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Guest Notes From The Sales Desk - A Few Thoughts On The Occupy Wall Street Movement
Submitted by Brian Rogers of Fator Securities
A Few Thoughts On The Occupy Wall Street Movement
"The machinery by which Wall Street separates the opportunity to speculate from the unwanted returns and burdens of ownership is ingenious, precise and almost beautiful. Banks supply funds to brokers, brokers to customers, and the collateral goes back to banks in a smooth and all but automatic flow. Margins - the cash which the speculator must supply in addition to the securities to protect the loan and which he must augment if the value of the collateral securities should fall and so lower the protection they provide - are effortlessly calculated and watched. The interest rate moves quickly and easily to keep the supply of funds adjusted to the demand. Wall Street, however, has never been able to express its pride in these arrangements. They are admirable and even wonderful only in relation to the purpose they serve. The purpose is to accommodate the speculator and facilitate speculation. But the purposes cannot be admitted. If Wall Street confessed this purpose, many thousands of moral men and women would have no choice but to condemn it for nurturing an evil thing and call for reform. Margin trading must be defended not on the grounds that it efficiently and ingeniously assists the speculator, but that it encourages the extra trading which changes a thin and anemic market into a thick and healthy one. Wall Street, in these matters, is like a lovely and accomplished woman who must wear black cotton stockings, heavy woolen underwear, and parade her knowledge as a cook because, unhappily, her supreme accomplishment is as a harlot."
- The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith, First Published 1955
The More Things Change…
It’s amazing to read the quote above from John Kenneth Galbraith’s great book on the stock market crash of 1929 and consider where we are today. Despite the fact that the events above happened over 80 years ago, it’s plain to see that the modus operandi of Wall Street writ large has changed little. Smoke, mirrors and heavy doses of propaganda laden obfuscation are required to keep the masses complacent and ignorant of the dangers Wall Street places on the shoulders of ordinary people. Virtually unlimited leverage for investment banks? Check. CDS markets traded over-the-counter and away from any transparent exchange? No problem. CMOs and CDOs as healthy vehicles to efficiently distribute and allocate risk? Foolproof. It all works fine until it doesn’t. Enter stage right, the crash of 2008.
The average American citizen is quickly falling behind their global peers in terms of education levels and many find the topics of economics and finance far too dense to comprehend. So it’s no small accomplishment that the enormous amount of taxpayer bailouts and Fed monetary injections have finally awoken the American middle and lower classes up to the reality of a terribly unbalanced financial system. This awakening is currently represented by the Occupy Wall Street protests. However, lest you think these protests will simply go away once winter sets in, think again. Even if the official Occupy Wall Street protest dissipates in the next few months, the word has gotten out and the message is finding an interested audience that fails to conform to traditional political boundaries.
How Occupy Wall Street Will Change Things
Suddenly, all over this country students are questioning their economics professors about the standard dogma they are being taught which is visibly failing all around them. How can the PhD.’s preparing tomorrow’s generation of finance and economic leaders continue to teach Keynesian doctrine with a straight face? How can they possibly defend the bailouts and the Fed’s enormous hand in manipulating asset prices as anything even remotely resembling capitalism?
As these students graduate and begin their own careers over the next few years (assuming they find jobs in the first place) they will enter the workforce much more aware of the slight of hand that has taken place whereby organic growth was replaced with extremely dangerous debt growth. Then they’ll stop and think about their own student loans and how the non-dischargeable nature of those loans chain them to the very system they are questioning. These students will be heavily in debt, face few good job prospects and will thus have plenty of time on their hands. Hello political volatility.
And what about the lower and middle classes? It really doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is, if you make less than some magic number defined as “rich”, say the $250k that is currently bandied about, neither political party is really working for you. Both parties have contributed wildly to the overspending that currently burdens our fiscal and monetary accounts. Both parties are deeply in bed with the banking industry. Arguing over who supports Wall Street more is simply a matter of degree. Both parties support the monetary intervention of the Fed and the inflation that has slowly rendered our country uncompetitive since 1971, a role the Fed was never originally envisioned to play.
If you’re unemployed due to your job being shipped overseas, have been kicked out of your house by a robo-signing bank, worry about the tax burden your kids will face down the road, concerned that your public or private pension will be woefully inadequate to maintain your current living standards or have mountains of non-dischargeable students loans owed to Sallie Mae, you should be paying close attention to and likely supportive of the OWS movement.
Repubs vs. Dems: A False Dichotomy
Vote Republican? The Repubs increased debt from around $5.6tr in 2000 to over $10tr by 2008. They also passed the massive social entitlement program Medicare Part D without any mechanism for actually paying the tab. The party of small government and fiscal conservatism you say? Yea, right.
Vote Democrat? The Dems supported the bailout of the banks, the funding of ruinous foreign wars started by the Repubs, the re-nomination of Ben Bernanke as the head of the Fed and appointed to the highest offices of White House influence - the very architects that helped create the global financial disaster we currently face. Summers, Geithner, Rubin and many others have had President Obama’s ear since day 1. You think those guys are advocating a solution which would see the banks actually take write-downs and losses as any other business would have to? Not likely.
Both major parties spend enormous time and money maintaining their own power bases of large, wealthy campaign contributors to try and outspend their competition in the next election. When they win, they serve their campaign contribution masters well with the hopes that this process will be rinse, wash and repeat the next time around. Both parties support no term limits. Both parties support liberal campaign finance laws. Both parties kowtow to Wall Street.
So what’s a disenfranchised, frustrated, out-of-work lower or middle class citizen to do?
Here Comes the Third (And Perhaps Even Fourth and Fifth) Party Movements
The Tea Party was the first threat to the status quo. I happened to be watching Rick Santelli’s rant on CNBC back on February 19, 2009. It was brilliant and really captured the mood of those of us who had always imagined our economy to be truly capitalistic. Instead, as soon as the uber-connected banks faced the threat of actually losing money, they called their good buddies in DC (in many cases former co-workers) and demanded a payout or else the world will end. Naturally, Congress feared the campaign contributions would end so they quickly wrote a $700bn check.
Of course the first TARP vote failed, but they needed that cover to save a bit of face. The powers that be were never too worried that they couldn’t scare the financially ignorant in Congress into coughing up some dough. Vote doesn’t pass, market tanks, many pants are wet in DC and ipso facto, the money flows. Many of us were outraged and Mr. Santelli crystallized the moment.
This led to the Tea Party. But for the status quo, the Tea Party was easy to diffuse. Sprinkle in a few right-wing ideologues spouting fire and brimstone and the mainstream voter will be justifiably turned off. The modern Tea Party, just like the one back in Boston in 1773, weren’t inspired by social issues, they were inspired by economic issues. And yet, the status quo and mainstream media has been extremely successful in painting the modern Tea Party movement as nothing more than rebellious right wing Republicans looking for something more conservative than the mother ship Republican party.
Occupy Wall Street, in my opinion, represents a refinement of the original Tea Party rant and the next political movement to be inspired since 2008. This movement represents the point where it’s no longer just financial insiders like Mr. Santelli that understand the graft and corruption that is our current system. No, this movement is solidly being peopled by folks from a broad array of life experiences, political stripes and philosophical leanings. It will be much harder for the status quo to dilute this message. Harder, but not impossible.
Phase II Coming To A City Near You
I keep thinking about Gandhi’s great quote, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” It seems to me that we are at the end of the ‘then they laugh at you’ phase. Watching CNBC lately, the snarky comments from the talking heads have eased off quite a bit and now they are reporting live from Zuccotti Park with a more serious tone. At the same time, the city of NY seems to be reaching the end of its tolerance towards the movement.
Next step is the ‘then they fight you’ phase. This is when things will get interesting. Arrests will be made, traumatic video of cop-on-protestor violence uploaded to Youtube and people you’ve never heard of will suddenly emerge as leaders in this growing movement. How will this affect the upcoming election? It’s impossible to predict but it’s going to be interesting to watch.
The bottom line is this thing is going mainstream and although the message isn’t completely clear or concise, Americans all over the country are beginning to sense the turning point this movement represents.
