Hit the Bankers Where It Hurts - A View On OWS

've been down to "Occupy Wall Street" twice now, and I love it. The protests building at Liberty Square and spreading over Lower Manhattan are a great thing, the logical answer to the Tea Party and a long-overdue middle finger to the financial elite.

Matt Taibbi does it again! His latest blast against Wall street should give the OWS crowd some real, definitive goals to keep in mind.

The protests are quickly reaching the point where tangible solutions need to be put forth and real demands made on our government to reign in the culture of corruption that has entrenched itself in the very heart of our financial markets.
Without some type of message other than "stop the greed" the entire occupation movement may lose it's power and go out with a whimper. Protesters, it is time to make new signs - signs that convey possible solutions as put forth by Taibbi:

# Break up the monopolies. The so-called "Too Big to Fail" financial companies – now sometimes called by the more accurate term "Systemically Dangerous Institutions" – are a direct threat to national security. They are above the law and above market consequence, making them more dangerous and unaccountable than a thousand mafias combined. There are about 20 such firms in America, and they need to be dismantled; a good start would be to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and mandate the separation of insurance companies, investment banks and commercial banks.

Read the rest here - readersupportednews.org...

5 simple ideas that could make a real difference. I would only add to his list that we need to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act which kept banking conglomerates from growing to the size of "too big too fail" - which in my mind equates with "too big to not become corrupt".

As much as I agree with the OWS mindset and their message, I can only see one winner (1%) and one loser (us) in a zero-sum deal. They're basically going to come down hard in the future on ANY PROTEST, if the patriot act and fear of terrorism didn't make rallies difficult before, this will make it impossible from now on.

I think the 99% all know the system stinks, we all know the banks, the central banking system and the global economy suck. OWS isn't going to change anything I fear. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if this was a planned event.

Do you really think that the cream of the elite, who use the global economy as a plaything and for whom money is no object, really care about a few dirty students and hippies with placards?

I can see only one outcome, this fizzles out when the weather really turns, and by the Spring there'll be new legislation banning ALL PROTESTS.

And in about 6 months time when the FinancialSHTF really happens, we won't be able to legally take to the streets at all.

All the best, kiwi.

reply to post by kiwifoot


I think the motivations were real and the core group authentic in the OWS. We do need to be careful that it's not hijacked like the teaparty was and taken over by corporate/government interests.
No doubt they will try their best to escalate the situation and incite violence among the crowd. Once they have that excuse it's all over - they won't allow the next one to even start. You're absolutely right about that one Kiwi.