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He Made It on Wall St. and Used It to Help Start Protests – NYTimes.com

17 Oct

But Mr. Halper, a 52-year-old Brooklyn native, never reveals two facts about himself: he is a former vice chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange and the largest single donor to the nonprofit magazine that ignited the Occupy Wall Street movement.

“The whole thing is very surreal to me — the fact that I spent my whole career right across the street,” he said in an interview last week on a marble bench near the park. “It makes me a little anxious, to tell you the truth. It could go anywhere. I just pray that it ends peaceful.”

via He Made It on Wall St. and Used It to Help Start Protests – NYTimes.com.

The recession that never left – U.S. Economy – Salon.com

17 Oct

On Monday, Citigroup reported its seventh consecutive quarterly profit, registering $3.8 billion in net revenue, a 74 percent increase over its numbers a year ago. CEO Vikram Pandit has been well-rewarded for the post-bailout turnaround — in May, Citigroup’s board gave him a $23.2 million “retention package” of stock options and cash payments.

Meanwhile, Gallup reports that its Basic Access Index — a measurement of how many Americans can afford “basic life necessities” — fell back in September to the lowest point registered during the depths of the recession.

via The recession that never left – U.S. Economy – Salon.com.

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A State of Nature

17 Oct

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Occupy Economics, and the Sustainable Finance Lab — Crooked Timber

17 Oct

in the Netherlands a very interesting initiative started a few weeks ago (independent of Occupy Wall Street, but obviously not independent of the same global problems in the financial sector): the Sustainable Finance Lab. It’s an initiative by an eclectic group of academics, mostly economists (some more mainstream, some more heterodox), and one small ‘green’ bank (Triodos), to bring together people interests in debating what the real problems are with the financial sector and what needs to be changed. … it’s been very, very interesting – in fact, on issues of economics I haven’t seen anything as interesting so close to home for a long time, and that’s probably because people who normally don’t speak to each other are sitting in the same room and sharing their views. Bankers, academics, students, ex-investment bankers, journalists—they all share their views in a respectful atmosphere, but it’s clear they do not quite have the same perception of how urgent change is needed, and indeed what type of change is needed, or what the causes of the problems are.

via Occupy Philosophy, Occupy Economics, and the Sustainable Finance Lab — Crooked Timber.

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Amazing Charts Show How 90% Of The Country Has Gotten Shafted Over The Past 30 Years…

16 Oct

Basically, the charts show that, starting in the early 1980s, a 60-year trend changed, and most of the country’s wealth gains started going to the top 10% of the population. In other words, the charts show how 90% of the country has gotten shafted over the past 30 years, and especially over the past 10.

via Amazing Charts Show How 90% Of The Country Has Gotten Shafted Over The Past 30 Years….

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A Push to Return Transit Manufacturing to New York – NYTimes.com

16 Oct

At the conference, John Samuelsen, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, who eight days later would deliver a rousing speech at the Occupy Wall Street protest on behalf of working families, made the simple but meaningful case that people using the transit system should be the people making the transit system. “We have the talent to do to this; we have full-blown engineers now doing signal work because they can’t find jobs,” he said.

via A Push to Return Transit Manufacturing to New York – NYTimes.com.

The Bankers Don’t Get It!

15 Oct

The alpha monkeys are playing dumb. If they’d studied evolutionary psychology they’d know that equality is in our blood. The protests are not going to stop.

Writing for The New York Times, Nelson Schwartz and Eric Dash report:

“Most people view it as a ragtag group looking for sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll,” said one top hedge fund manager.

“It’s not a middle-class uprising,” adds another veteran bank executive. “It’s fringe groups. It’s people who have the time to do this.”

Well of course they have time, you fool, you destroyed their jobs playing king of the hill with their pension fund money, their 401K money, and their mortgages! Here’s another one of these self-deluded buffoons!

“Who do you think pays the taxes?” said one longtime money manager. “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it. If you want to keep having jobs outsourced, keep attacking financial services. This is just disgruntled people.”

Well, do YOU pay taxes? Warren Buffett says he pays at a lower rate than his secretary. What about you? And just what do you mean this country does financial services well? You guys just blew up the WELL three years ago! What you do well, very well, is get the government to pay you for all the destruction you’ve wrought!

This Midas goes on to say:

He added that he was disappointed that members of Congress from New York, especially Senator Charles E. Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, had not come out swinging for an industry that donates heavily to their campaigns. “They need to understand who their constituency is,” he said.

Yep, that’s it! He bought the government and he wants it to stay bought. And I’ll just bet that Schumer and Gillibrand want to stay bought, too. Maybe that’s why this chump was talking to a Times reporter, so he could get in a shout out to his homies/lackies in Congress, reminding them to keep in their place and mind their betters.

“Wall Street continues to underestimate the degree of anger among citizens and voters,” said Douglas J. Elliott, a former investment banker who is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. For the most part, bankers say that they see the protests as a reaction to the high unemployment and slow growth that has plagued the American economy since the recession and the financial crisis of 2008. Despite all the placards and chants plainly indicating otherwise, some bankers suggest that deep down, the protesters are not really all that mad at them.

Well, of course they’re mad about not having jobs. But anger over jobs has reminded us of something that goes deeper than that, much much deeper.  These guys are out of touch; they don’t have a clue. Continue reading →

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Welcome to the food justice movement – Grist – Salon.com

14 Oct

Consciously modeled on the Freedom Rides of the 1960s civil rights movement, the Food Rides aim to shine a light on issues of “food justice” — a catchall term that focuses on “ecological and community revitalization and reorganization” as it relates to diet and agriculture. Julio’s workplace travails represented a kind of food injustice — part of a larger system that deepens racial and class divisions, contributes to surging rates of obesity and diabetes, and weakens the traditional relationship between farmers and the land across the globe.

via Welcome to the food justice movement – Grist – Salon.com.

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Percentiles — Crooked Timber

14 Oct

I’m now much more sympathetic to the ‘99 per cent’ analysis. First, a closer look at income growth figures suggests that, while the 19 per cent have enjoyed rising incomes, they’ve only barely maintained their share of national income. The redistribution of the past three decades has gone from the bottom 80 per cent to the top 1 per cent.

That suggests the possibility of a policy response in which the main redistributive thrust would be to reverse this process. This would almost certainly involve higher tax payments, but this would be offset by the restoration of public services, which are in economic terms a ‘superior good’, valued more as income rises. The top 1 per cent can buy their own services, and are largely unaffected by public sector cutbacks, but that’s not true of the 19 per cent.

Another important factor is the growth of economic insecurity. The myth of the US as a land of opportunity for upward mobility has been replaced by Barbara Ehrenreich’s Fear of Falling (another good source on this is High Wire by Peter Gosselin). Even if people in the top 19 per cent are doing well, they are less secure than at any time since the 1930s, and their children face even more uncertain prospects.

via Percentiles — Crooked Timber.

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Permaculture, a Beginners Guide

14 Oct

“Permaculture offers a radical approach to food production and urban renewal, water, energy and pollution. It integrates ecology, landscape, organic gardening, architecture and agro-forestry in creating a rich and sustainable way of living. It uses appropriate technology giving high yields for low energy inputs, achieving a resource of great diversity and stability. The design principles are equally applicable to both urban and rural dwellers” – Bill Mollison

via Permaculture, a Beginners Guide.

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