2012 Presidential Election
Obama recently tried to embrace the OWS movement. I find this extremely hypocritical given his role in sustaining the very institutions the group is protesting against and his frequent trips to NY to raise some more Wall Street money for his re-election war chest.
How about the Republican candidates? Most are dismissing the protestors even though the basic premise of the movement is a more fair and balanced (pun intended) system for all Americans. After vast injections of campaign finance money, the Repubs have come to believe that the banking industry is a much better constituent than mainstream Americans. At least the banks have money to finance their campaigns. They seem happy to ignore the circular argument that the government creates money to loan to the banks at 0% so that the banks can then loan that money back to the US government with interest and virtually guaranteed capital gains and then give some of those interest payments/capital gains back to the politicians in the form of lobbying/campaign finance funds to ensure more no-cost loans and bailouts. What a beautiful business model!
Ron Paul, of course, gets the joke very well. But the media is working overtime to ignore Ron Paul at every turn lest the American public actually start to understand the logic of his positions. So as much as I’d love to see the guy win, I still think Ron Paul is a man ahead of his times. Rather than lead this movement from the front, I think it’s more likely that his philosophies will serve as the inspirational base for future leaders.
The Genie is Out of the Bottle
What eventually became the Arab Spring is spreading and quickly becoming a Western Winter. Protests in Europe and America are growing in size and intensity. Awareness of the unfair and crony-capitalistic nature of our current political/financial system is spreading. Americans of all economic, geographic, philosophic and political stripes are questioning the very foundations upon which our “prosperity” has been based for decades. Slowly they are realizing that they were always playing a rigged game that they were never designed to win. As you’d imagine, this is not sitting so well with them and some are starting to stand up and make their voice heard. Don’t think for one second that this is going to stop. Americans by the millions are losing their homes, their jobs, their savings and their futures.
In their brilliant book about the history of US generations, The Fourth Turning, William Strauss and Neil Howe called the current phase of history we are passing through as a ‘Fourth Turning’. Their characterization of this phase is as follows,
“A CRISIS arises in response to sudden threats that previously would have been ignored or deferred, but which are now perceived as dire. Great worldly perils boil off the clutter and complexity of life, leaving behind one simple imperative: The society must prevail. This requires a solid public consensus, aggressive institutions, and personal sacrifice.” -The Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe, 1999
Whether the protestors realize it or not, their role in history is an important and necessary one. They are shining a disinfecting light on much of what is wrong with our current economic/political model. Major changes are coming, many of which would have seemed unimaginable only a few years ago. Class warfare, generational warfare and perhaps even military warfare are coming next. As extreme as these views might seem, just study history a bit and you will see that every great empire falls this way. We will be no different. And when it’s all said and done, a straight line will be drawn from Rick Santelli’s rant, to Zuccotti Park to whatever comes next. Eventually a more vibrant, dynamic America will emerge from this chaos and pain. But that’s the ‘then you win’ phase. And we ain’t there yet.
Cheers,
Brian
* Fator Securities LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC, is a U.S. entity and a member of the Fator group of companies in Brazil. The comments below are from Brian Rogers, who is employed by Fator Securities (Brian’s opinions are his own and do not constitute the opinions of Fator Securities or the Fator group of companies).
Fator Securities LLC is not affiliated with Zero Hedge or any third party mentioned in this communication; nor is Fator Securities LLC responsible for content on third party websites referred to in this communication.
This material was not prepared by Fator Securities LLC. U.S. Persons seeking further information must contact Fator Securities LLC in New York at (646) 205-1160. This material shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy (may only be made at the time qualified participants are in receipt of the requisite documentation, e.g., confidential private offering memorandum describing the offering, related subscription agreement, etc.). Securities shall not be offered or sold in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful or until all applicable regulatory or legal requirements of such jurisdictions have been satisfied. This material is not intended for general public use or distribution and is intended for distribution only to appropriate investors. The opinions contained herein are based on personal judgments and estimates and are, therefore, subject to revision. Past performances are not indicative of future results.
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No, I was trying to use similar Shock and Awe tactics except that I wasn't trying to influence that particular person with my reply... I was trying to Insult them with part of it, and rectify their misrepresentation with the other part of it. That person blatantly lied, I got angry, but at least I was telling the truth.
My post has nothing to do with "getting my way" so please stop trying to misrepresent my comment. That's twisted logic and an accusation.
Don't worry, the people at OWS are much more polite than I am. I am also generaly very polite. I just lose my "temper" when people who are opposed to a particular position use falsehoods to malign the intended target. I am intolerant of that. Most of the protesters at OWS on the other hand, would calmly discuss how that person is misguided. You should not pretend I represent the norm / average / majority... each person there has their own character / disposition / opinion / personality. Go talk to them and see if any can persuade you of anything.
With regard to my other posts in general, I am simply making statements that people are welcome to consider, but I am completely of the opinion that I cannot convince anyone of anything. They have to convince themselves.
In fact, I keep pointing out to the other protesters that we are the .0000001% of the population. The ones who care enoug to actually do something, regardless of our political stance on the policies.
If you are serious about changing the direction society is headed in, you should study the aftermath of World War I. That generation was the one that basically changed the world. Many of the social programs, though instituted in subsequent decades, were birthed during the time right after World War I. You will find a people who valued pioneering spirit and hard work. The world was destroyed by the Great War and the survivors wanted to rebuild the world to be a better place for their children and grandchildren. Most initiatives did not work. That is life.
Today, things are basically the same. The direction of the world needs to be changed. It is expected that will be the result of individuals stepping up, assuming leadership roles and making decisions.
As a note, protesting in the park is good for TV, but TV viewership is down. Any results you get will be clear to see within a month. After that time, everyone knows who you have influenced, and what direction you are headed in. If, after a month things are not clear, you will not get new converts and stand a good chance of losing some of your present support.
I understand your thinking, but it won't work that way.
"Party" is corruption.
Wrong Peter, the majority of Americans don't want to live like Puritans. If you want to live under harsh religious rules, I recommend that you move to the Middle East.
So acting out like infants, and pooping in your metaphorical diapers, is what you mean by "not living like Puritans"?
What are you, 15? Get back down in Mommy's basement.
MA!!! WHERE'S THAT MEAT LOAF??
I'm not quite sure I get the puritan thing, must be a personal hang up. But with respect to faith based economics, the kind practiced by the "Pseudo Keynsians" read neo-Marxists, I'm all for banning that. And while we're at it, how about discarding the pseudo science of adipogenic global warming and its high priest Algore to the trash heap of history? What'ca think?
Apologies to those who have read the following text on my previous posts.
End the non-Federal non-Reserve and all the other privately owned central banks around the world. JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are big shareholders in the non-Federal non-Reserve but the general public will never be offered a share. Their website in section 7 states that stockholders receive an annual dividend of 6% as a profit for providing a paper currency. Teach yourself about the Austrian school of economics and you will understand we have centrally planned economies not free market.
The non-Federal non-Reserve, owned by the mega-banks, welcomes you to your destitution after 100 years of paying out an annual dividend of 6% to their mega-bank owners. When you consider that Americans before 1913 were never subject to this transfer of their wealth to the mega-banks you have to ask yourself how much less poor would the American general public be today without it and how much less warfare the world would have been spared.
BINGO! Focus on the problem.
+1, and nice behind!
Inequality / injustice existed as THE problem for the majority of humanity because of the economic systems, not because there was a FED. That is YOUR problem.
I keep clicking the green arrow. so technically your green arrow count is at least 500.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." -Thomas Jefferson
Ole Tom knew this day would come.
Great quote, whoever said it, but it wasn't Jefferson.
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/jefferson/banks.asp
LOL, beat me to it.
Whether TJ actually said it is one thing, but please don't cite Snopes as your source. They are worthless hacks.
Cue Snopes-quoting douchebag in 3..2..1..
Ignore pls.
PMs are where you need to be
Of course I'm debating whether the gold is more valuable than the lead.
That's tungsten, my friend, tungsten.
