Bernie Sanders Went to Rome to Discuss the Immorality of Unfettered Capitalism

http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-just-met-with-pope-francis-to-discuss-the-immorality-of-unfettered-capitalism/

? Sanders has made no secret of his regard for the pontiff’s economic analysis. Before leaving the Vatican, he told reporters: “I have been enormously impressed with Pope Francis speaking out and his visionary views about creating a moral economy, an economy that works for all people, not just the people on top.”

Hailing Pope Francis for saying “over and over again: ‘We cannot allow the market just to do what the market does, that is not acceptable,’” Sanders used his talk at the Vatican to amplify the argument that an economy that allows “unfettered capitalism” to define its direction and outcomes is “immoral and unsustainable.” Sanders placed that argument in historical and contemporary context, referencing Catholic social teachings and concerns about “reckless financial deregulation” and “an unprecedented flow of money into American politics,” and the senator said that in the United States, “Rather than an economy aimed at the common good, we have been left with an economy operated for the top 1 percent, who get richer and richer as the working class, the young, and the poor fall further and further behind.”

Here is the full text of speech Sanders delivered at the meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences to mark the 25th anniversary of Centesimus Annus, the social justice encyclical by Saint John Paul II: