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PhD Economists and Economic Professors Call For Protests
You know that the government and the giant banks are not
being responsive to the needs of the economy and the American people
when even PhD economists and economics professors are calling for
protests.
Indeed, many top experts and even politicians say that
the American political system has suffered almost total regulatory
capture, where Wall Street calls the shots. See this, this, this, this, and this.
As respected financial commentator Yves Smith points out,
PhD economist Dean Baker, economics professor William K. Black and
others are helping to organize peaceful protests outside of the annual
meeting of the American Association of Bankers.
Smith notes:
If you saw Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, a disconcerting bit was
his discussion of a series of research reports put out by Citigroup for some of
its asset management client in 2005 on “Plutonomy”. It argued that a world
ordered
to suit the whims of the top 1% was well underway. The only thing that
might get in the way was that the other 99% had the force of numbers on
its side.
Sometimes it takes a show of numbers to change the dynamic. As Baker pointed out:
The
elites hate to acknowledge it, but when large numbers of ordinary
people are moved to action, it changes the narrow political world where
the elites call the shots. Inside accounts reveal the extent to which
Johnson and Nixon’s conduct of the Vietnam War was constrained by the
huge anti-war movement. It was the civil rights movement, not
compelling arguments, that convinced members of Congress to end legal
racial discrimination. More recently, the townhall meetings, dominated
by people opposed to health care reform, have been a serious roadblock
for those pushing reform….
A big turnout at this event can make a real difference.
Baker is correct about Vietnam.
Specifically, in a little known fact, Nixon was considering using nuclear weapons in Vietnam (and see this).
At
that time, Nixon was also repeatedly publicly saying that he didn't
care what the American people thought about Vietnam, and that he was
going to escalate the war anyway. However, according to a biography by
a well-known historian, when Nixon saw hundreds of thousands of
protesters on TV, he dropped his secret plan for nuking Vietnam.
Remember, Nixon dropped those plans even though he said he didn't care what people thought.
Indeed, this has happened repeatedly throughout history whenever people have been willing to stand up. The Ukranian people stood up to tyranny and won. The East German people stood up to tyranny and won. The people of the Philippines, Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Indonesia
and other countries around the world have won against tyranny whenever
ordinary people have poured into the streets in massive numbers and
demanded freedom.
Note: Any
websites publicizing this or any other protest should have web readers
click an "I Agree" button promising to be peaceful before they are
taken to the web page giving specifics about when and where the protest
will occur.
Everyone attending a protest should sign
written pledges in advance to be peaceful and not use any violence
under any circumstance.
Everyone
should dress nicely for protests. As Yves Smith says: "Dress nicely!
One favorite strategy is to dismiss protestors as ruffians.".
Everyone
should also bring cellphone cameras or videocameras. If police turn
violent or use agents provocateur to incite violence, we film it all,
and broadcast it worldwide on the web. That would make the government
look really, really bad.
If you see anyone trying to incite violence, have a group of people escort them away from the protest.
Focus on this:
No more pay to play.
Public funded elections. no donation from any one individual to any candidate for federal office to exceed $2000. Donations to legislators, or any federal official either elected or appointed, from any source except a private individual will constitute graft.
National Strike day April 9, 2010.
March on Washington April 10, 2010.
There it is folks. Start posting it to as many places as you can.
Michael Moore,
Zero Hedge
Simon Johnson,
Paul Krugman,
Karl Denninger,
Rep. Dennis Kucinich,
Rep. Raul Grijalva,
Rep. Marcy Kaptur
Rep. Ron Paul
Sen. Russ Finegold,
Sen Al Franken,
Ariana Huffington
Bill Moyers,
Katrina vanden Heuvel.
And I'm sure you can think of others who would have something to say on this theme.
Nothing is louder than silence and total lack of
movement....
If the majority of Americans did this .....it WOULD work....
And here is the cause....
A 10% Consumption tax only for the states
A 5% Consumption tax FED
The states vote per district on how the money is spent....
No other taxes....
This will work....
SOS!!!
Save us from the FINANCIAL OLIGARCHS and our Government that is now effectively CAPTURED!!
Change will only come when the people get off their asses and into the STREETS.
Lets do this.