Well if you run out of lead and none will sell, you could cast bullets of coin (90%)gold, no doubt. Expensive but effective for pistols anyway.
OTOH though i've heard some have turned lead into gold (other than robbery) the recipe does seem to get lost!
It was tried on one of those TV shows like Mythbusters, silver bullets (and I assume gold bullets) deform too much under the influence of gunpowder and air (wind) resistance. They fly about willy-nilly.
They were talking about shooting were-wolves.
Draw your analogies here.
Here's mine (apologies to Ben Franklin): It's like having two (were-) wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
My my Tyler have started covering Wall Street protest, he is probably few blocks away now he can hear them. Nice to have wind in the back.
Well said. Terrific article.
"Smoke, mirrors and heavy doses of propaganda laden obfuscation are required to keep the masses complacent and ignorant of the dangers Wall Street places on the shoulders of ordinary people. Virtually unlimited leverage for investment banks? Check. CDS markets traded over-the-counter and away from any transparent exchange? No problem. CMOs and CDOs as healthy vehicles to efficiently distribute and allocate risk? Foolproof. Crooked politiicians snatching up taxpayer dollars to give to political donors & family members sitting on the boards of solar companies. Its all good. It all works fine until it doesn’t."
Fixed.
http://mises.org/daily/5761/What-Radicalism
“The protesters of the "occupy" movement imagine themselves to be in the spirit of history's great radicals — speaking truth to power and all that. As many have said, the movement seems blind to the real source of power in society, else they would be protesting government bureaucracies and the Federal Reserve.
Actually, however, it is even worse than that. The protest movement is not just blind to the actual driving force behind impoverishment and injustice. The main ethos of the movement is actively supportive of government and the powerful interests that back the status quo, so much so that this movement doesn't even deserve the name radical.”
Government acts on behalf of itself [and the interest groups it represents]. Government is not omniscient and is, actually, the dumbest institution in society because it does nothing but take by force and reward its friends. While I believe the early TeaParty & OWS movements represent initial rumblings of the 'Fourth Turning', we are not seeing a revolution against what must be changed. Yet...
"The main ethos of the movement is actively supportive of government and the powerful interests that back the status quo, so much so that this movement doesn't even deserve the name radical.”
Exactly.
As long as their objectives are being met...bailing out "green energy" on the taxpayer dime, for one. Bailing out tenured college professors with a bloated "shovel ready" stimulus for another.
there's always an element sponsored by the establishment at these protests. plain clothes police officers chucking bricks, for example, and others more publicly claiming the movement as their own. i agree that the "demands" of the OWS apparent spokespeople are obviously typically socialist/globalist stuff and that they are indeed calling on the government itself for help, but i also think that there are a lot of people there who have nothing to do with this group or their agenda. i've seen a number of "end the fed" type signs at these protests, and i'd recommend this youtube channel for a guy who is going to interview people. i tend to think that the level of general grievance among people these days for a variety of reasons is going to draw more and more people to these protests...if people start to notice that they're becoming global in nature, things could get really interesting for the self-styled elite then.
They lost me at "union support."
Agree, Unions are simply another self serving corporate entity seeking "bought and paid for politicians" to leverage influence in Washington and keep the status quo alive.
Apparently not very effectively since we have almost none now outside of government. Don't rich people have these type of organizations , like PAC's, with considerably more money and apparently considerably more success?
finally. a voice of sanity. Thanks for that link. You can always rely on mises.org
Most of the OWS protesters are too young to have a proper perspective. After all, so many have only recently emerged from years in colleges having their skulls crammed full of socialist/marxist mush by overpaid socialist/marxist professors. Looking at the protesters' electronics, many appear to have decided to have one last outdoor fling before retreating to their parents' basements for winter hibernation. If they thought outside the marxist box they would realize (as a few have, actually) that the problem isn't Wall Street or capitalism per se, but rather the incestuous relationship between our over-extended national government, the Federal Reserve and the banks that own/control it; a true 3-way CF. Considering where so many of these controlling rascals come from, I suggest that the protesters occupy the Ivy League colleges and demand that all Ivy Leagers in the 3-way CF be tossed out of office (or job) and sent to jail. Imagine what it would have been like without Bush 1, Clinton (W), Bush 2, Kerry, Gore, Clinton (H), Bernanke, Obama and all those others.
Time to sip more soma and think more happy thoughts.
This...
"After all, so many have only recently emerged from years in colleges having their skulls crammed full of socialist/marxist mush by overpaid socialist/marxist professors."
And when they had some of the ones who were bailed out on the taxpayer dime in their clutches what did they do?
They gathered around at their feet.
"Part of the Occupy Boston site was temporarily renamed "Free School University" as the crowd gathered at the feet of Brown University international political economy professor Mark Blyth and Boston University international relations professor Kevin Gallagher.
Standing on a wooden crate, they discussed with a crowd of about 50 people the misdeeds of Wall Street and Washington. Future forums were scheduled to address anarchism, psychology and law and privacy rights."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/07/us-usa-wallstreet-protests-idUSTRE7966BO20111007?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true
First, trying to lump evryone into some nice, neat little package that you can write about, dinigrate, and project your personal prejudices onto may be satisfying, but it's foolish at this point.
Second, drawing any conclusions about what these people collectively want or don't want from the government is impossible. Same with what the collective "they" is or is not "Blind to". It started on Wall St., but it's moving on to other targets. Both Washinton and the FED are already targets. This is an amalgamation of groups from all over the political & economic spectums.
Third, the closing paragraph is spot on, and the operative word in the post above is ..... YET
The arab spring was a lateral move. Nothing changed. The military ran Egypt when Mubarak was Prez and they still run it. God knows what is going on in Libya and Syrian protesters are getting mowed down by machine gun fire. I don't think they're exactly a positive model to mold a movement after.
This led to the Tea Party. But for the status quo, the Tea Party was easy to diffuse.
Lol. They got into congress and rattled TPTB during the debt ceiling debate. Whether you like them or not, they got in and have hardly been diffused.
Yes I thought that was an odd comment as well. There are a lot of former Congresspeople who would disagree that they were easily diffused!
"They got into congress and rattled TPTB during the debt ceiling debate. Whether you like them or not, they got in and have hardly been diffused."
More is on the way.
Time to take the car keys away.
No need to protest, occupy anything, or march anywhere.
Several simple steps taken by each and every indebted American will do the trick:
1) Stop paying mortgage
2) Stop paying auto loans
3) Stop paying student loans
4) Stop paying credit cards
5) Withdraw all money from TARP recipients
6) Stop paying taxes
If 50 million Americans did that beginning TODAY...
Well, wouldn't things get rather interesting quickly?
Much less confrontational and all legal:
Move out of TBTF banking.
Stop flying commercial airlines.
Throw out the TV.
Stop patronizing Big League sports - attend
local college/high school games.
Do some volunteering - food bank, senior services, kid's tutor.
Plant something you can eat.
Take your kids on a hike.
Disrupt your stupid routine, get out of your rut.
Go talk to some of the OWS folks, they might learn something from you.
Very nice. I absolutely love the idea of social participation. When we blog, we participate, but only with a small goup with a limited breadth of beliefs and few it seems are interested in changing their views. In the streets, angry kids yearn for more understanding. What happened? Why? How can we fix it? Let's go give them some help.
Tsar,
You are a natural "do-nothing dude". Welcome to the party om
What was the man who lit himself on fire in Tunisia thinking i"m sure he did not have a plan . Ask Kadaffi and Assad what they think
A guy lit himself on fire in front of a courthouse in New Hampshire this summer, and it didn't even make the national news.
I can't believe the politicians and bankers can't see what is coming. This is only going to get bigger. The uneven bailouts in the US need to be addressed. You cannot give a few rich people trillions of dollars and nothing to everyone else--Especially when those few rich people caused this mess by making horrid investments. Every day they wait to go full on into debt repudiation is another day where more people lose it all. They NEED to do the big refi, and at this point throw in student loan forgiveness too, if they want another 20 years of society with or without fixing the banking system.
