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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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but the OWS people on the street have no idea what the federal reserve is and what it does. They do not know where money comes from, how the supply is manipulated to rob the masses, or even that 2/3 of printed money comes from private banks in our fractional reserve banking system.
You must have missed this
The “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have targeted the Federal Reserve as one of their central platforms.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/second-wave-protests-unleashed-targ...
And this
Ron Paul says that the Wall Street protests are legitimate, and that they are really protesting against the Federal Reserve.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/%3F-older-posts-libertarian-wall-st...
Yes they do understand...That's why they are protesting at Wall Street and not at Macy's..
This guy can articulate his understanding.
Independent media project producing from #OWS made this video Oct. 9 2011
http://getgrounded.tv/2011/10/09/occupy-wall-st-vs-tea-party-grounded-ne...
If they understood, they would be protesting at the steps of the captial and the White House. The bankers are just doing what DC encourages/allows them to do. Wall Street is a cartel put in place by DC. Without federal government authority, the cartel would not exist.
There are political reasons the movement is based in NYC and not DC. This venue was choosen very carefully as was the timing.
DC is owned and run by Wall St and the FED. It would be nice to see a few of these folks outside the Fed, but they are doing fine where they are.
byteshredder what you said is really wrong. washington is controlled from wall street and NOT VICE VERSA. its the money that controls the politics....and then the politics controls the money....but it starts with the money and the power....the politicians just follow along. any dupe can see that. why can't you?
Barkingbill, I understand your circular aregument all too well...which came first the chicken or the egg. If I follow your logic and "the money" is to blame; then how is this demonostration going to change the power of big money? OWS is not looking for a fiscal/monetary change; THEY ARE LOOKING FOR A POLITICAL CHANGE.
"Big money" can try to influence "politics" using bribes, but it cannot control. Politics can decide to go along and be in the pocket of big money or politics can stand above the corruption. Politics has the choice. When the shoe is on the other foot and politics decides to control big money; big money has no choice, they must comply. And trust me, when big government finally reaches "critical mass" it will come down like a hammer on big money.
The problem is a political problem, with a political solution. The protest should be against big government, statism, and political corruption. Having the protests in NYC projects the wrong optics to the people. Having the protest in Wall Street plays into the hands of the statists. Making this a protest against big money is exactly what big government wants.
They are protesting in DC nitwit. And you have it all backwards, congress scurries about furtively doing the bidding of their Wall street masters. Look at them, they all have that deer in the headlights look as if they just finally read the fine print in the deal they made with the devil.
They are protesting in DC nitwit. And you have it all backwards, congress scurries about furtively doing the bidding of their Wall street masters. Look at them, they all have that deer in the headlights look as if they just finally read the fine print in the deal they made with the devil.
Protesting in front of the Air and Space museum? WTF?
Here is AN explanantion... And it made good sense to me. The 2 pm march was specifically made for this action. A general consensus was formed at McPherson square on where exactly the 2pm march should end. The loosely organized assembly there agreed that bringing a 15 foot tall Drone Replica and placing in front of the Air & Space Museum should be the finale, and be one helluva eye catcher (since, ya know, the Air & Space had recently unveiled its new "Let's Celebrate Our Nation's New Drone" - Display, plus there's this pre-emptive war strategy, Obama's war-lie policy, our own surveillance, and every other anti-war message ever discussed on zh).
Burning fake dollars in front of the Federal Reserve could have been an option, but mass democracy isn't easy, and since someone had already built this awesome life-like drone replica....
It attracted alot of attention. Some protestors went into the museum to announce "the new addition outside" - and out came the pepper spray and lock down went into effect. No, it wasn't pretty. It was BEAUTIFUL.
OR, it was a mindless act of lost souls to protest museum security guards, ruin American tourism and destroy future job prospects... You can decide.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if they'd started at the Capitol you'd be saying they should be on Wall Street.
