(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
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Harold Meyerson, at the Washington Post, on “Rescuing America from Wall Street“:
Better late than never, the movement to take America back from Wall Street has arrived. On Wednesday, the ranks of the Occupy Wall Street encampment will swell as MoveOn.org members, union activists and ordinary disgruntled citizens join the demonstration against our financial sector’s misrule of the American economy. What’s more, long-planned anti-bank demonstrations in major cities this week are growing beyond their organizers’ fondest hopes as the Wall Street protest movement catches fire.
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The anti-bank campaign has in fact been incubating for years — a “seed beneath the snow,” as the Italian novelist Ignazio Silone once termed the slow-to-arrive left. The sit-ins, teach-ins and street demonstrations popping up in Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles are formally the handiwork of a coalition of community groups that recently gathered together as the New Bottom Line. Many of these groups have focused on immediate goals — such as stopping particular banks from foreclosing on more homes. They, along with unions, have demonstrated on Wall Street many times since the 2008 financial crisis. But only now, as Occupy Wall Street — an organization that they didn’t create — has grabbed the public imagination the past few weeks, are the myriad mobilizations commanding the media’s attention…
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From 1973 through 1985, as Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, documented in 2009, American banks never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits. By the mid-2000s, that figure rose to 41 percent. As with profits, so with pay: For more than three decades, from 1948 to 1982, pay levels in finance ranged from 99 to 108 percent of the average of private-sector pay. By 2007 they had reached 181 percent.
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Not all of the problems with the current American model of capitalism originate with banking. But Wall Street’s growth has long come at the expense of productive enterprise, diverting dollars and talent from the business of making goods. Merely occupying Wall Street doesn’t go remotely far enough. We need to diminish finance with regulations that would make our economy both more secure and more productive. Here’s hoping the disparate groups of protesters come together, grow and stay in the streets. It will take a massive, vibrant protest movement to bring America’s subservience to Wall Street to its overdue end.
And to reiterate: We Are the 99 Percent
cathyx
Doug J’s, (or whatever his name is today), picture needs to go viral on the internet. That should do the trick to rally support for the movement.
Kat
Fixxored:
…our financial sector’s misrule of the American economy, and usurpation of the America’s democracy.
Kat
Fixxored again, since I don’t have permission to edit:
…our financial sector’s misrule of the American economy, and their usurpation of America’s democracy.
Ash Can
Why be coy? Just spell the word out. This is Balloon Juice, after all.
soyaki
#CainTrain says the protesters are orchestrated by Obama.
I point this out solely to use the hashtag, which I adore.
BGinCHI
Here’s a stat for you. From Maddow last night:
American Crossroads (Karl Rove’s group that funds GOP political causes and candidates) received 92% of their money (and that’s big money) from 3 men. 3. All billionaires.
That blows me away.
Sad_Dem
Poet Philip Levine heard a child say the poem’s title at a zoo:
http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/they_feed_they_lion.php
Spaghetti Lee
@soyaki:
Yes, protests in hundreds of cities across the world, all orchestrated by a guy with possibly less free time to do such things than anyone else in the world.
Do these people think when they open their mouths? Or is it just instinctual? Like when a normal person stubs their toe they say ‘fuck!’, but wingers blurt out “Obama! Acorn! Union Thugs!
Spaghetti Lee
@BGinCHI:
Hope they donate themselves bankrupt.
JD Rhoades
I wish I could find a decent video of Mojo Nixon’s “I Hate Banks” to link to….
The Dangerman
@soyaki:
So, would #Cain’sTrainedKeyboardKommandos be upset if the Tea Party protests were orchestrated by Dick’s Armey?
Liberty60
*shameless plug*
Speaking of MoveOn, we are also organizing a Week of Action next week from Oct 10-16, and formally joining with the Occupy events across the country.
Go to http://www.moveOn.org and enter your zip code to find the protest nearest you.
beltane
#CainTrain is funny, as funny as #TheHermanCain that I’ve been seeing a lot of.
