I live 5 blocks from Wall St. I had no idea this happened nor anything was slightly different here.
No one gave a shit. These Wallstreet CEOs probably mosquito farted at this cute 'protest'.
Nothing happened. They're still corrupt and rich as fuck. Not a single fuck was given that day.
It has nothing to do with what the CEOs of the banks think. Literally zero.
What difference did this useless 'protest' make?
Those idiots are kind of funny with these protests, trying to equate what they're doing to those literally risking their lives when protesting evil regimes elsewhere. Arrest them all, let them contemplate the meaning of life in jail for a few days.
Care to explain that?
I think we royally fucked ourselves into believing a complex system full of agent issues and informational asymmetries will work just fine without regulation. Ayn Rand-esque dogma is largely based on economic theory developed around Smith's Wealth of Nations. That doesn't have much to do with Wall Street though.
Feel free to take the men who bailed them out, and throw them in jail. Republican, Democrat, you're correct. This isn't Left or Right, we were looted and it came directly from Congress and the Presidency with bipartisan support.
If you don't like what wall street has done, then feel free to support the Tea Party who oppose the bailouts in the first place.
LOL @ those who wish to battle Wall Street.
You aren't even doing it on the right day. You schedule a MASSIVE protest on a weekday or something.
Most of these pukes just don't get it - Wall Street controls everything. They take and do whatever they want. For every 1 white collar crime that gets outted, there are 100 that go by undetected and unpunished.
The best way to let Wall Street collapse it let them run the mother fucker into the ground. Lift these regulations and let the rich piss away their money. Let see how well they can handle a crash and burn.
There should have been an occupation of Wall Street in 2008, with torches and pitchforks; and Lloyd Blankfein-- and others-- should have been strung up by their testicles, flogged and disemboweled.
Protests today? They already stole the trillions that actual laboring people spent a lifetime saving; they already got away with it. The protests are three years too late.
I just went down to check out the scene at the https://occupywallst.org/ rally. It was a bit of a disappointment, for a number of reasons. First, there were only a few hundred people there (one of the organizers told me they peaked out at around a thousand on the weekend). Second, the people who were there were the wrong people.
What do I mean by that? The attendees were mainly scruffily dressed young people, whose attire and approach was too easily dismissed by those in authority. The smirk on the face of the Fox News reporter who was interviewing various participants said it all. "These people are easy to dismiss."
I couldn't bear to see him goading these idealistic young people into making bombastic statements (the reporter is a tool of AIG was one comment I overheard), so I stepped over and asked if I could speak to him.
I told him that I run a company with about $100 million in revenue, and that it isn't just kids who think that Wall Street bankers got away with a crime. There are a set of people who constructed a set of financial products with intent to defraud. They took our country to the brink of ruin, then got off scott free, even with multi-million dollar bonuses. I'll be interested to see if Fox runs my comments anywhere.
It seems so odd to me that the Tea Party isn't out in force at this protest. It seems so odd that government largesse aimed at rich corporations seems to be OK with them, while government largesse aimed at the disadvantaged ought to be cut. I would have loved to see blue collar Americans out in force at this protest, not just college students.
(Personally, I'm all for a leaner approach to government that I've described with the geeky vision of "Government as a Platform." Spend strategically in order to catalyze society to do what needs to be done. Unfortunately, in this case that wasn't done.)
I highly recommend Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone reporting on the financial crisis of 2008 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405 , as well as these recent pieces: http://www.financialsense.com/finan...-nobody-went-to-jail-during-the-credit-crisis and http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/09/obamas_economic_quagmire_frank.html They should make your blood boil.
It's not the American Spring yet, but it ought to be.
From Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media (essentially the developer book publisher):
From Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media (essentially the developer book publisher):
Not all that surprising
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=CA&last=o'reilly&first=tim
Unemployment rate for people with college degrees is ~4%, that's probably why the only people that showed up were "mainly scruffily dressed young people, whose attire and approach was too easily dismissed by those in authority." The rest of the people were working.
I'm skeptical of the that number. The BLS says it's 4.3% seasonally adjusted, but they only count people over 25. I know a ton of recent college grads either not working or working retail/waiting tables.
Already covered that. Protests exist to gain people's attention, obviously since we're talking about it, it was in the NYT, the WSJ, etc, etc, this has worked.
Nobody gives a shit about what the CEOs think, they would be against financial regulations no matter what.
One of the catalysts for the tea party was the bank bailouts. Many tea partiers oppose that kind of crony capitalism and have been outspoken about. Just because they didn't show up at the lefty's protest doesn't mean they haven't spoken out in other venues.
Already covered that. Protests exist to gain people's attention, obviously since we're talking about it, it was in the NYT, the WSJ, etc, etc, this has worked.
LOL this little "protest". You Americans are so cute when you're all angry.
I'm skeptical of the that number. The BLS says it's 4.3% seasonally adjusted, but they only count people over 25. I know a ton of recent college grads either not working or working retail/waiting tables.
crony capitalism
One of the catalysts for the tea party was the bank bailouts. Many tea partiers oppose that kind of crony capitalism and have been outspoken about. Just because they didn't show up at the lefty's protest doesn't mean they haven't spoken out in other venues.
That is priceless! Thanks!This whole escapade summarized:
Amazing, but unlikely. The Republicans are too far left for the Tea Party; on what could they and lefties ever agree? Your point is valid though; we all make allowances for those with whom we fundamentally agree and are automatically suspicious of those with whom we fundamentally disagree. Tell me you're a progressive and I'll automatically be suspicious of any position you take.Wouldn't it be amazing though if they came out and supported some lefties on something they agreed with them on.
Of course that will never happen. No matter how much the two sides agree with one another they would never work together on any issue, because they're on different teams.
It's even happening in this thread. Look at the reactions from the Right. If the TEA Party had a protest in Manhattan the Right would be falling all over themselves to commend them for their patriotism and for actually doing something and the Left would probably be making fun of them for being Unemployment and Social Security recipients with nothing better to do.