The banks see it; how about the chopper/rappeling exercise of BofA a few months back?
I witnessed this: Early 2010, over a weekend, nearly every Chase bank teller window in the S.F. Bay Area was encased in 1.5" bulletproof glass. Even in the nicest bedroom communities, there it was.
Over one weekend.
There isn't a single bank branch under any name in my hometown that hasn't had in the past 3 years or is currently having installed, some form of "upgrade"
And yes, I mean that LITERALLY. If my eyes were open back then, I could have made a photo collage of several hundred branches in my tri-state area. It's mind boggling how asleep are the sheep.
I guess all those banker dudes will just have to live in the bank-- can't go out in the parking lot -- no bullet proof glass out there-- its mind boggling how asleep the elite are.
Jay Cutler! is that you?? Whats up buddie?
"and at this point throw in student loan forgiveness too"
I agree you can't give a few rich people trillions of dollars and nothing to everyone else. Unlike you, I disagree with the principle!
You write that we should throw in student loan forgiveness, same principle just a lesser amount. How about the people that have already repaid their student loans? How about the people that never went to college? They get nothing? So now we change the special interest group from the Bankers to the debtors. Anyone that has been frugal and managed to repay their debt or chose to do without the latest and greatest of everything can now subsidize those that owe the bank? Did someone force the borrower to take the loan?
I despise the system and the banks but you are asking for anyone with a student loan to become the new "Special Class".
Are you a politician? Fix one problem while you create another?
Quin,
You can believe it.
They think that they are going to have us shot down in the street like dogs----they are not very bright, but they are mean and they will kill some of us. So what? They will probably come first for the old and the lame like the pack of dogs they are.
Fuckém om
"In any technologically advanced society the individual's fate MUST depend on decisions that he personally cannot influence to any great extent. A technological society cannot be broken down into small, autonomous communities, because production depends on the cooperation of very large numbers of people and machines. Such a society MUST be highly organized and decisions HAVE TO be made that affect very large numbers of people. When a decision affects, say, a million people, then each of the affected individuals has, on the average, only a one-millionth share in making the decision. What usually happens in practice is that decisions are made by public officials or corporation executives, or by technical specialists, but even when the public votes on a decision the number of voters ordinarily is too large for the vote of any one individual to be significant. Thus most individuals are unable to influence measurably the major decisions that affect their lives. Their is no conceivable way to remedy this in a technologically advanced society. The system tries to "solve" this problem by using propaganda to make people WANT the decisions that have been made for them, but even if this "solution" were completely successful in making people feel better, it would be demeaning."- Unabomber's Manifesto
That guy should have taken "drop out" a lot more seriously.
unabomber was stupid enough in that he still gave a shit.
I could feel all self-important and write out tome upon tome of my thoughts and have dipshits look over my words in the following decades, but people aren't worth it. There's much more fun to be had in watching them collectively flounder about.
I disagree. All the more reason to have a small government and true free markets. Small government so that it has little affect on the individual and free markets so the individual can choose among competitors. Government should be at the lowest practical level.
there's a protest in london tomorrow, last i saw the facebook group had 3000 confirmed as going. i'd be there myself if i wasn't helping to build a strawbale classroom instead, though again their focus seems to be more on the stock exchanges than the bank of england, despite my suggestions that they read people like von mises about gold's role as a fundamental political liberty. i see lots of agendas, lots of spooks and lots of angry/unemployed people in the mix, and the generalised occupy movement seems to be gaining ground globally on a daily basis.
"The average American citizen is quickly falling behind their global peers in terms of education levels and many find the topics of economics and finance far too dense to comprehend."
I find this completely disingenuous, especially regarding the Fantasy Finance Sector, a k a, the Klepto-Plutocracy, in existence today. All the disinformation and misinformation out there --- one hears the same pure crapola on Foxtard, CNN, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, AP, etc., ad nauseum. Fact: 95% of all commodity futures trades are pure speculation --- no hedging -- as the recent study by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has shown. Fact: The claptrap about credit default swaps being used as a hedge (whether covered or naked) is pure bullcrap, as we all should realize by this time. Instead, it compounds risk to infinity (any one of the smallest number involved --- 3 for instance, purchases another CDS and it blows the hedge, then anyone other than those involved, buys a naked swap -- again it blows any possibility of a hedge. Pure bullcrap. The simple fact is that the banks and investment houses, for every $1 of debt on hand, sold from $100 to $1,000 in debt (averaging closer to that $1,000 figure). Even if every single commercial loan and residential loan were paid off (and the meltdown began with LIBOR restrictions, followed by commercial than subprime defaults --- too small to matter at the beginning, while the securitized-debt driven scam meltdown caused cascading unemployment resulting in evermore defaults from lack of revenues) there would still be a meltdown around the same time (2007/2008) due to the unsustainability of the securitized, neverending debt-peddling scam. Trying to falsely claim that the scam (as in "..the topics of economics and finance far too dense to comprehend..") is anything other than well-designed criminal conspiracy and flim-flam scam, a certifiable Ponzi-Tontine scheme (and we all know who the last man standing will be this time around), is utter dishonesty. I call complete and utter bullcrap on this blog post!
"The average American citizen is quickly falling behind their global peers in terms of education levels and many find the topics of economics and finance far too dense to comprehend."
Yes; and there are at least half-a-dozen spelling and syntax errors in this article . . . including a construction error in the very sentence I quote.
Can you find it?
I think that U.S. americans can do so, like the Iraqis, because they dont have maps.
Thank you, Ms. South Carolina!!!
Thanks, Sheep
"U.S. americans" is so much more correct that "Americans" or "americans". I have searched for a long time for the way you put it, but to no avail. There is strength in diversity of opinion, after all. om
is it the switch from singular (citizen) to plural (many)?
bingo...........citizen..........their
I wouldnt have used 'dense'...a topic CAN'T be 'dense', that makes no sense. A topic can be 'complex', but not dense.
Clearly the nation is suffering from a derth of English majors ;-)
¿qué
Twisted sarcasm...its the latest thing ;-)
" is quickly falling "
You shouldn't seperate the conjugal (?) verb with the adverb quickly.
" levels and many "
There should be a comma between "levels" and "and" to denote the compound sentence.
Just 2 problems, but then again, my post probably has some problems of it's own.
"The average American citizen" is an individual and an individual may have a peer, but not "their peers", however, Wiki suggests that the use of the plural their as a singular pronoun is quite common. So, yes, we are dumber than a 5th grader, but that's no reason for the bully banks to steal our lunch money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They
I read all the answers and still don't give a shit.
Neither does the employer ;-)
Close your bank accounts. Stop borrowing fiat. Own physical. Arm up. Enjoy your life / Problem Solved.
Done. Add to that actually showing up for the revolution. And the Tea Party is doing what, exactly.... Oh, right, ignoring Ron Paul, because the establishment told you he was unelectable.
Occupy Wall Street, in my opinion, represents a refinement of the original Tea Party rant and the next political movement to be inspired since 2008. This movement represents the point where it’s no longer just financial insiders like Mr. Santelli that understand the graft and corruption that is our current system. No, this movement is solidly being peopled by folks from a broad array of life experiences, political stripes and philosophical leanings. It will be much harder for the status quo to dilute this message. Harder, but not impossible.
Well it was a a decent article until this statement. Those of us who lean right see the OWS crowd as a bunch of big government pleebs who expect everything to be handed to them instead of working for them. No you are wrong MR. Rogers this movement will be diffused or it will beturned as a big government movement versus a small government movement.
I know he's a principled man, and is part of the Republican party for what it USED to be (individual liberty, fiscal responsibility, smaller govt.....but not at the cost of the greater good) but how Ron Paul has NOT become an independent has baffled me.
I mean, he's never going to beat the corportists/evangelicals who have inflitrated the party. Corporate money and Evangelical Fraggle Rock voting habits (that the corporate side takes advantage of via subversive propaganda) will never been beaten.