Be thankful for what we have. Drag your raggedy ass on down there and set 'em straight.
The venue of NYC (and Wall Street in particular) was chosen so that the statists who run this country (Democrat and Republican) can run on a ticket that vilifies capitalism. If they win they will enlarge the state and enslave the people all the more. Don't be a tool. Look at the big picture. This is a battle of liberty vs slavery. How do you know what side OWS is on? What proof do you have that his movement will lead to greater freedom? I for one believe it's objective is to create a crisis that will be used by the statists to take away more of our freedoms for the sake of the people's safety. Think 9/11 and the Patriot Act.
If you are against capitalism, then fine, your against capitalism; then come out of the shadows and state your position and proposals.
If you are against statism, then why are you letting your message be co-opted by the anti-capitalists?
Paranoia is justified in your case. They really are out to get you.
I wish OWS would call for accountability from our politicians, their lack of integrity made this corruption and fraud possible. You can't bribe an honest man.
+ All of the above (that whole Congressional approval and war thing deserves much more scrutinity - but I guess we have to chose our battles)
among the protesters, there are those that come from the left and those that are from the right of the political spectrum. we each come from a different background but despite our differences, we are united by our belief that we need to do what's right. level the playing field, equality of opportunity, responsibility and accountability, living within the economic values that we create and the moral values that we hold. it's time to stand up for what you believe in, disown those who engage in group think in order to sustain the current monstrosity that is so unsustainable the system is doomed to fail in the near future.
LOL, give it a rest. I've never read a Hallmark card as sappy as this meaningless gibberish.
Hallmark: "When you care enough, to give the very best." AAAHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh.......
The public is blaming Wall Street for its own greed. They have no idea what they want. "Systemic change" means nothing, and can only bring the collapse of a system that is merely having a momentary hiccup. If the end of the Fed is what they want, they are morons. The Fed has worked magic for almost 100 years, and their balance sheet is not that high. Blame the regular bankers for over leveraging to make an extra penny. That's the problem.
ZerO...dude
If you were designing a economic system for a new civilization that had to survive in a newly built colony in a planet in a nearby solar system, would you include the feature of 'inflation' into their monetary system?
Literally every sentence you wrote is bonkers. The next time you're tossing Bernanke's salad, think of Zero Hedge. You'll eventually cum around. Ewww. Thanks God this crap is anonymous.
Magic? Today a dollar buys what 2.5 cents did when fed was created in 1913. Prior to 1913 for nearly 200 years the average rate of inflation was 0.5%.
The fed had magically robbed the sheeple. Gold has never robbed anyone, regardless of their level of intelligence regarding the schemes of others.
Sure it's magic! They made the purchasing power of the dollar disappear. Great trick.
Sorry to tell you this, it may coma as a shock ....... you have no idea what you are talking about.
Magic = 95% debasement of the currency?
Unless the 11:00 show is different from the 9:00 show I think I'll pass on that cabaret act.
Obama is an effing moron. He lied to this country. If he'd have kept just 1 promiss, kicking the scumbag lobbyists the fuck out of DC we'd be on the road to recovery, instead the banks yank the strings. JPM's got an executive running the White House. Turbo Tax Cheating Geithner has control of the Treasury.
What a fucking pathetic joke.
Don't watch the show projected on the curtain. Look behind the curtain.
but by focusing on obamololololol you buy into the duopoly. focus on the issues, not the video game
And the same is in fact true of the other great duopoly videogame... Capitalism / Communism. They are not the only game in town and they are not the best in either case. We must do better, but we need to think beyond these confines.
Divide and conquer: ideology vs. ideology, party vs. party, nation vs. nation, race vs. race, majority vs. minority and so forth. Never gets old and very well serves the purpose. People keep fighting with each other along the lines set out by somebody else, meanwhile power and wealth keep getting concentrated among fewer and fewer. Problem is not the lack among majority of the will to fight, problem is a gross misplacement of their effort. The reason is: the majority of people is taught how to be ruled, the minority is taught how to rule. If someone really wanted to change anything, he would look no further than education system, that's where all these dichotomies are implanted into majority.