It's not going to be revolution. It's going to be picking up the pieces after the other shoe drops. Currently we are somewhere between the window and the sidewalk. Between the towers getting hit and falling. When the dust settles, it's not going to be a question of fixing, but rebuilding.
Agree with posts 103275 and 103213. What exactly are you protesting? Why are banks suppose to be "responsive to the needs of the economy??" What does that mean? They are in business to make money. The deal is they get to collect government insured deposits in exchange for paying deposit insurance premiums and living with a gazillion regulations and balance sheet ratios. They have no duty to lend or not lend or be "repsonsive" to the economy.
If you do not like the support government has handed out to the banks, your protest should be at the Capitol or White House, not the bankers' converntion. This appears to be just more leftist, corporate bashing along with a growing list of other evil corporations - pharma companies, insurance companies, WalMart, defense contractors, etc.....
Banks, you say, "are in business to make money." Willie Sutton was in business to make money.
Banks are not just another business. They are handlers of the currency, and in the case of the investment-bank controlled Fed, they are the deciders of the currency’s value.
"Give me control of a nation’s money supply and I care not who makes its laws.” --Mayer Amschel Rothschild
"All the perplexities, confusions and distresses in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, as much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." John Adams
I sincerely believe that - if the people are made to UNDERSTAND the nature of our system - they will, politely or otherwise, return control of this country to its rightful owners. I don't know how to do that, but we need to find a way.
“What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a manly and glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” -- SAMUEL ADAMS: 1776
A broad-based awakening of the sheeple requires an event or series of events that will shatter their illusions. A chronic high rate of joblessness is one such event. With Nam, it was about the senseless slaughter of 58,000 sons, brothers, nephews and friends.
Personally, I feel the "event" this time will be about the public and private sector pension funds. They are inextricably linked to the hip of these government bailouts and endorsed coverups by the banksters. It is a sad fact that the truth about the fair value of their investments today....not their expectations......would be a revolutionary shocker .
not to mention 8 million vietnamese people whose only crime was that they wanted us to leave their country....does this sound familiar? isn't it about time to take the advice of george washington to heart and quit sticking our noses in other people's business?
This is what we need - demonstrations and peaceful protest on a wide scale. It can be done. For those of us in the Northeast, I keep thinking a march on 85 Broad on a weekday, in enough numbers to clog the subways and arteries, demanding our AIG money back, would be a good start. Lloyd would not be happy. And I agree those in the blogosphere such as Ms. Creant noted could be a powerful voice in organizing and promoting the effort. But I am viewing it as my civic duty to show up somewhere and cheer right along with the others who are gathered to save us from the oligarchs.
Did we give up after Hitler bombed Pearl Harbor?
HELL NO!!!
Ned, I hope you mistake re: Hitler bombing Pearl Harbor was intended as scarcasm.
Anyone planning to march on 85 Broad might want to review a recent video (sorry, I didn't save the link) showing the command center to monitor and protect Lower Manhantan from terrorist attacks.
did we give up after hitler bombed pearl harbor?
que?
police and army ready to revolt?
http://www.lvrj.com/news/oath-keepers-pledges-to-prevent-dictatorship-in...
Whaddya going to protest? Poverty? Excess margin?
Gimme a break! Ten people will show up. Nobody else will be able to find a place to park.
The PhD's are frustrated, nobody is listening to them. Who cares? The PhD's want something that is unpalatable to the general public; greater grounding of finance means an intense depression and collapse of the finance system itself. The latter is unpalatable to the establishment: there are no other American products such as finance instruments that cost so little to make and have such overwhelming international cachet.
I doubt anyone here who trades for a living would agree to halve their income ... for the 'good of the country' or any other reason.
In time, the onrunning of the current energy crisis will render finance's insiders irrelevant and the the public's desperation palpable. Then, you will have your revolution, a revolution for and about nothing, based on nothing and tending toward nothing. Nobody will wear a necktie for this revolution, either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40&feature=player_embedded
traitorous malatto ceding america's sovereignty. i am sorry but what else can you call someone who is doing such things? how long america? how long must we wait until you wake up? things are happening fast now. the days of talking are over now. at least for us. what has been done cannot be undone. there are enemies within our midst, domestic enemies that must be dealt with severely....