The anti-policitican sentiment in this country is the only thing I think we, for the most part, can universally agree on. A 3rd party candidate, especially one with a "Bring the Troops Home" stance, would DESTROY Obama and Romney/Perry in 2012. Things have gotten so bad, almost to a "A Frog could run and win the White House after those 8 piss-poor years of Bush" factor would take precident. And Ron Paul, who is one of the very few pols who have kept true to his voting record, and is also a wonderfully nice (yet boring..which isn't good for those "tv voters) man, would EASILY, IMO, make it at LEAST a 30/30/30 race going into Nov. 2nd. Which, as a 3rd partier, is what I would want. The DEBATE and QUESTION itself would be good for the country. It would be a breath of fresh air.
And the two BIG parties would never see it coming.
Deosnt make the least bit of difference as Wall St just rubs their ass in everyones face with daily 2% market melt-ups.
I think theyre dying to start the people rioting.
If you take the trouble to read the signs, you'll see what a hodge-podge these protesters are: save the earth, save the fish, gimme $20 an hour, gimme food. They should be at the White House demanding less government...but it's not less government they want. They just want.
A bunch of spoiled babies who took on a shit load of debt for worthless degrees. Now they have buyers remorse. It's too bad they don't even have the most basic understanding of economics. They would understand that free is never free.
Yea!
I must have hit a sore spot. I'm getting junked by all the marxists.
Sore spot. I have no idea what the views of the majority of OWS is as regards the size of government, but this lefty wants more effective government at a lesser cost. For example, the SEC should stop reading porn and should prosecute fraud. The DOJ should stop selling guns to Mexican gangs and should prosecute fraud. The Treasury Department should stop giving money to banksters and should prosecute fraud. And the Pentagon should stop invading foreign nations and should prosecute fraud. Does that make me for more government or less?
All good things. But I'd be willing to bet that you want 1) free healthcare 2) free college 3) all debt to be written down 4) more governmebnt intervention into the free market .. I could go on but you get the idea, Free Free Free
You want more effective gov't at lower cost? Sorry, at the federal level it ain't gonna happen. The only effective gov't is local gov't. That's why the constitution was written the way it was. But somehow, 230-odd years later, nobody pays attention to the constitution anymore and we have a federal gov't that is so huge, so bloated, and so completely disconnected from it's constituents that it will NEVER accomplish anything useful, and exists only to transfer wealth from the politically unconnected, to the politically connected.
You gotta wake up, brother, and get your mind right.
Hey Doc,
I don´t think it is Marxists. I think it is people trying trying to tell you in a nice way that you´re pissing in the soup. om
And BTW---there ain´t no free---does not exist
Marxists have a name for people like that -- "useful idiots."
MARXISTS! COMMUNISTS! STALINISTS! LENINISTS, MAOISTS! Oh my God! The sky is falling, said Chicken Little.
How many people here have ever met anyone who labeled themselves as one of the above in this country? I have not. Bet you have not, either, Buckaroo. Anyone remotely informed knows the evils these extreme 'isms' has caused. They are the same evils caused by right-wing 'isms', i.e. Facsism......all discredited.
The vast majority simply want justice, equality, clean government, and the chance for meaningful work and advancement. You know, the promise of the America that I grew up in.
And, as for these kids graduating from college with unpayable debt loads, you have to ask why that is before laying all the blame on them. Afer all, they are largely inexperienced, easily lead young people, persuing the dreams laid out for them by the system. They thought the increase in income that degree would bring would more than off-set the debt, and for many before them, it did. But why hve education costs mushroomed so? Why is it that so much money is so easily available and so readily foisted off onto the backs of the young?
Of course, the pathway to the answer leads to an system of higher education that has been corrupted by Banksters. It seems that virtually every aspect of our lives has been corupted the same way. The medical/drug/insurance industries, the prison industry...even basic banking/credit itself. Truly, is a 30% interest rate on revolving credit not usury? How are Pay-day loans at 400% compounded interest rates not fleecing the poor and desparate? Drive down the main road leading to any major military base in America and look at all the pay-day loan predators, feeding off our soldiers.
All this name calling is less than helpful. Somehow, we must come together. If you love freedom, free your mind to new possibilities and and solutions that work for the average man.....you know, like 'fair & balanced' ;-)
I see a lot of fertilizer for the tree of liberty gatherin' in the nation's cities.
http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2011/10/14/crowdsource-this-social-l...
http://biggovernment.com/thomasryan/2011/10/14/the-email-archive-of-the-...
There is no grass roots movement.
thanks for these links!
I just came in my pants thinking about this below......great idea and suggestion.
1) Stop paying mortgage
2) Stop paying auto loans
3) Stop paying student loans
4) Stop paying credit cards
5) Withdraw all money from TARP recipients
6) Stop paying taxes
If 50 million Americans did that beginning TODAY...
Well, wouldn't things get rather interesting quickly?
One more I would say would be to organize a rally where hundreds, millions of people, would be told to bring a $1 dollar bill (or a $20 for Alexander Hamilton, the father of US Central banking...ain't worth anything, anyways) and have a mass dollar burning protest (a la lighters in concerts). Hell, maybe even make it a concert. A "Fuck This Money" concert.
THEN the poeple who run the country would REALLY be scared for their jobs; b/c they would know then the proletariat couldn't be bought out anymore.
You know the OWS crowd is not serious because they have not had a credit card burning.
Technical note: America's favorite Columbia dropout is on the $10 FRN. Our favorite bank buster, Jackson, is on the $20.
This is a Global Trend that is spreading rapidly, Jim Rickards was just at the Occupy Wall Strett movement, and was tweeting live. Mixed review on his part.
http://jimrickards.blogspot.com/
I believe that these protests are ALL positive, for if nothing else it allows many in the general public participating to get their sea legs going. So while this initial effort may not be as fruitful as a 100% occupy the Fed movement, it will eventually lead to that one day and by then you will have these confident, battle tested protesters focussed on the real criminals - and when that hapens, look out
Don't mistake the GOP for conservatives. the tea party/conservative movement is having to fight the RINO/liberal establishment GOP as much as democrats/Marxists. There are conservative candidates, Romney is not one of them.
By the way, you are dead ass wrong about these students. They aren't rejecting Keynesian economics, They are adopting the Marxists and rejecting freedom and capitalism.
They are being led to marx like sheep .
One side wants things just as they are, the other side wants to add to it.
Freedom and capitalism as presently implemented in the US needs to be rejected soundly.
If by "Freedom and capitalism as presently implemented", you mean "Freedom and capitalism, which are not currently implemented in any meaningful way in the US," then yes, you are correct.
It is corruption that is the problem not freedom and capitalism. The corruption comes from all sides and must be dealth with not overlooked based on which party is in power or who is on the board.
How about providing us with your definition of what a conservative is, 'cause I don't know.
Is it like the guys in the House that have brought up what, like 7 bills this year to tinker with abortion rights, as the economy burns all around us? Is it the ones who keep giving more power to Homeland Security and eroding our freedom? Or is it blindly supporting the MIC?
I have been watching this from day one, and have yet to see a sign or banner supporting Marxism. Not one in 10,000 supports Marxism, and any who did would be quickly rejected and marginalized.
@ " conservative ?.." here an example. one who makes millions
through mandatory "drugging" of service personnel via large
financial interest in government contracts that supply those
pharmaceutical products at astronomical profits.
.
Rumsfeld says Flight 93 was "shot down."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Xoxaf1Al0
.
speaking of flight...
Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
By Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen
Sunday, 12 March 2006
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-rumsfeld-makes-5...
.
i don't know how to spin this conservative success story any other
way than to call it a scam and crime,
not to disparage the true conservatives who want to understand
and comport with ecology in a sound and lasting/sustainable way;
them being your organic farmers and dirty working people.
and don't miss the bit about flight 93 being shot down, rummy
apparently talking off script and revealing.
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/10/16/all-you-fascists-are-bound-to-lose/
All you fascists are bound to lose
Posted on October 16, 2011 by maxkeiser
.