Villago Delenda Est
@Spaghetti Lee:
Oooh! Oooh! I know the answer to this one!
NO!
beltane
The lede on All Things Considered this afternoon is that people on both sides of the Atlantic are protesting on account of “the uncertainty in Greece.” WTF NPR? Can’t you people come up with a lameass explanation that at least makes a little sense?
BGinCHI
@Spaghetti Lee: Lots of billions to go before that happens.
Let’s hope karma catches up with them sooner than later.
Svensker
@soyaki:
Cain also said he didn’t have the facts to back that up but he believed it anyway. Let’s vote him in as Prez asap!
piratedan
I think you people are being way too kind to simply end their myopicness with an efficient guillotine. For the kind of ebil that they have perpetrated upon ordinary Americans, how about making them live like one, budgeting which bills to pay from paycheck to paycheck. Observe their life savings being consumed by random increases of their credit card interest and spend hours a day with indifferent support people attempting to rectify the issue or even find out why it happened. Then that night they can live in fear and watch their youngsters get hurt, sick, ill and spend hours in the Er wondering one, if they’re covered to be treated and two, how they’re gonna pay for it, even with the deductibles. Let them suffer thru that for about 10 to 50 years and them have then die of consumption after being relocated to a box under the overpass for the last three months of their lives. At least, this will allow them the opportunity to perhaps reacquaint themselves with their humanity before they shuffle off.
AA+ Bonds
LAFF FOR THE DAY:
“What if Libertarians Ran Washington?” by John Stossel
John Stossel explains that the best way to run a society is like a skating rink, where “minimal” (?) rules keep, I don’t know, murder on ice from happening on the daily? People stealing each others’ kids?
Key to his argument are:
1) how the task of skating around and around in a circle is directly comparable to maintaining a complex, functioning society;
2) how skating rinks are, of course, exempt from all OTHER laws and regulations that govern the rest of society from the point where the ice begins
Man, I can’t wait to locate my local unregulated skating rink and just get the fuck out there on that ice! It will be like skating alone on a lake in Michigan during the thaw but with a slightly higher chance of catching a .22
BGinCHI
@beltane: Easier than analysis, I guess.
NPR, here is your homework: what is currently not functioning well in our capitalist economy in terms of wages and quality of life for the middle and lower classes?
It’s not magic, people, its research.
MikeJ
@BGinCHI: Last qtr they took in 6.6M. Jerry Perenchio living trust donated 2M. Robert B Rowling 1M. Bob J. Perry 2M. The remaining 39 donors ranged from $250 to a couple 100k.
Might be fun to google some of the names on that report.
BGinCHI
@AA+ Bonds: If libertarians ran DC and they got rid of lots of law and regs, I’m pretty sure beating the shit out of John Stossel would be on several people’s lists for an unregulated activity they would enjoy.
It would still leave plenty of time in the day for ice skating.
Cris (without an H)
@AA+ Bonds: Rollerball on Ice
Shinobi
This is the best video I’ve seen talking about why the protests exists and why they are necessary. It features the brilliant Prof. Warren.
Villago Delenda Est
@AA+ Bonds:
This is why, while I might be amenable to piratedan’s 18 for the perps of the top 1%, I’m sticking to rusty, unsharpened guillotines for the likes of Stossel.
I might add that, when the thaw hits, mother nature doesn’t give the slightest fucking care about your “rights” as a glibertarian/Randite ubermensch.
Villago Delenda Est
@AA+ Bonds:
It might also help Stossel’s understanding to play an MMO for a bit, say World of Warcraft, but any will do, and just observe how people operate in a virtual world, and why there are rules coded in to curb the enthusiasm of certain behaviors.
I’m not optimistic it will help much, though, because Stossel is paid very well not to get the point.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but latest outrage of Patriotic American Pam Geller: Secret Halal meat.
“Does this bagel make me look Jewish?”
maya
@AA+ Bonds: But what if I want to ice skate in a clockwise direction? With no regulations I should be at liberty to do so shouldn’t I? Now apply this same principle to NASCAR. Shazzam! Holy John Stossel on a stick, Batman.
