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Occupy Wall St – Systemic Change Please
Michael Hudson explains why the OWSers are not making specific, piecemeal-demands. He also discusses a public option in banking as a structural answer to the power of finance. Wild guess - many here may agree with some of Michael's assessments, but take issue with his public option proposal. ~ Ilene
Occupy Wall St. to a Bank in the Public Interest
Courtesy of Michael Hudson
Michael discusses the growing Occupy Wall St movement and the opportunities for banking reform.
Excerpt (paraphrasing Michael slightly):
I think it’s a very strong point that they haven’t made specific demands… Their worry is that if they make specific demands, then the media and other people will make these particular demands the issue. That’s not the issue. The sense is that the financial system is dysfunctional as a system. That means that you can’t make a technocratic demand like “fix this,” or give a consumer protection law, or appoint Elizabeth Warren to the commission.
It’s much bigger than that. There’s an awareness that the whole financial system is dysfunctional… The government is in the hands of the financial lobbyists. That’s why it’s called Occupy Wall Street, because [Wall Street] essentially bought the electoral campaigns and bought the Obama administration. And I can tell you that there was an absolute disgust yesterday and today after Mr. Obama’s attempt to hijack the Occupy Wall Street demonstration by saying “here’s what I’m trying to do to help,” and then he gave a couple of lobbying statements written by his Wall Street financial lobbies…
They’re disgusted with the Obama administration, they’re disgusted with the Bush administration and the republicans, they’re disgusted with politics being for sale to the highest lobbyists. And they’re disgusted with the debt overhead… The system doesn’t work, and they don’t want to reduce this to a set of technocratic little fix its and paste-its.
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Simple demands:
1) bonuses paid by FDIC insured banks or institutions with access to an FRB discount window must be in shares and restricted for five years
2) Any salary over $100,000 earned by an executie officer of an FDIC bank or firm with access to the discount window can be reclaimed going back five years by the FDIC if a member bank has a loss for two consecutive quarters
3) bank derivative exposures are not parri passu with demand deposits and are simply unsubordinated debt unless otherwise collaterlized
You will see a rush of firms wanting to leave the FDIC and not borrow from the discount window. You will see a mass improvement in risk management systems.
And you will see the flow traders at these banks actually having to work for a living.
Where does RT keep getting these 'hottie' reporters from...What crystal ship are they going to be on when the $h1t goes down! I'm there!
They are derived from Game Theory. Mededev is seeking compromise with banking but Putin seeks conceptual level justice. Europe is being fooled to hate America.
I know Putin cares about his own citizens which is noble but he cares more about his agenda. He will get a lot of killed and not care which means he is pyschotic genius. Mark my words on this.
Great presentation by Hudson!
Chris Hedges goes on a brilliant rant about Everything when asked about OWS:
http://www.nationofchange.org/chris-hedges-shares-his-thoughts-occupy-wa...
He's reported on a whole lotta revolutions in his time.
chris hedges is just another liberal dunce, he lost me when he saw the Tea party as a corporatist movement.
Chris Hedges--had never heard of him. Thanks for posting this. He can actually talk and say something intelligent. How often do you see that?
Scary stuff. He's right about non-violent civil disobedience as the only way. My fear is that interest in this will last about as long as interest in Fukashima. We have such short attention spans and everything, no matter how serious or grave, is entertainment only. (We American's love to empathize with the victims of tragedies. Particularly when they happen in some far off place like Japan. It's the Good Samaritan in us.) I guess we can take heart from the civil rights movement, which lasted well over a month.
It does seem that things have reached the point where the only recourse the powers that be have is to intimidate and jail those who would dare oppose them. That's why civil disobedience is the only thing that can work. Look at the Falun Gong movement in China, although that's probably not a good example--since we haven't heard from them for such a long time, I assume they are all dead or doing forced labor in the Chinese gulag system. Oh, I forgot. The Chinese are now capitalist, which means they love freedom. They must have read Milton Friedman's book "Free to Choose" on how capitalism begets freedom, which, when you think about it, is capitalism's primary objective.
THANK YOU - A MUST LISTEN INTERVIEW.
This fellow is someone I would have considered an articulate liberal a few years ago, and he still is one, but now I agree with almost everything he's saying, and saysing brilliantly. And I'm more libertarian and constitutionalist with every passing day. I can't be alone; I think that common ground is growing daily.
You like many others are severely limiting your options... expand the box. Think more broadly. Try to go beyond the circumstances you know. Don't stop at the isms you've been taught.
