Fairfield County Residents Ask, 'Yes He Can?'

The rallying cry that led to President Barack Obama’s election in 2008 echoed across the United States for months: “Yes we can!”

The statement that protesters outside of downtown Fairfield’s was more of a hesitation, a question -- a plea for the president, now facing re-election: “Yes he can?”

On Thursday, members of the political action group MoveOn gathered outside of the 1366 Post Road branch of one of the country’s largest banks and demanded that the president investigate the actions of big banks.

“We’re not against capitalism,” said Mariann Regan, Fairfielder, protester, and former English professor. “We just want it to be regulated.”

Regan explained the history behind the protest. Banks had been regulated since the Great Depression by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, until its final repeal in 1999. The act separated investment banks from commercial banks, but banks have since been able to combine the two functions, leading to what the protesters believe is unregulated capitalism.

“We’d like [the president] to investigate the banks and what they have done with mortgage foreclosures and bring back the Glass-Steagall Act,” Regan said.

And what does unregulated capitalism lead to?

According to New Canaan resident Neil Winikoff, basically, the unfair distribution of wealth -- the root of the protests.

“Capitalism is supposed to work with supply and demand,” Winikoff said. “We’d like to see a fairer distribution…a more level playing field when it comes to decision making.”

Winikoff, a former engineer for General Electric’s NBC 30 Rock headquarters in New York City, said he is lucky to rely on his pension and 401k, but those options likely “won’t be around for new hires for long.”

The movement chose to protest outside of Bank of America because it is “one of the big banks that represents the invisible hands of capitalism,” Winikoff said.