I'm gonna tell you fascists
You may be surprised
The people in this world
Are getting organized
You're bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose
Race hatred cannot stop us
This one thing we know
Your poll tax and Jim Crow
And greed has got to go
You're bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose.
All of you fascists bound to lose:
I said, all of you
fascists bound to lose:
Yes sir, all of you
Find more similar lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.com/U5xJfascists bound to lose:
You're bound to lose! You fascists:
Bound to lose!
People of every color
Marching side to side
Marching 'cross these fields
Where a million fascists dies
You're bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!
I'm going into this battle
And take my union gun
We'll end this world of slavery
Before this battle's won
You're bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!
Guns and Butter
http://archive.wbai.org/
Friday October 14 9:00am
59 min
hit play, history of debt ..etc
.
Yes Virginia, Karma is Real
Economic Equity | Social Justice and Activism
by Stephen Pizzo | October 13, 2011
...
..
"Chutzpah alert: Even though the status quo has clearly failed, and those failures are only accelerating, it's not the status quo-ers who must do some explaining, but those complaining about those failures.
All of which explains the questions questions being posed by reporters: "So what do you people want? Where's your list of demands? Who are your leaders?"
Yeah, well, sorry. When the status quo ceases to serve the many, but only the few, what the many want is pretty simple - a piece of the freaking action.
When real unemployment is pushing 20%, a decent-paying job would do nicely, thank you.
When the money-changers -- whose careless greed caused all that unemployment -- are run out of the temple of high finance, but ushered out by the government "of the people," supplied with getaway cars and whisked to safety, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves -- and you have to ask why the OWS protestors are pissed?
Really? Come on, you're not really journalists, are you? As a former member of your tribe, I am ashamed to associated with you. Go curl up with Steinbeck and try to get your head around human suffering... assholes
OWS protestors should just echo that question back to reporters stupid enough to ask:
"Hey Brian (Wolf etc) just who are your leaders? (Murdoch, NBC/General Electric, et al?) "And why aren't you investigating?them instead of us? What are their motives, their tactics? Who are their lobbyists? How much in bribes to politicians disguised as "contributions did your leaders make this year? Go do that for a while and, maybe when you get back you'll understand us better. Hell, you might even join us.""
...
..
Bingo, and that is why fewer and fewer mainstream journalists will venture into the crowd. It has already backfired on several of them....very amusing, and very threatening to them and their networks. They don't want these questions asked for their audience to hear. They don't want to shown for what they are, or embarrased by what they consider dirty hippies who ask serious questions they themselves should be asking, and providing answers for to the public.
No it's much easier and safer to sit in the studio, hand select safe "guests" to interview, and try to protect the status quo. OWS went on for 8 days just blocks from the headquarters of all the major networks before it was reported on in any meaningful way. Only when videos started going viral on the Internet did they acknowledge anything was going on, and even then, the networks have made every effort to dis-credit the movement.
Some people do not remember "The Young Republicans" or "The Young Democrats" or a certain Democratic Convention(1968)
2012 Democrat national convention is in Charlotte, NC. Home of BofA. 1968 deja vu.
Let me see they all have: Smartphones, and Ipads(made by evil corporations) cameras,(made by evil corporations) plastic sunglasses ,
(made by the most evil of corporations, big oil) clothes (made by evil corporations and that evil dow chemical) sleeping bags,tents, air mattresses, all made by evil corporations. They even cash their unemployment checks at the big evil banks. Seems to me without these evil corporations they wouldn't be able to protest. What a bunch of hypocrites. They don't even know what they are protesting.
Let me fix this for you.
"they all have: Smartphones, and Ipads(made by evil corporations IN CHINA) cameras,(made by evil corporations IN CHINA) plastic sunglasses,(made by the most evil of corporations, big oil, IN CHINA) clothes (made by evil corporations and that evil dow chemical IN CHINA) sleeping bags,tents, air mattresses, all made by evil corporations IN CHINA."
Maybe this little tweak will help you figure out what they are protesting. You seem not to get it.
The only thing that will come out of this is either nothing or cronies will write complicated, unreadable policies that favour...you guessed it, the cronies, at the expense of their competitiors.
Or worse, because of these dopes we can get more Obammunist policies.
Screw them.
The tea party has been rattling some cages. TPTB of both parties are scared.
We have passed Ghandi's phase where they laugh at the tea party. No one is laughing now. The are angry or frightened, and actively fighting the tea party.
We get 50 tea party senators and 230 tea party reps and there will be an end to the fed, an end to the federal income tax, and a return to true federalism.
If new york wants welfare and socialized medicine they can have it. If alabama doesnt want it they dont have to have it.
What is wrong with letting the states decide these issues as well as general tax levels?
From H. L. Mencken's Notes on Democracy:
I have alluded somewhat vaguely to the merits of democracy. One of them is quite obvious: it is, perhaps, the most charming form of government ever devised by man. The reason is not far to seek. It is based upon propositions that are palpably not true -- and what is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true. Truth has a harshness that alarms them, and an air of finality that collides with their incurable romanticism. They turn, in all the great emergencies of life, to the ancient promises, transparently false but immensely comforting, and of all those ancient promises there is none more comforting than the one to the effect that the lowly shall inherit the earth. It is at the bottom of the dominant religious system of the modern world, and it is at the bottom of the dominant political system. The latter, which is democracy, gives it an even higher credit and authority than the former, which is Christianity. More, democracy gives it a certain appearance of objective and demonstrable truth. The mob man, functioning as citizen, gets a feeling that he is really important to the world -- that he is genuinely running things. Out of his maudlin herding after rogues and mountebanks there comes to him a sense of vast and mysterious power -- which is what makes archbishops, police sergeants, the grand goblins of the Ku Klux and other such magnificoes happy. And out of it there comes, too, a conviction that he is somehow wise, that his views are taken seriously by his betters -- which is what makes United States Senators, fortune-tellers and Young Intellectuals happy. Finally, there comes out of it a glowing consciousness of a high duty triumphantly done -- which is what makes hangmen and husbands happy.
All these forms of happiness, of course, are illusory. They don't last. The democrat, leaping into the air to flap his winds and praise God, is for ever coming down with a thump. The seeds of his disaster, as I have shown, lie in his own stupidity: he can never get rid of the naive delusion -- so beautifully Christian! -- that happiness is something to be got by taking it away from the other fellow. But there are seeds, too, in the very nature of things: a promise, after all, is only a promise, even when it is supported by divine revelation, and the chances against its fulfillment may be put into a depressing mathematical formula. Here the irony that lies under all human aspiration shows itself: the quest for happiness, as always, brings only unhappiness in the end. But saying that is merely saying that the true charm of democracy is not for the democrat but for the spectator. The spectator, it seems to me, is favoured with a show of the first cut and calibre. Try to imagine anything more heroically absurd! What grotesque false pretences! What a parade of obvious imbecilities! What a welter of fraud! But is fraud unamusing? Then I retire forthwith as a psychologist. The fraud of democracy, I contend, is more amusing than any other -- more amusing even, and by miles, than the fraud of religion. Go into your praying-chamber and give sober thought to any of the more characteristic democratic inventions: say, Law Enforcement. Or to any of the typical democratic prophets: say, the late Archangel Bryan. If you don't come out paled and palsied by mirth then you will not laugh on the Last Day itself, when Presbyterians step out of the grave like chicks from the egg, and wings blossom from their scapulae, and they leap into interstellar space with roars of joy.