This is a dangerous predicament the sheeple find themselves in today...The elite don't need us anymore! The masses have become obsolete...Depopulation is most definitely coming...As far as they're concerned, we're cannon fodder...That's what makes everything so difficult in deciding what to do! I would certainly not live in NYC, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Philly, DC, Boston, Detriot, SF, St. Louis...etc...I have nothing against any of those great US cities but the risk/reward has tilted toward risk no doubt...Maybe there is'nt anywhere to hide...The 'greatest generation' mentality and morality is f$#kin' gone! Never to come back! Community is now your 'special friends' on Cable TV...
The elites have nothing if the whole financial system collapses. There will be no where to hide. It's a lot harder for a rich person to deal with poverty than a poor person.
Idiots voted for this in 2008 and Pelosi/Reid 2006. TV is for morons.
The ponzi still needs us....
http://tarpley.net/2011/10/07/occupy-wall-street-who-wants-to-hijack-the...
Luv the smell of 'community organizing' in the morning.
Thanks.
De-Goldman Sachs the Government; claw-back the AIG Paulson heist...blows away Goodfellas.
It would be ironic if the banks blew up (possible?) and want another bailout while this OWS thing is going on.
The media spin over this has been spectacular, but nothing one shouldn't have expected.
It's possible. Here's a lengthy blog post from Ezra Klein on what went wrong with the Obama economic policy, specifically with regard to the bank rescues, the housing bubble implosion, unemployment. Politically, the situation would be untenable for Obama.
http://paper.li/RealtyTrac/1306363512?utm_source=subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=paper_sub
Given the shape of things and the potential staying power of OWS, who knows?
OWS is a soros/move on/acorn/SEIU distraction to avert our eyes from obama's corruption and LOOTING of the Treasury. Smoke and mirrors and this is the precursor to the 2012 elections that may not happen.
Funny how soros owns everything, he is sucha convenient strawman. I don't hink Soros is quite rich or strong enough to force average apathetic americans to get up off their double wide asses and demonstrate in the streets.
This movement has more sincerity than a Republican or Democratic event. What the lamestream media calls lack of focus is really just what happens when a group of people get fed up, everyone triggers off a different event, a different straw that broke the camel's back.
They're pissed about a lot of things, but there are a lot of things to be pissed about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLam2vo12oM&feature=related
Yep. Soros will conquer the world according to Fox News by leveraging his $55B against a $20T anglo empires leverage which includes the US military.
What I don't agree with on government policies, he earns my respect on having a pair of giant ballw and being the first media mogul to PERSONALLY call for the break-up of the big banks. If people want freedom, they had best stop being lazy and going three levels deep on research on the 'why' rather than level one propaganda.
The biggest sin of Soros is talking his own book on China and allowing his emotions direct his investment. Big no-no and mistake for such a large institutional investor. I like his Open Society ideas but he needs to have his techs create some filters to identify genius that is non-establishment to ever have a chance of Open Society implementation. Another mistake. My observations as an entrepenuarial investor...
George Soros is the money behind so many organizations with nice sounding names that do more harm to this country and the poor than any bank.
TD, job well done on bringing us the almost "real news".
Keep on trucking!
The system doesn't work because we are in a bubble. Not a housing bubble, not a credit bubble, or a tech bubble. We are in a human bubble.
There is an over-abundance of useless eaters. Those that do not contribute to society. This has gone on for several decades, and has been papered over with useless government jobs, products we don't really need, services we don't really need, and a bloated welfare class that doesn't even participate in the (false) productivity.
The "Occupy Wall Street" abomination is the last gasp of the bubble as it is about to burst. And that's what is going to happen. When a market bubble bursts it is capital that is destroyed. What is destroyed when the human bubble bursts?
18:19 In this case explains what we call Darwin Bifurcation. The tearing point in societal extremes. Love the sheeple ... Hate the sheeple ... Love the sheeple ... Hate the sheeple ... Love the sheeple ... Hate the sheeple ... Love the sheeple ... Hate the sheeple ...HATE THE SHEEPLE!!!
Malthusians are lazy and were gifted in life so they never had to worry about social darwinism and how to problem solve. Die-off is promotion sponsored by the intellectual and physically lazy. FAIL.
Whom the fuck is next for us to shred? This is a fun, troll slaying Sunday. American intelligence, ask the Slavs for better propaganda. Your boring us. At least show up prepared to play chess.
The "human bubble" you speak of as being destroyed is, I expect, ignorance that anything useful comes when one's homework is replaced by TV dreams.
well now , with obama care, we shall see what happens to people who they want to go away.......hmmm?
'The system doesn't work because we are in a (human) bubble.'
If this is true, then the system is more evil than most think, because people have been trained to be that way - now they're facing extermination? What were these personality types doing before the days of cradle to grave welfare? Starvation was not common, and crime was actually reported and relatively low. Now, millions have been told since birth that they don't have to work to get by, and that the system is rigged against them. Their lives largely conform to these teachings. I've got more patience for their self-justification than that of the elites. And that of the quasi-elites, who know that the system actually is rigged, against almost everyone, but play along anyway.
