Comments on: The importance of Occupy

By: susette

susette — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:10:52 +0000

So Occupy is about supporting our ‘safety nets”? I thought, just saying, I thought they were representing outrage at the careless and utmost greedy way in which Wall Street and its investors behave, and act like accountability is out of the questions. OK I am wrong.

By: susette

susette — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:04:45 +0000

What does “perspicacious” mean? Really, I am a poor white girl with a mere bachelors degree and never heard this word. Is this a new way to eliminate the every day curious readers?

By: PatrickFNJ

PatrickFNJ — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:44:41 +0000

I work as an independent Financial Advisor, and I am ashamed of some of the things I see in my own industry. The Madoff and JP Morgan Chase type scandals taking place right under Fed’s nose has resulted in the Fed trying to show the taxpayers that they are really “on top of things”. They are doing so by over-regulating the little guys, increasing our costs, decreasing means of earning an income, while the bigger dishonest people in the industry just keep moving forward. The fact that Jamie Dimond also serves on the Federal Reserve Board of New York (effectively he regulates his own bank), you can see the “arms length” regulatory environment no longer exists. They are diverting attention aways from themselves by cracking down on the smal, effective, hard working people who do a good job for people.

By: maynardGkeynes

maynardGkeynes — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 02:54:40 +0000

Thanks Felix. I found Sorkin’s posting on OWS distasteful in the extreme. Why has the NYT continued to allow him to hold a position on a propaganda network (CNBC) while “reporting” for the Times? His bias is obvious. I do not trust his reporting, and I can’t imagine why he has been allowed to stay.

By: realist50

realist50 — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 02:22:41 +0000

Occupy is emphatically not a call for government handouts? How can you believe that, Felix? Underlying a huge amount of the Occupy movement’s demands is a (mathematically false) undercurrent that all sorts of wonderful programs for the 99% can be financed solely by taxing the 1%.

A link to Occupy’s international manifesto is below. It is littered with phrases such as “universal basic income guarantee”, “free child care for everyone”, “progressive reduction of working hours without reducing income”, “maximum income should be limited”, and “an absolute end to fiscal austerity policies”. It is absolutely a call for a laundry list of government handouts with a strong implication that they are paid for by taxing someone else.

http://occupywallst.org/article/internat ional-assembly-globay-may/

Most of the ideas that aren’t calling for government handouts just show a basic lack of economic literacy, such as the working hours reduction noted above, a call for a ban on genetically-modified crops and a mandated dramatic reduction in agrochemical usage (let’s help the poor by raising food prices!), and a broad attack on free trade.

I don’t even see the general framework as terribly novel. It reads like the further left, less economically rational side of European social democratic parties – i.e., more French than German, or more 1960′s Labour Party than Labour Party of today.

By: williambanazi7

williambanazi7 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:04:11 +0000

You get the Banzai7 thumbs up for this…

By: joanneleon

joanneleon — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:41:48 +0000

Thanks, Felix, for recognizing this and for not being yet another shill.

By: PhilPerspective

PhilPerspective — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:45:22 +0000

ottorock:
Ignored by whom? If it isn’t such a big deal, why are there always massive police presences kicking them out from where ever(NYC, Oakland, Austin and on)? Wouldn’t it be better, in your eyes, if the cops and politicians just ignored them?

By: martin6666

martin6666 — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:55:50 +0000

Lest anyone get their hopes up that the FSC actually will pay any attention whatsoever, check out the banners at http://financialservices.house.gov/

“Dodd Frank Burden Tracker” and a Report Card with all “F”s

A lesson in using public dollars to support a partisan (or in this case, industry) message.

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:48:48 +0000

” It’s probably too much to hope that Sorkin might start taking it seriously at some point.” (FS)

You, FS, Sorkin and OttoR will take OWS/TEA a lot more seriously when the Sorkins, Blankfeins, Dimons and Paulsons of the world are looking up the barrels of guns – and not until then. The prior Occupy stuff will either go down in history as the equivalent of Harper’s Ferry, or as nothing at all. Events will dictate which.

IMO OWS people are making a big mistake by trying to make things better by working within the system. They should try to make things worse so the system is weakened to the point of being vulnerable to revolutionary change. Nothing less will matter.

By: HenryClarke

HenryClarke — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:11:36 +0000

OccupytheSEC and the Alternative Banking Group are two of the most fascinating iterations of the Occupy movement. They may not have achieved widespread recognition, but they have managed to sustain their own ongoing work and analysis and show no signs of slowing down.

Bravo to Felix for recognizing this heterodox group of financial analysts.

By: ottorock

ottorock — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:32:28 +0000

The importance of Occupy is noting how magnificently they’ve been ignored. The end.