With U.S. cities moving this week to crack down on Occupy Wall Street encampments – including the one in New York’s Zuccotti Park – the staying power of the movement is in question. Whatever its future, it’s clear that so far, the Occupiers haven’t changed many minds on Wall Street over blame for the country’s hard times. The cognitive disconnect between the protesters and the captains of finance is alive and well.
David Mooney, chief executive officer of Alliant Credit Union in Chicago, one of the nation’s larger credit unions, used to work at one of Wall Street’s top banks, JPMorgan Chase. There’s a vast cultural gap between Wall Street and his new world, he says: Old friends from the Street, he says, now jokingly refer to him as a “socialist.” A credit union is supposed to be run in the interests of all members, he says, while commercial bankers tend to see consumers as customers who can be “exploited” by layering on more fees.
Insight: The Wall Street disconnect | Reuters
19 NovFort of the 1%
13 Nov
I’ve had a vision, and in that vision the last of the 1% end up in this little fort nestled in the swamp grass in Liberty State Park. And then an itty bitty asteroid crashes into the harbor and they’re swamped. Which suits the ducks and herons just fine.
The Inequality Map – NYTimes.com
11 NovThis is an amusing piece by David Brooks. As you can see, it takes the form of advice to a foreigner about what kinds of inequality are acceptably displayed in America and what kinds must be hidden. On a quick read the advice appears to be reasonable. And so Brooks opens:
Foreign tourists are coming up to me on the streets and asking, “David, you have so many different kinds of inequality in your country. How can I tell which are socially acceptable and which are not?”
After cruising through this that and the other, Brooks gets to the what surely is the heart of the piece:
Income inequality is acceptable. If you are a star baseball player, it is socially acceptable to sell your services for $25 million per year (after all, you have to do what’s best for your family). If you are a star C.E.O., it’s no longer quite polite to receive an $18 million compensation package, but everybody who can still does it
That, of course, is NOT what the Occupy Wallstreeters are saying. Notice how he defuses the issue. His first and primary example is that of a star athlete. Everyone knows the best of the best get paid outlandish sums of money, and everyone knows THAT’s not what’s being protested. It’s the corporate CEOs—thanks for mentioning one, David—and bankers. And what’s bothersome is not simply the huge sums of money, but the sense that it’s not earned. What’s bothersome is that these folks have distorted the system so they get piles and piles of loot without really earning it. But then, Brooks doesn’t want us to think about THAT, does he? No the whole purpose of this piece is to make us forget that.
Then more examples of this and that until Brooks reaches his acceptably bland conclusion:
Dear visitor, we are a democratic, egalitarian people who spend our days desperately trying to climb over each other. Have a nice stay.
That is, just business as usual. NOT. Business as usual is NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE. Deal with it, Mr. David “Flim Flam Man” Brooks. And have a nice day.
End Bonuses for Bankers – NYTimes.com
9 NovNassim Nicholas “Black Swan” Speaks:
Any person who works for a company that, regardless of its current financial health, would require a taxpayer-financed bailout if it failed should not get a bonus, ever. In fact, all pay at systemically important financial institutions — big banks, but also some insurance companies and even huge hedge funds — should be strictly regulated.
Critics like the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators decry the bonus system for its lack of fairness and its contribution to widening inequality. But the greater problem is that it provides an incentive to take risks. The asymmetric nature of the bonus (an incentive for success without a corresponding disincentive for failure) causes hidden risks to accumulate in the financial system and become a catalyst for disaster. This violates the fundamental rules of capitalism; Adam Smith himself was wary of the effect of limiting liability, a bedrock principle of the modern corporation.
Occupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics – NYTimes.com
9 NovUnion leaders, who were initially cautious in embracing the Occupy movement, have in recent weeks showered the protesters with help — tents, air mattresses, propane heaters and tons of food. The protesters, for their part, have joined in union marches and picket lines across the nation. About 100 protesters from Occupy Wall Street are expected to join a Teamsters picket line at the Sotheby’s auction house in Manhattan on Wednesday night to back the union in a bitter contract fight.