Was there ever a peaceful revolution? I think that time has passed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_revolution#List_of_nonviolent_revolutions_by_era
Revolution is not so much a function of the base rising, as it is of the structure collapsing. Safe to say, the ones running the show are usually the primary cause of that, as they hollow out the foundations to stuff more gold fixtures in the penthouse. What is necessary is to develop a coherent and logical model to replace it. This gives people something to gravitate toward, rather than just focusing on what is no longer working. As long as that large number of people who still support them out of fear for their safety feel there is no alternative, they will work to prop up the old system. Give them an alternative and that would be the most effective way to bring down this kleptocracy.
Ellen Brown has been the most prominent in promoting a public banking system. The fact is that since money is effectively guaranteed by the tax base, that makes it a public utility and the next step is developing a public banking system. Political power started as private influence and eventually evolved into monarchy, with a supporting top down religious model, but the bottom up process of democracy has prevailed in the political arena. Top down theology has about run its course(The source would be the essence from which we rise, not an ideal from which we fell.), so along with this evolutionary process, we need to develop banking as a public trust. The democratic model would suggest local public banking as the foundation, with regional banking a function of these local banks being the shareholders and the regional banks as overseers to a national bank that would be responsible for a national currency. It should not be the only legal medium of exchange either, because if people understand that money is the public utility it is, they will be more careful about transferring value into any one currency, so other mediums, from natural good will to local currencies, would create a far more resilient and localized economy. Then a global economy would have this solid foundation on which to (re)build.
The last page of the Fed playbook says
-repudiate the debt, rip it up and start again *-
(Then what.......?)
* but look after our special insider friends first.
The people better unite and protest quickly, I feel very strongly that the DHS apparatus is really for controlling the population. The elite know they are losing their grip because of the internet and a great awakening, and they may respond dramatically.
"The two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can 'throw the rascals out' at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy." Carroll Quigley (historian for the Powers That Be), Tragedy and Hope
"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaeda. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign (see "The Power of Nightmares") to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US . . ."-- Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
My biggest concern is fake global warming, fake global terrorism, and now a questionable swine flu being used to terrorize populations into giving up their liberty for the sake of an illusion of security. I am concerned regarding some combination of: economic collapse, bank closings, and flu pandemic. Will the people cry out save us from the fear of the unknown!
Massachusetts has just signed a mandatory swine flu vaccination law and they have bracelets with RFID chips in them for those that take the shot. Your body is the last frontier of freedom, note that members of the German army (for foreign missions?) just received a version of the vaccination without mercury and the other additives that can cause nervous system problems (see project mayhem post on this).
I am posting this a lot of places. Forgive me. You will see this is good spam.
Could the bloggers get together to do something? Mish, Karl, Zerohedge, etc. without ego, posturing, look at me? Just do it, in unison, at a particular time, and rock the blogosphere? Make such a collective uproar that the Mainstream press cannot ignore it?
It would take some time to organize (not much). It may be a statement you all can agree upon. On that day, you publish that statement and nothing else for the day. AS MANY OF YOU AS YOU CAN GET ON BOARD.
The next step would be something the likes of us who lurk and post on these blogs would do in unison. Phone, fax, and email bomb, the statement to the media (letters to the editor, post on MSM blogs, comments) faxes and letters to the white house and congress.
Maybe we even take a day off from work to do it.
This is something that could be done. It could be massive. Bigger than any tea party. This is the age of the net. Lets bring the fight to them electronically.
Come on....
P. Schiff, too! Maybe even Ron Paul would say something. Lew Rockwell.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." —Henry Ford
Let's get this thing started.
+1
the ABA protest in Chicago is a start. continued, relentless pressure from the internet is a must.
what's needed is a unifying theme to bring all together ala the "where's the beef" wendy's ad.
"Stop the Bubble"
"Save Bucky"
"don't feed the Fed"
need a unifying phrase that is generic and hits the tipping point. I like stop the bubble.
DH,
I think this is actually the sticking point, what should the focused message be. It needs to be something that most of the general public can understand. IT NEEDS TO BE SOMETHING THAT SCARES THE GOVERNMENT. What would be scary is that they see the unity. I think there are a lot of folks who want something to happen, but we don't see a way to do it.
Each blog is a resistance cell. Many of us cruise many of these blogs so we kind of belong to more than one cell. It needs to be simple, not complex.