BGinCHI
@maya: Obviously without regulations, the Cubs would have won many World Series by now.
I’m glad we finally figured all this out.
13th Generation
Even the liberal NPR ended their story this afternoon about the protests by letting us know that the 700 arrested last week was due to “their obstruction of the bridge.”
TooManyJens
@Liberty60: Enter my zip code where?
TooManyJens
@AA+ Bonds:
Guys like that think all problems are as simple as they are.
jl
@AA+ Bonds: maybe instead or ‘rink’ we say ‘drain’? Then, his vision of how society should work would be more plausible.
Sad_Dem
When beating John Stossel, be sure not to gag him, so that his faux-surprised utterances can flow unhindered.
“Ow! Do you know who I am?”
“Boy, does that ever hurt!”
Maude
The non violence gives the protest power.
The minute there is violence, the media would call them thugs, over and over again.
Violence toward a Wall Streeter would make that person a victim.
The Occupy group is growing and getting serious union support.
There doesn’t need to be a so called message.
The people are there, have been there and will continue to be there. That in itself is the message. Enough people are standing fast on a principle.
The 1% has another problem and that is Obama. They hate him because he didn’t kow tow to them. He won’t be on their side. They are used to presidents doing what they want.
Jenny
John Stossel actually got the shit kicked out of him by a WWF wrestler for being a punk. (Watch the clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrX9Ca7LSyQ
So what did the great libertarian critic of law suits do? He hired a dreaded trial lawyer and sued the corporation who employed the wrestler.
He’s a complete punk, and a self-hating gay man, to boot.
ericblair
@TooManyJens:
Guys like Stossel are just greedy fucks who don’t want to pay taxes. They likely know that libertarianism will make things much worse for the poor and unlucky, but figure they’ll make out fine since they’re so brilliant and all, and don’t give a shit what happens to anybody else except for the entertainment value of watching people suffer.
He started out doing the usual consumer news reports about drill bits in your Cheerios making your genitalia fall off and whatnot. Then he got successful and started in with the glibertarian nonsense. I believe he got asked why he didn’t do consumer segments anymore, and answered that he didn’t care about that kind of thing now that he had some money.
Shinobi
@Jenny: Hahahahah hahaha hahahahahahahahahaha hahahaha
That is the best freaking thing I’ve ever seen.
M31
Maude wrote: The 1% has another problem and that is Obama. They hate him because he didn’t kow tow to them.
Yeah, like when Obama took office and set up the Resolution Trust Corp that nationalized the insolvent banks, fired the directors, and the shareholders and bondholders lost all their money. They hated that.
No seriously, you’re kidding, right?
Linnaeus
@Jenny:
That, to be fair to Stossel, happened in his days of being a halfway decent consumer affairs reporter. He hadn’t yet gone glibertarian, at least not openly.
Linnaeus
@ericblair:
I remember reading something about Stossel’s emergence as a libertarian commentator, and it had a quote from him in which he said that what prompted him to do it was that he “liked the idea of making real money.”
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Fortunately, I say Occupy Wall Street would not have been possible without the actions and policies of fiercely far-seeing President Obama, so he should get the lion’s share of credit.
Who’s with me?
.
.
Maude
@M31:
When you come down from whatever you are on, I hope you feel well. You don’t sound so good.
I kid you not.
priscianusjr
@soyaki:
Scamp Dog
@M31: No, she’s serious. Obama did bail them out like you say, but he didn’t give them everything they want, and he doesn’t talk about how they’re the job creators and wealth producers that they think they are.
It’s not enough that they accumulate an ever-larger fraction of the nation’s wealth, they want 100% of the adoration as well.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Villago Delenda Est:
Ya, MMO’s that killed what little libertarianism was left in me. What people want to do if there was no laws would be to kill other people and rape the corpses.