We are in Human bubble when you look at the growth of humans over centuries. The chart resembles a hockey stick growth pattern. Chris Martenson does a great job of depicting this on his "crash course". In order to preserve this bubble we have LEVERAGED our future using ponzi dynamics and now it is all coming to a point of reconciliation. All debt must be reconciled and those free loaders on the system of graft will be forced off. The pain will be widespread as payback is a bitch. Our DEBT BASED fractional reserve system has enabled this to happen today we are seeing that house of cards toppling.
What you wrote is spot on. I'm just not sure that a collapse of the consumer society must mean mass genocide (it will be that under current trends/leadership, but that's not the point). And genocide is what it would be - we don't exempt the famine numbers from the Chicom genocide totals: Those in charge set up an unsustainable system that led to mass starvation. We don't have near the resources (or credit) to maintain consumerism, but we can feed everyone many times over. How that's accomplished is another question, since the just in time food distribution system already leaves us flat-footed, and it's tied firmly into the consumer economy. But the problem of avoiding mass genocide is not one of resources, but rather a lack of will and purpose. We have vastly more fertile soil that's never seen production than we have in production. Any doubts as to the evil nature of our leadership (the left by action, the right by consent, in this case) should be erased by the crackdown on local food production. They're smart enough to know what's coming, so this move is a good sign that they want us dead.
Logan's Run Carousel then?
Sorry, I may have accidentally down ranked you. But you seem like you're really trying to grasp the truth. Try not to look for an answer too quickly. You seem predisposed to capitalism, but I'm not sure it's of benefit to you or humanity.
The problem is that any system aside from a free market is rigged from the get go. They must be, because they are at war with our basic nature. There is no evidence that this nature can be changed, only that it can be tempered. So the only kind of system that makes any sense is one that allows the positive elements of our nature to be expressed, while tamping down the negative. That's what the founders sought to create, and left most decisions local because people don't like being told what to do. Their political creation reflects a deep understanding of our nature: we want to focus on what is important to us and otherwise be left alone. And we want to take what we have (labor, capital) and turn it into something useful to us. The necessary corollary to this reality is that people stand or fall on their own, or with the help of those around them. This sytem also works beautifully for those beneficient souls who are outward-centered; there are are always people wanting help, and are grateful for it, the polar opposite of the entitlement mentality. The only people who don't fit into this reality (except as Boss Hogg types) are the control freaks and the looters, a minority. If this natural ethos permeated our society (as it once did) from the bottom up, we would not be where we are.
This is the front end of the learning curve, the first point where real knowledge can be preserved uncorrupted and is accessible to almost every person on earth. Soul-deadening materialism doesn't satisfy, and apparentlly sets the stage for genocide. Check. But this is not capitalism. The American dream was once something like 'meaningful liberty in an orderly society'. Now it is defined in purely materialistic terms, the result of marketing. Either TPTB are going to create a literal prison planet, or corporatism/fascism/feudalism will go onto the ashheap, eventually. The one earthly force you can't control is human nature.
give it up, will ya? we're in a bubble alright. it's a media bubble. we're just being lied to on such a scale as to make it a parody. more parity, less parody. how's that for phucking slogan?
Well, seems like we need a more reasoned approach to living on a finite planet..Yes there is an over abundance of humans...Sure..But if you want to talk about de-population methods lets start with the evil bastards who have run this world into a ditch..
People who intentionally make misery for others, or have no regard for the consequece of their actions are "The Useless Eaters"...
Occupy Wall Street is probably the beginning of American Revolution 2.0 and incidently there will be much killing and a culling of "The Useless Eaters".
But be careful...and don't assume that all because you see yourself as valued in this sytem that you'll be of value in the next. YOU could be the "Useless Eater."
Well put.
Humans are not over-abundant though, as much as living in a manner inconcommitant with a non-over-adbundant set of resources. I'll grant you "thinning the herd" would be easier than bringing our way of living into line with the resources available, but it's worth trying, considering the alternatives.
I blame Jesus; the moral hazard of loaves and fishes. We had to arrange fish on Friday just to appease the fishmongers.
you're a phucking wacko too. RELAX.
You're both right. Nick should have said it in more positive terms, but he's right... once this thing gains some momentum, it will surely end up causing a shift in values, resulting in some people who think they're on the right side, being on the wrong side. Which is why you have to really think very deeply before you commit, and why, you need to be genuine. No waffling, OK? ;)
So Mr. Kissenger (and all you represent), you blame the people who are trapped in a enslaving, debt ridden system that was rigged against them from the day they were born, which you and all your wicked friends created.