With the courage to fight hopefully comes the will to think for oneself, so that education is not necessary. The danger is always, who's doing the educating and what are they teaching. But I know what you mean and I agree to some extent.
Looking at the world around I don't see a lack fighting (whether with courage or with lack thereof), but I definitely can sense a lack of thoughtful direction in this fighting except maybe serving someone agenda. If anything, it leads to only more fighting going forward rather than any problem resolution. "Nothing was solved when the fight was over, but nothing mattered."
a lot of people have been doing a lot of "thinking" and teaching, and look where we are.
Thinking vs. fighting - dichotomy. It's interesting how almost any conversation tends to gravitate to some 'opposites' hence becoming confrontational in one way or another. More to the point above.
Unfortunately the OWS will be co-opted by wall street eventually, probably cloning hippies as we speak with a chip implant.
Kids- if you are under 30, without an established professional career, you have no economic future in the US. Emigrate. If you have student loans, switch allegiances and renounce them. Be your own Jubilee.
Its hard to take these jokers seriously. Yesterday one is on CNN bitching about corporate America with a Starbuck's Coffee in his right hand and an Ipod in his left. They should rename themselves "Occupy up your ass with your head"
govt of by & 4 the elites will and always has been the American way and ideal.
http://expose2.wordpress.com
Replace 'American' with 'human' and you have an unbiased, factual statement.
The founders realized that your statement is true, that most of us are sheep among wolves, and they set up a system that allowed us to live peacefully. Arguably too peacefully. But they had the right - and best - idea.
Bullpucky. Once there was an Andrew Jackson, and he kicked those bankster asses right out of town. True, he was a bit rough on the natives, but nobody is perfect.
Yes, by all means; let's solve corruption and government largess with a total lack of personal integrity and morality. What a great foundation of a civlization that will be. You will be a great addition to your new found patriation. I recommend Venezuela, Brazil, North Korea or Cuba. There you can live without personal accountablity for the state is in control of all aspects of life -- you have no responsibilities.
Good advice. Start learning Spanish and look to South America as a place of refuge and a cradle of a new epoch.
Spoken like a couple of true, anti capitalist, socialist thieves. That money you are not paying back gets charged to me.
Careful there, these 'underperforming' loans are getting redistributed on the back of those paying mostly thanks to the government willing to prop up insolvent banks and central bank willing to debase the currency to support TBTF. If there was any true capitalism, many of these banks would be out of business, while many universities would be forced to make education truly affordable and not requiring any debt to get it in the first place. So, if you think twice, by paying the debt, you are supporting anti-capitalist system (one in favor of non-productive redistribution and misallocation of capital). So, among two posters above and you, the only anti-capitalist here is, in fact, you.
Spoken like a true sock-puppet
When Capitalism isn't working for the majority of people on the planet..Well then, it doesn't really work does it..It works for the people on top for a while that is until the people with pitchforks and torces catch up with them..F*ck your ideology.
All true. But there is of course another side of the coin.
And that is that Americans for the most part are lazy. Having hired many foreign workers and American workers, I can easily say that Americans suffer almost universally from expectation-problems. They all believe that there is a quick way to get rich, and that hard work is for 'someone else' to do.
This article in the NYT says it all about the nature of our supposed "unemployment problem": http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/us/farmers-strain-to-hire-american-wor...
The reality is that there *are* jobs. Americans just don't want to do them because they all feel too superior for them.
If we're going to embrace change -- one of the first things that needs to go is the notion that Americans are too good for any particular form of labor.
When social welfare programs pay more than a job, where's the incentive?
(Apparently at least one person believes that Americans are in fact 'too good' for hard labor. Is that a hard-right point of view? Or just slack?)