Satanicpanic
@Jenny: I’m a bit ashamed at how happy seeing that makes me
Villago Delenda Est
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
A key element in the MMO is that you’re “someone else”. Your actions can’t be followed up on (you think) in the “real world”. People behave in ways toward others that they’d never dream of doing face to face, for fear of instant feedback that does not involve virtual pain, but very real pain.
People try to wave these things off as “it’s just a game” all the time, but some of the very obvious artificialities of the virtual world elude them. For example, that there is no “friendly fire” when talking on that boss mob. The reason that AOE (area of effect) attacks don’t work on friendlies like they do on bad guys in MMOs, unlike how they do IRL is that in MMOs, they’d be used to grief bystanders. IRL that’s what’s called “collateral damage”.
These sort of complications are not fun. Players of “America’s Army” actually complained that it didn’t seem “realistic” to them, after playing other first person shooters, when in fact, it was put together in an attempt to simulate the real thing. IRL, “boom headshot” is the norm. That doesn’t work very well in a game where you’re supposed to be having fun.
Rihilism
This. A million times this. At least the Galtian industrial titans of yore made money by producing useful goods or services (though, obviously, not always in the most socially conscience manner). Now, it seems that that aspect of capitalism is treated as an afterthought or even dismissed, as jobs and lives are trod upon in the rush to simply create wealth for wealth’s sake, and only for the wealthy…
Cap'n Magic
Here’s the $64 trillion dollar question: will those who oppose Wall Street put their time and money where their mouths are and start a real 3rd party effort, not beholden to those pols who sold them out and field a complete slate of candidates, rather than electing the political plutocrats infesting Washington?
Lurking Canadian
@Rihilism: I’ve read a couple of books about Wall Street recently. The one point with which one is continually hit in the face is that it’s just a game to these guys. The fact that there are actual companies employing actual people and producing actual goods and/or services underpinning all those securities is completely hidden. Their world consists of a set of time-varying functions and they try to guess what those functions’ derivatives are on a day-to-day basis. There is no connection to what most of us would consider “the economy”
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Lurking Canadian: Yeah, conversations with my nephew (VP for a Midwest investment firm) would confirm what you’re saying. When I politely asked what he liked about his job (besides the money): “It’s better than any game I’ve ever played.” Hm. I’ve spoken almost the identical words to my students about analyzing poetry, but I always forget how lame I am, despite students’ attempts to point this out to me regularly.
Brandon
Now that it is being officially co-opted by organs of the Democratic party, I am going to go out on a limb and say that today is the day OWS died. Who’s more scary to the establishment? A growing mass of non-politically affiliated young people demanding change or easily punched professional left hippies organizing to get a back row seat at policy making table in Washington? I hope Anonymous tell ’em to fook off. Young people want their own movement and certainly don’t want to serve as ground troops in support of Democratic policy goals. Progessives like to mock the conservative daddy fixation, all the calls for ‘clear policy goals’, ‘coalition forming’ and all that other bollox just signaled to me that Democrats seem to have a bit of their daddy issues as well. Democratic daddies a just a little different is all. In progressive organizing circles, they are just known as ‘gatekeepers’ instead. If any of these kids had gone to any of these institutions to propose this action, first they probably would never have talked to anyone more important than an intern and if they even got an audience with a decision makers, its 50/50 whether they would have been laughed out of the room or just rushed out with an impossible laundry list of conditions precedent to earn their involvement. These ‘gatekeepers’ cannot allow anyone on the left to successfully organize without them, hence the co-opting of the movement which will surely result in its imminent demise. Before now the media didn’t know what to do about it because it defied easy labels. Now they’ve got union thugs to demonize and MoveOn hippies to punch. Game over.
gbear
The movement has failed because it is becoming popular. Brandon, unless that was snark, you’re a moron.