If anything there is an overabundance it is of parasites like you who live off of debt interest payments forcibly collected by government thugs in the form of the income tax, and by wealth confiscated by fractional banking and runaway inflation.
You take from the real producers, you just delude yourself into believing in was all created by you because you've been sitting at the top of the pyramid "directing" everything.
I hope we can reset the system without all the bloodshed you gleefully wish for.
You rigged the system to implode, and you should be blamed for the failure.
The only thing the people should be blamed for is letting you get away with it for so long. I sincerely hope you receive the justice you so richly deserve.
Enslaving? Enslaving? SMG, unless you lived under communism in east Europe, Cuba, or China you don't know the meaning of the word enslavement.
In America, nobody has a gun placed to their head and forced to go into debt. And the fact the countless of immegrants from the countries mentioned above have come to this country with nothing and succeeded at providing for themselves and their families is a testament to the opportunties that this country still possesses.
byteshredder
No Slavery? You clearly have never tried to exist on minimim wage.
You have no clue about daily realities and budgeting.
I've only lived under communism in the Soviet Union. You are right, American minimum wage was only a dream for me and my family.
Those countries you list had a dance with the Central Bank model prior to Communism. Should have added Argentina to your list because what America is going through is identical to them 100 years ago.
If the Central Bank model encourages two generations to save and form capital/growth but one third discourages capital formation replacimg it with finance only then yes, we are all collectively slaves to this model. The model must evolve.
Only mandraking to one country or another and using exploitation has kept this model going for 250 years. The world is out of 'perfect' places to mandrake too and China is not fully playing ball.
"Give me control of a nations currency and I care not who makes the laws." This quote and intent was one of conquest. Well, Rothschild won
the world! But here is the core simple operational flaw outside of evil intent
that is glaringly obvious to me: Bankers make loans, they don't like to run things fiscal policy. And if your talking America, it has been a long time that Congress abdicated this responsibility.
Even if we all collectively found the fixes by joining hands and singing kumbaya, instantly, the lag in capital formation has been masked by debt that radical and uncontained restructuring will unfold.
Bankers always think they can contain everything. History tells us otherwise. We are out of time and the Bankers are now just waking up that 'This time is different'
not that it really makes a bit of difference with such a massive flaw in the model.
In response to the above:
1. Kissneger is not Jewish but Illuminati. He also said something along the lines of "It's easier to kill a million people than control them" Nice guy. The ruling families of the Illuminati and the people who do their bidding all need to be brought to justice.
2. Many immigrant who come here today face many of the same problems our citizens do and end up on the government support system.
3. A young person today can still make it, but most will not, and it is not due to lack of work ethic. Things like national debt, jobs and pricing power lost to Global trade agreements, a hyperexpensive education system which in some cases produce no job, a globalist immigration system which continues massive immigration despite real unemployment in the 25% range. A massive generation burden caused by globalist depopulation measures. A debased currency. A political system corrupted by the Oligarchs. Gun or not, they never had any choice about that. It's a kind of soft slavery.
SMG: I think your quote is from Brzesinski was regarding modern day tyranny, advances in weapons and information discemmination. I think his comments were directed at China who is trying to come to grips with controlling their billions in the age of the internet. Although I have no love for globalist like Brzesinski and Kissinger, I fear/hate the statist within our country the most.
Regarding your 3rd point, yes, what we have done to our children and grand-children, by burdening each of them with hundreds of thousands dollars of debt is a form of soft slavery. We must put a stop to this trend and reverse it if at all possible. But our off-spring do not have to compound this problem by taking on more debt that they cannot afford. Nor do we have to tolerate the current generation's wonton greed. People must resist the urge to live beyond their means. Cell phones, X-Box, McDonalds every day, college education, a house are not a right. One can live a full and meaningful life without these things.
There are jobs out there that can sustain a person. You can live on a minimum wage job. 75% of the world's population would give their right pinky finger for the life of an American working just at minimum wage (no government aid). For those that start at this level there will be some that gain valuable skills and will progress to higher wages and a better standard of living. Some will stagnate.
henry k is not jewish. i got it. wrote that down in my big chief tablet with my number 2 pencil..........
A 'deal too good to resist' can be almost as compelling as a gun to the head, and more easily applied as a control mechanism.
How dare you even speak of Dr. Kissenger. You are not even fit to polish his shoes or wax his Jew car. You can dream up any conspiracy theory you wish, but it won't reverse the laws of nature.
Both sick and stupid, aren't you diesheeple?
Kissinger is so fat he can't tie his own shoes. He'll be EZ meat. And kosher by definition.