The message would, IMO, need to say something like,
Stop the Rape of America, or Else.
You did not listen to us when we asked you not to do the bailouts, even though the communications were 100 to 1 against, in some congressional offices 300-1 against. Unemployment is at 9.8%. Our jobs are being shipped overseas. The value of our homes and dollars are rapidly depreciating. Fraud is running rampant on Wallstreet. All because you won't do your job enforcing the regulations currently on the books. All because you listen more to paid lobbists, than us, the American people, who pay your salary and give you the position you enjoy. Stop the Rape of America now.
We demand that the books of every bank and every other financial institution be open for auditing. We demand to know the truth about the value of assets each instituion is keeping on their books.
We demand the truth now. There is no reason to hide, distort, or otherwise conceal the health of our financial system.
As I type that, there are too many ideas running through it. I wonder if simply demanding that all the books be open for inspection, is the message? What do you think?
Please see my strong encouragement and support that this idea be adopted--posted on the Hedgefundgate thread.
This is an easily achievable idea that could really gain some momentum and start to make a difference.
Brilliant, overload the system with a focused message in compressed time. I too understand that we are all standing in the shadows longing for real change, and if we could only find a way to channel that effectively, all of our voices would change the world. With Congressional approval at record lows (13%?) we are all on the same page.
The elites are extremely organized at the top and act in collusion, we the people need to do the same to free ourselves from oppression and ensure we keep the republic.
I would add billboards and posters to the electronic message. Might I also add, I wish the core commentators here lived in the same city so we could attend events with like minded individuals and meet some of the greatest minds.
Apocalypse Now (A.N.)
may I humbly add to your fine suggestions, SPAM the hell out of MSM so when they play dumb, out going logs will show other wise or better yet let them show us their traffic logs...eh.
Many other blogs have been posting these same ideas of peaceful protests . Outdoor concerts and underground newspapers were the enlightening force in the 1960s anti war movement . The internet Blog ,undoubtedly, will be hailed for the impetus to ACTION by its citizens . It certainly won't be the MSM .
Dear Pondi
I'm sorry. Due to your Carbon Footprint you may only access the Internet after paying your Indulgence to Generational Investment Management. We appreciate your concern for the environment. Please forward your credit card details to a Goldman Sux office near you.
regards
(it will happen. use it while it lasts)
the protest model to adapt is the populist movement.
from http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/Late19thCe...
"Half a century ago, scholars such as Richard Hofstadter portrayed the Populist movement as an irrational response of backward-looking farmers to the challenges of modernity. Since then, the romantic notion of Populism as the resistance movement of tradition-based and pre-modern communities to a modern and commercial society has prevailed. In a broad, innovative reassessment, based on a deep reading of archival sources, The Populist Vision argues that the Populists understood themselves as--and were in fact--modern people, who pursued an alternate vision for modern America.
Taking into account both the leaders and the led, The Populist Vision uses a wide lens, focusing on the farmers, both black and white, men and women, while also looking at wager workers and bohemian urbanites. From Texas to the Dakotas, from Georgia to California, farmer Populists strove to use the new innovations for their own ends. They sought scientific and technical knowledge, formed highly centralized organizations, launched large-scale cooperative businesses, and pressed for reforms on the model of the nation's most elaborate bureaucracy - the Postal Service. Hundreds of thousands of Populist farm women sought education, employment in schools and offices, and a more modern life. Miners, railroad workers, and other labor Populists joined with farmers to give impetus to the regulatory state."
I've attended some rallys and let my reps know my position. I'm armed with the truth and my most powerful weapon that can't be taken is my vote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40
your once precious vote is ferkin worthless.
regards.
you're vote is gone defacto and will be gone
dejure in a very short period of time....
i can only hope that the streets fill with protest
sooner than later...
Any reference to Michael Moore in support of one's position is a losing argument.
Not so. Many of his remarks about the current financial monopoly orchestrated by Robert Rubin, Lrry Summers, Greenspan, Lord Blankfein at Goldman Sucks, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, and Dick Fuld at the late Lehman Bros, and several gluttonus others is, if anything, tame.