Labor unions, marveling at how the protesters have fired up the public on traditional labor issues like income inequality, are also starting to embrace some of the bold tactics and social media skills of the Occupy movement.
via Occupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics – NYTimes.com.
Bloomberg Says Some Protesters’ Issues Are Unfounded – NYTimes.com
8 NovAsked about the passions that fire the Occupy Wall Street crowds, Mr. Bloomberg gave an oh-puhleeze purse of his lips. Some complaints, he said, are “totally unfounded.”
“It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis,” he said. “It was, plain and simple, Congress, who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp.”
Few of us can easily transcend our class and cultural context. But as a city and a nation are riveted by the 99 percent, Mr. Bloomberg often sounds like a man trapped in his 1 percent golden roost.
Actually, with his billions, it’s more like 1% of 1% of 1%. Whereas those poor Cengressional suckers are only in the 1%, or, in some cases, the 1% of 1%. So I guess it’s class warfare between the 1% and the .01%
Maybe if these guys get into a good fight some spare change will fall from their pockets and we can use it to house the homeless.
via Bloomberg Says Some Protesters’ Issues Are Unfounded – NYTimes.com.
The radicals have grey hair: 47 senior citizens arrested today in Chicago protest against cuts |
8 NovFrom today 11/7: Jane Addams Senior Caucus staged a sit-in to protest social security and medicare cuts in alliance with Occupy Chicago. 47 senior citizens were arrested – 3 of which were in wheelchairs, according to Occupy Chicago’s tweets. Their action was outside the offices of Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk.
“Many older women, especially older women of color, would suffer the brunt of these cuts…Senator Durbin and Senator Kirk need to hear that seniors are the members of the 99% and have something to say about this issue and these programs.”-Mary Burns, leader of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, in a statement, according to NBC Chicago
via The radicals have grey hair: 47 senior citizens arrested today in Chicago protest against cuts |.
Can OWS end America’s war against the poor? – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com
7 NovNow, in what seems like no time at all, the fog has lifted and the topic on the table everywhere seems to be the morality of contemporary financial capitalism. The protestors have accomplished this mainly through the symbolic power of their actions: by naming Wall Street, the heartland of financial capitalism, as the enemy, and by welcoming the homeless and the down-and-out to their occupation sites. And of course, the slogan “We are the 99 percent” reiterated the message that almost all of us are suffering from the reckless profiteering of a tiny handful. (In fact, they aren’t far off: the increase in income of the top 1 percent over the past three decades about equals the losses of the bottom 80 percent.)
via Can OWS end America’s war against the poor? – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.
The myth of the progressive city – Media Criticism – Salon.com
7 NovThough Taibbi was writing about Bloomberg specifically, his words aptly sum up what the American cityscape has become — yet more scorched earth in the successful assault of Limousine Liberals and Crony Corporatists on Lunch-Pail Liberals and Progressive Populists. In political terms, it represents the broader success of the transpartisan moneyed class in fully redefining “liberal” exclusively as “social-issue liberal” — without regard for economic agenda.
via The myth of the progressive city – Media Criticism – Salon.com.
Gates offers G20 a lesson in philanthropy – The Globe and Mail
6 NovIt’s nice the Bill Gates is devoting all this time and money to good works. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t also be a self-important arrogant dorkwad!
To confront the concerns of protesters who call themselves “the 99 per cent,” the G20 decided to invite a member of the 0.000000001 per cent.
Mr. Gates laughed at this comparison, but had little time for the new inequality protests.
“Good old Occupy Wall Street! I will certainly be glad to print up signs for them if they want to hold them up saying ‘More bed nets!’, ‘More vaccines!’, ‘More agricultural research!’ ” Mr. Gates said. “I’ve never met any of these people … but I haven’t seen them holding any banners speaking up on behalf of the world’s poorest.”
Mr. Gates was invited because he has a reputation for getting things done: His foundation played a key role in getting the African AIDS crisis under control, and was the key actor behind the successful development of vaccines against meningitis and malaria.
via Gates offers G20 a lesson in philanthropy – The Globe and Mail.
Truth and Traditions 