Brandon
@gbear It is endlessly fascinating to me how quick folks are to resort to name calling when they find an argument that they don’t agree with. FWIW, the issue is not ‘popularity’ the issue is co-option. If you had ever had any experience in organizing, you would know that the easiest way to lead a nascent, but energized movement to a rapid demise is its co-option by outside organizations that have their own agendas. As long as these groups keep an arms length support relationship to OWS, they could certainly help propel the movement forward. But I have my doubts that they can help themselves. Particularly as folks like Feingold are rubbing their hands at the prospect of having their own brown shirt Tea Party army. We could get into more detail if you like, about disillusionmentt of the youth with establishment institutions and so forth, but I don’t see a reason to bother so long as you don’t understand the pitfalls of protests that follow the traditional playbook and the strategies that effectively defuse that core seed of grievance that provides the fuel.
wilfred
I think Brandon is spot on. The moment the movement took hold efforts to co-opt it. Established party-politic fronts like organized labor will certainly try to ‘kettle’ the movement to serve their own needs.
This movement is about class consciousness, not party politics or agenda issues. A lot of the rank and file of New York City unions are socially conservative people, the cops for example, who identify with the 99% on a class basis and not on the usual grab bag of Democratic party issues.
The marvel of this movement is that emerged from genuine political consciousness, not the usual tastes great/less filling politics of the two party system.
lol chikinburd
Oh, absolutely…and the same can be said of the Wisconsin protests, which became empty exercises in co-optation once the organized-labor parasites glommed onto it. Like the Madison teachers’ union and the UW grad-student TAs, who in fact started the protests in the first place. And the 14 Democratic senators — get outta here with that party-politic shit!
Certainly the outcome would have been better if too-indie-rock-for-electoral-politics hipsterism would have prevailed in Madison instead. No useless recall outcomes, no further exposure of corruption, just pure, nutritious heightening of the contradictions.
Brandon
Wasn’t the raison d’etre of the WI protests to maintain the right for collective bargaining? I would guess in that case it would be vitally important for unions to be at the forefront of that protest for it to have any legitimacy at all. Kind of an odd example to use to refute my concerns regarding co-option of OWS, which at its core is about securing the present and future of the country’s young people which is currently being sacrificed at the altar of Wall Street. Needless to say, those are two very disparate issues necessitating two very disparate responses. At this point I am going to give up, but I will retain my hoocoodanode rights for future benefit.
Rihilism
@Lurking Canadian:
This is certainly my impression, as well as the idea that the rewards that might come from “playing the game” are privatized while the risks are socialized. I’m not clear how such a system can be made sustainable…
Paul in KY
@Jenny: Boy, did I like that. Thanks for posting it.
bjacques
@Rihilism:
That problem of a single industry sucking the air out of the rest of the economy has a name: <A HREF="The Dutch Disease. In the 1960s, the Dutch discovered natural gas under the North Sea, and it brought in so much money that it lured workers away from manufacturing and into the service sector (I guess there was more money to spend). Basically, gold rush economies.
In the US (and in the UK) we also had an extractive industry–drilling for housing equity. That’s why states like abolished their homestead laws in the 1990s. In Texas, until the late 1990s, a second mortgage only had legal standing for (1) home improvement, (2) refinancing a previous mortgage, or (3) to pay catastrophic medical bills. (And believe me, I took advantage of that; I’d wisely co-signed a balloon note on what ought to have been a no-interest loan, and I paid 5 years of interest that added up to the original capital, so then I walked.)
After the dotcom bust and 9/11, “cash in the attic” looked like prosperity, especially with Bush & Co. cooking the books on Iraq and Afghanistan. Banks and developers (Hi, Mr. Trump! ) led the way, and idiots flipped mortgages–“I’m Tom Vu. Come to my seminar”(ok, this was earlier)–one house at a time. It made the dollar look mighty and, on the individual level, it made you look like a chump if you weren’t in the game.
But we (and the UK) went the Dutch one better. The bankers pumped up the equity until it had the volume to substance ratio of aerogel. At least, that financial disaster of 1720 in the picture I linked to only hit people stupid enough to buy in (or buy in late), like the tulip fanciers before them; this one has hit everyone, whether they played or not.
Ordinary Greeks are pissed because they went to a banquet with very rich friends, dined on good roast chicken while the friends had lobster Newburg and caviar, and then got the bill for all of it.
Mad? Why should we be mad?