The only difference I have with him is in the use of the word Capitalism in his title. What has been happening on Wall Street and it's incestuous, perverted relationship with the Treasury, the FED and the SEC is not Capitalism, not even remotely. To attempt to indict the greatest financial model the world has ever known because of what a thousand well-connected and wholly despicable men have done to hi-jack it, morph it and obliterate its countless benefits (which should be treason) is a huge mistake, an error on his part.
He is hammering on a financial model, but either doesn't understand Capitalism or has used it as a title because it's convenient, inflammatory and garners ticket sales.
Not so. He is to be admired for taking a stand against the 'American Dream' myth.
no....as a former moore hater i can say that he
has a better understanding of the forces of evil
working in this country than most americans do....
Considering most Americans are educated by the government-funded keynesian-based education system, that's not saying much. And yet it speaks volumes about what happens when government intervenes, whether it be in education, health care, or the economy.
Michael Moore sees that problems exist, but he misdiagnosis the primary cause of the problems. The White House, Capitol, and the Fed were the primarily culprits for the collapse -- not capitalism.
Thank you, Daedal.
I am growing weary of all the attacks on individuals and companies -and yes, banks- of taking all the heat these days. It's the same, tired story of everybody blaming the banks and the rich, etc. The real cause of all of our problems are now, and always have been, the Goddamn Feds. But since they're always so insidious in their methods and trickery, it's always easier to point fingers at the rich- and the banks.
Every time taxes are raised and imbedded into our phone bills, we promptly call the phone company to scream at the phone company...
Yes, the banks have been irresponsible; but they have been completely enabled for years by the politicians, who look the other way while getting untold amounts funneled to themselves. The banks cannot operated without the nod and wink from the Hill.
Capitalism did not fail- whatever hybrid bitch that we've been practicing did. So what does everybody want? More Federal interference. The same people that administered the poison are the ones that we clamor to for the antidote.
Moore sees a problem, yes. So fuckin' what, we all do. But going to someone like Moore for the answer is like going to a four year old to help us balance our checkbook.
"It's the same, tired story of everybody blaming the banks and the rich, etc."
Using a stupid comment like that is evidence you're a tool or merely a duped fool. That 'tired story' is actually suppressed in every MSM outlet, and has been since the Reagan Devolution.
There's a good reason you manipulators can't kill that 'tired story', that is because is the plain truth. Every new generation has to learn it themselves, because the propagandists suppress it every time. The fact that it is continuously re-found is evidence to its legitimacy, not the other way around.
You defenders of capital keep arguing the real 'tired story' about free market paradises that are nowhere to be found outside the banksters' golden palaces.
Good luck during the revolution, tools like you are truly going to need it.
Neither a tool or a fool. I guess they let any collectivist Bullshitvik post here- God bless America.
So you, Mr. Anon, will set it all right.
the hoi polloi seethes and stews over the fairness question, awaiting that righteous leader with flaming sword and burning eyes to arise and confirm what they always knew- that “justice” must be meted out by said leader- through them.
If there is a revolution, I will be on the right side of it- not you. And even if I wasn't, you and your ilk wouldn't be smart enough to catch me.
Good day sir!
As in, "Joe Kennedy is a crook...so let's make him the head of the SEC"?
Especially yours.
Nixon drew down troops from the beginning of his term, so what he was saying was just tough talk for the enemy.
i would have to agree with you on this one...nixon
was formulating detente so i don't think that
radiation fallout would have opened too many doors
at the kremlin and peking.
in fact this is what got nixon in trouble with the
oligarchs who were furious with him over his
independence in office so they began orchestrating
the imperial presidency hullaballoo and ordered
the cia to remove him from office....of course
nixon played into their hands by directing the
cover-up but he knew what he was up against and
made a bad choice which only turned out bad because
of dean's work for the nsa / cia...
First Amendment for the win. Absolutely agree about the violence issue. There no easier way to discredit your cause than to be violent in these demonstrations.
Another way these protests are discredited is by propaganda reporters picking out the protesters least educated with the cause for interviews (or even planting those people there in the first place). These are the interviews they show on MSM and it may do more harm than good. Making sure you know exactly what you're talking about gets around this dilemma and can never be a bad idea. Stalking the media if you see them trying to engage someone they could very well have planted there to look stupid and making them talk to you instead is yet another strategy to lend credence to the cause.