elizabeth Warren did when she briefly emerged as the frontrunner last fall.