I have spoken hitherto of the possibility that democracy may be a self-limiting disease, like measels. It is, perhaps, something more: it is self-devouring. One cannot observe it objectively without being impressed by its curious distrust of itself -- its apparently ineradicable tendency to abandon its whole philosophy at the first sign of strain. I need not point to what happens invariably in democratic states when the national safety is menaced. All the great tribunes of democracy, on such occasions, convert themselves, by a process as simple as taking a deep breath, into despots of an almost fabulous ferocity. Lincoln, Roosevelt and Wilson come instantly to mind: Jackson and Cleveland are in the background, waiting to be recalled. Nor is this process confined to times of alarm and terror; it is going on day in and day out. Democracy always seems bent upon killing the thing it theoretically loves. I have rehearsed some of its operations against liberty, the very cornerstone of its political metaphysic. It not only wars upon the thing itself; it even wars upon mere academic advocacy of it. I offer the spectacle of Americans jailed for reading the Bill of Rights as perhaps the most gaudily humorous ever witnessed in the modern world. Try to imagine monarchy jailing subjects for maintaining the divine right of Kings! Or Christianity damning a believer for arguing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God! This last, perhaps, has been done: anything is possible in that direction. But under democracy the remotest and most fantastic possibility is a commonplace of every day. All the axioms resolve themselves into thundering paradoxes, many amounting to downright contradictions in terms. The mob is competent to rule the rest of us -- but it must be rigorously policed itself. There is a government, not of men, but of laws -- but men are set upon benches to decide finally what the law is and may be. The highest function of the citizen is to serve the state -- but the first assumption that meets him, when he essays to discharge it, is an assumption of his disingenuousness and dishonour. Is that assumption commonly sound? Then the farce only grows the more glorious.
I confess, for my part, that it greatly delights me. I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing. Does it exalt dunderheads, cowards, trimmers, frauds, cads? Then the pain of seeing them go up is balanced and obliterated by the joy of seeing them come down. Is it inordinately wasteful, extravagant, dishonest? Then so is every other form of government: all alike are enemies to laborious and virtuous men. Is rascality at the very heart of it? Well, we have borne that rascality since 1776, and continue to survive. In the long run, it may turn out that rascality is necessary to human government, and even to civilization itself -- that civilization, at bottom, is nothing but a colossal swindle. I do not know: I report only that when the suckers are running well the spectacle is infinitely exhilarating. But I am, it may be, a somewhat malicious man: my sympathies, when it comes to suckers, tend to be coy. What I can't make out is how any man can believe in democracy who feels for and with them, and is pained when they are debauched and made a show of. How can any man be a democrat who is sincerely a democrat?
You know, reading through this, it strikes me that the only people who can out-idiot the idiots in Zucotti Park are the idiots on Wall Street.
Latest video from the Obama electoral base protesting the Obama donor base debating: what have the bankers ever done for us?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CsK4mN-0JI
Very nice summary Brian. Thank you for your perspective.
"Whether the protestors realize it or not, their role in history is an important and necessary one."
I agree, most of the protestors don't yet realize the size of the wave we are riding. This will be easier for many to grasp as the class and generational war heats up. Nothing like rubber bullets and tear gas to get one's attention - especially if you went to high school with the person doing the shooting.
3 days until Black Monday II
Once again, you could learn a few lessons from your neighbour to the north.
Up here, unlimited free speech isn't guaranteed. As a result, both the Liberal and Conservative parties enacted laws that prevented corporations (and unions) from making campaign contributions, and limited individuals to $1,100 total to either the party or a candidate in any year. Political parties that gain more than 5% of the vote get a subsidy from the government of about $1,25 per voter per year (although the current government has suggested ending that over the next four years). The net result: government - at least at the federal level - doesn't whore itself out to banks, industry, or unions.
In certain regulated industries, there's a "cooling off" period (3 or 5 years, IIRC) from when you leave the industry before you can work for the government department that controls it. Call it the "anti-Vampire Squid" law. When I read Matt Taibbi's articles in Rolling Stone, I was appalled at the penetration of ex-Goldman people in every important branch of financial governance. Some complain that this stops talented individuals from leaving private industry to contribute to government; I leave you gentle readers to decide which has worked better in practice.
Finally, our major banks are required to keep some skin in the game on home mortgages. This makes them much more cautious about handing out dough to the NINA's of the world. And yet, without forcing banks to make lending to non-qualified borrowers, Canada's home ownership rate is virtually the same as America's.
I agree with the poster above who said this is not a question of Democrat, Republican, libertarian, etc., etc. - this is the people against cronyism. Your Second Amendment may be the deciding factor.
Seems so simple and it's been demonstrated to work. Unfortunately, this means nothing in US. This type of reform has been debated for decades with no progress. Americans are such good sheep that TPTB has easily maintained and even dramatically accelerated it's exploitation of everyone else my whole life. Likewise, medical system Likewise, immigration. Likewise, military spending. Likewise education. Truly we are a society unable to progress no matter how many successful examples exist. The collapse can't be far off.
Canada is a socialist wasteland, but I gotta admit, you guys got that one right
Socialist wasteland that almost everyone on Earth would love to move to except for those in other socialist wastelands like Denmark, Germany, France, etc. No financial system collapse in Canada due to socialist regulation.
Fellows, don't get me wrong - we have our share of problems. Ontario, our largest province (and where I live) doesn't have the campaign contribution limitations of the feds. Unions and corporations can contribute along with individuals, and the limit is $9,300 per year PLUS an extra $9,300 whenever a vote is called. Our current doofus, Liberal Dull-tone McSquinty lives off the public sector unions, and he pays them back big time. For example, during the campaign, he made a big deal out of creating full-day kindergarten for 4 and 5 year olds, cutting class size to 23 students or less, and hiring more "special ed" teachers. There's no scientific data that any of these improve outcomes for the kids, but they sure as hell do one thing: many more jobs for teachers. So even before the election was called, the elementary teachers' union was on TV with ads every night, bashing the Conservatives.
Dull-tone has been Premier for 8 years. In the first 125 years of Ontario's history since Confederation, we'd run up $30 billion in debt (troubling enough for a population of 11 million). In the 8 years of Dull-tone, the debt has gone from $30 to $86 billion.
So, while I think "socialist wasteland" is bit of hyperbole, I also don't pretend we've got everything sorted, either. There's work to do everywhere, my friends.
http://abstrusegoose.com/404
And don't forget the rollover for the alternate text!
this is the most objective article i read in over a month, kudos to brian rogers. i believe there's only one way to get us out of this mess: to rebuild the middle class and reverse the bifurcation of america. that means screw the welfare parasites, screw the wealthy (their buildup of fiat money is actually fiat debt which is why it's essential that they give up most of their debt/wealth) and empower the actual workers who are creating value and real wealth
"screw the wealthy"? "Empower the workers"?
Marxist much?
buckaroo with respect i also said screw the welfare parasites as i dislike lamers from both extremes of the economic spectrum, you might have better luck calling me a nazi. marx was a great mind of the past century it's sad that his predication of capitalism collapsing is happening in front of our eyes; quit your labeling, use your brain and try to make some sense of this crazy world we live in. if you have any ideas to save our country, if you wish to counter my middleclass rebuilding argument, i'm all ears, but calling me a marxist is neither one thing or the other
Wake up, asshole. The shit that came out of Marx's "great" mind was used to form the ideological foundation for governments that murdered 100 million people in the 20th century. Marx is the single most diabolical thinker to ever stalk the earth, and his filthy works still cast a terrifying specter across the globe.
wow buckaroo you just implied that a great thinker committed 'thought crimes'? you suggest marx is somehow responsible for the murder of 100 million people? and i'm the asshole? but i'm a cynical man i admire diabolical thinkers. why are we arguing over marx? why aren't you engaging me on some real issues? i read some of your posts of late, you sound like a money hoarding criminal under the guises of a conservative sheltered behind the gop. first get out of my party you hypocrite. secondly, we cannot downsize the federal government unless all sogv/prvt debts are settled in some way, doing either would bring social turmoil it's a double whammy. it will lead to revolutions first, then there's a high probability of a civil war. unless you have evidence to the contrary we should not go down that path. End the Bifurcation, Rebuild the Middle Class!
I have to laugh at these people legitimizing the Tea Party. Created by the rant of a money mcbags financial jock (Santelli), with a bunch of crazy righties for gunz and jeebus, and then supported by all these PAC and secret PAC's full of money mcbags and financial jocks like Santelli.
To have a legitimate grassroots movement started by a money mcbags financial jock is as hard as making a camel go through a needle's eye...
Nice! Another Tea Party hater. Go back to DailyKos, HuffPuff, or wherever the fuck you came from. Don't let the door hit you in the ass!
Oh, my. So sensitive about your 'movement.' Considered little more than a useful bowel movement by the 1%, which, of course, you will never be a part of.
I don't know. He's probably getting paid 5 cents a post. The way things are going, that might put him in the top 1% income wise soon.
wall street and washington d.c. are crime scenes.
anyone willing to shed light on that obvious and basic
fact has my support.
ps. your leaders are stealing your value and leaving you
with no self respect, dignity or power; the young
haven't got the memo. so, who is the poor soul?
.
the system of usury destroys humanity.
end the fed and their usury notes, this
is the first important step. imho
again, it will destroy itself but not until
it devours those who sustain it. it is like the
cops in n.y. or the military forces. they are
temporarily rewarded for taking the heat, being on
the front lines, for their pay masters. behind the
scenes their pay masters are eating their lunch and
cutting their proverbial throats and all for a little
better piece of the action. it is disgusting, like
watching maggots digest a dog's brain. anyway,
have a nice day.
we are capable of better.
.
Why does love got to be so sad?
Why does love got to be so sad?
Why does love got to be so sad?
Why does love got to be so sad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxV4gUdSIMc
Thanks for the memories, bm. I think I will go crank up the Derek & the Dominos cd & putter around the yard. I grew up around the South and actually worked for a bit with the Great Southern Company, licensing arm of Capricorn, selling tees. Saw the 'Brothers many times, and Clapton live once...wanted to see them play together so badly, but unfortunately, the engegements were limited and I was on an extended camping trip in SE Asia during the short life of the Dominos. If you love rock and guitars, it doesn't get much better thant these 2 masters together. Of course, Duane and Dickey Betts made any a concert an amazing event...almost as good as Clapton. Maybe after Layla, I'll put on Eat a Peach.
If anyone wants a good basic guitar lesson, here's one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC5s3nzVzo
Sorry to change the subject, but it's a beautiful day in Carolina, and I want to get happy.
...and speaking of It's a Beautiful Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cin0QzuEss&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXftWmdTob8zjQbPj_N49Hzs
Some of you are unbelieveable. As you argue about the Dems vs the Repubs, vs Tea Party vs Occupy movement and continue to amplify the neglible differences our elected officials are busy stealing all you taxpayers blind at a blinding rate never seen before! At least those who are part of the Occupy movement that are out there protesting realize the system is broken, corrupt, bankrupt, etc., - they may not all agree 100% on the what primary issue is, but one thing is certain at least the Occupy movement participants care enough about this country, their future, the future of their children and grandchildren to get off their asses and go out and try to make a difference. The rest of you who generalize, minimalize, name call, and distort the importance of why they are protesting from the subprime crimes committed and not prosecuted, the bailout crimes committed and not prosecuted, the QE continuing crime committed by Benny and the Inkjets not prosecuted.... all the while protesters are being arrested and prosecuted? The banksters and their washington lapdogs are laughing at all of you, consider you intellectually inferior parasites who subsist on reality TV and beer and who are easly manipulated by big money owned propogandizing TV (i.e., mainstream news). Idiots are ubiquitious. If I'm not talking about you, excuse me. If I am... then come over here so I can put my boot in your arse, get you moving and help you make a protest sign.
Well said Haybusa!!
Hundreds of thousands of tea party protesters tried to do the same thing during the last few years, only to get ignored or vilified by the MSM. Now a bunch of leftist hippies come along, and a bunch of dimwits are singing their praises like they invented the idea of protesting this ridiculous system.
At least Tea Partiers had a sensible SOLUTION, and weren't just making a bunch of absurd demands. This needs to be about Solutions. And I don't see any good ones coming out of the OWS crowd-- just more problems.
here is the thing about freedom. if one guy out of
a hundred thinks he can have it all he better be a
pretty strong and self reliant individual. no?
you see these morons on wall street don't realize that
the cops, the military, these people are not imbeciles.
they are going to find out and realize that they are being
fucked for no good reason. they will come to the correct
conclusions. but the wall street idiots cannot stop themselves
from systematically stealing from these people. i can't
wait. i can't wait. i can't wait.
there is beauty in truth and justice is sweet.
.
i hope i live to see this christmas mourning moment.
Simple solution: Ban all lobbyists and limit political donations to $100 total per person for all contributions that would be considered political, and make a corporation equal to one person.
JP Morgan Chase donated $4.6 million to the NY City Police Foundation--does anyone wonder why that cop pepper sprayed a harmless protestor?
What we have here is government by donation.
Youri Carma: “0 – FORCE MAJEURE! – Call Void All Bankster Bogus Derivative Debts! Because paying off these trough fraud induced debts have become a technical and practical impossibility.”
Webster Griffin Tarpley: “So, cut those debts and whipe out all the derivatives. That’s gotto be the key demand!”
From: THE REAL PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS BY YOURI CARMA, 29 December 2008, (Blogs.Reuters – The Great Debate) http://tinyurl.com/lg4gpv
European Sovereign Debt – Can’t We All Just ‘Net’ Along?, 17 September 2011 (Zero Hedge) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/european-sovereign-debt-cant-we-all-just-net-along
Vigilante Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4KmbUCwkyE
Well, that's pigshit if I've ever seen it.
- Ned
Sixteen million people occupy the US without a job and some have no occupational skill at all. Another ten million or so are here illegally. Keeping them spread out is probably a good idea.
Good article.
Don't look now, but the occupy movement has made more headway in three months than the tea party did in three years. Which should be no surprise. It is obvious which of the two movements is better representing the majority of common people. Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the slimebag right is, quite naturally, incensed.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/10/13/2011-10-13_occupy_wa...
Occupy Wall Street movement is twice as popular as the Tea Party: Time poll
BY Aliyah Shahid
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, October 13th 2011, 2:03 PM
In the protest movement popularity contest, Occupy Wall Street is whupping the Tea Party.
The demonstrations against big banks has a 54% favorability rating compared to the conservative group's 27%, according to a new Time magazine poll.
A sizable number - 23% - said they didn't know enough about the Wall St. protesters to make a decision.
In contrast, 23% said they had a negative opinion of Occupy Wall Street compared to 65% who said the Tea Party's influence has been negative or negligible.
Whoo! Wait till Buckari Banzai gets around to this! Another 30 cents!
The TP doesn't read Time but does habitually feed on cold calling solicitors/opnion aggregators...just sayin ;-)
What Totin said, look one post down. But I'm flattered that you're thinking about me!
The difference between the Tea Party and the Flea Party is that the Tea Party can actually elect Congressmen and Senators that represent their views. The Flea Party can't do that - all they can do is piss and moan - but that's not going to lead to change. They're aligned with the douchebag left but the douchebag left Congressman and Senators that are praising the Occupy movement are the biggest douchebags of all. This silly little movement ends when cold weather sets in. Everyone will go back to mom and dads basement while Obama and Timmy burn down the country. Come November 2012 the Tea Party will make more progress and the Occupy movement will still be trying to sort out what it is they stand for and what politicians represent their views. Sucks for you I guess.
Totin,
What planet are visiting us from? Obviously not one from any known galaxy.
Yes let's place a bet on how many OWS'ers will be elected a year from now and compare it to the Tea Partiers.
The number I pick is the one immediately below "1." Your turn.
Dumbass.
They got elected to a few seats in the house, but hold no important posts or head commitees. They were co-opted by the slave-master. dumb-ass red necks.
5 Senators and 40 Congressmen backed by the Tea Party won. Trust me, the Flea Party won't come close to that. They aren't even going to get one person elected because the only Flea Party candidate is Ron Paul and they can't even agree to support him because he's a Republican (doesn't that burn your ass?). The Tea Party's effectiveness came by showing the US how the douchebag left is rotten to the core. We took away the douchebags super majority and stopped them from doing any further damage. You dumb ass hippies are nothing but a bunch of government tit sucking losers. Quit sleeping in my park you frickin bums!
They got elected to a few seats in the house, but hold no important posts or head commitees. They were co-opted by the slave-master. dumb-ass red necks.