Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global 944
Hugh Pickens writes "Tens of thousands of people around the world took to the streets Saturday to reiterate their anger at the global financial system, corporate greed and government cutbacks, with rallies held in more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia. 'United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future,' said organizers of the global demonstration. The demonstrations by the disaffected coincided with the Group of 20 meeting in Paris, where finance ministers and central bankers from major economies were holding talks on the debt and deficit crises afflicting many Western countries. Crowds around the world were largely peaceful, but the demonstration in Rome turned violent as clashes in the Italian capital left dozens injured, including several police officers. In London, WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange made a dramatic appearance, bursting through the police lines just after 2:30pm, accompanied by scores of supporters. He climbed the cathedral steps near St. Paul's to condemn 'greed' and 'corruption,' and attacked the City of London, accusing its financiers of money laundering and tax avoidance."
Excellent article on what's wrong (Score:5, Informative)
After reading this article http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10 [businessinsider.com] and seeing Inside Job http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzrBurlJUNk [youtube.com] I am tempted to join them!
Facebook page of the ocw (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt [facebook.com]
Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global (Score:5, Informative)
I'd say it the other way around (Score:5, Informative)
Spanish protests go global. Spanished followed the Arab Srping, then there were protests in many cities in Europe, then Israel, then it was the US, and now the whole world. Don't be that stupid centered.
Re:Assange condemns greed? (Score:5, Informative)
government backing allows people to go to college, which means more educated people and more higher paying jobs. Of course this leaves a lull in the service industry
In the UK, we have the opposite problem. We have scores of university graduates (the majority with 'proper' degrees, not just dross like 'hairdressing' and the like), and almost no white collar jobs outside the banking sector. When there are multiple university graduates competing for a part-time job at the local supermarket, something is horribly wrong.
Re:Assange condemns greed? (Score:1, Informative)
Freddie and Fanny don't have anything to do with college loans. You're thinking of Sallie Mae. Fanny Mae is a different beast.
Freddie and Fanny were only involved in home loans.
And, well, basically what happened was the government started letting banks package all kinds of loans together and resell them. And they started letting all kinds of banks act as investment banks. And they started requiring that banks made bad loans -- in the name of "social justice", of course!
So wtf happens? Of course the banks do as required and make loans to people who really shouldn't be getting those loans, the government said they have to. And of course they'll bundle up those bad loans and try to hide them in packages with mostly good loans. And of course those packaged loans will change hands 6 times, because every single bank has become involved in investments and securities.
And then comes the disaster.
Re:Assange condemns greed? (Score:4, Informative)
They are touting economic models that have failed in every single country they have been tried (communism, Marxism, socialism).
You don't even know what the terms communism, Marxism, and socialism mean, do you? Hint: The Occupy movement has nothing to do with them.
Fucking idiot.
Re:"they have iphones" and other garbage comments (Score:5, Informative)
Do you realize what absurdity you are spouting? Democracy cannot be stolen from the majority. If the majority is not in control, you don't have democracy. If this statement confuses you because you think we used to have democracy, it's ok. Your lazy teachers didn't explain to you that our nation is NOT a democracy. We live in a republic. The majority DOES NOT RULE. We may democratically select our representatives, but we have no direct control over the laws of our country. If we did, our country would be a very different place.
That being said, what we have now is not a republic, nor a democracy. What we have now is defined as an oligarchy. You are upset at the rich, I am upset at the politicians. A lot of rich people have done horrible things and they deserve some blame. A lot of politicians are responsible as well. At the end of the day though, the rich would have no power over you if the politicians didn't give it to them. The government is responsible. Tell all the politicians to go home. Don't vote democrat. Don't vote republican. Vote 3rd party for EVERYTHING. If there is no 3rd party running, run for office yourself. If you don't succeed, tell your representative to support the CONSTITUTION, not some sort of bullshit called bi-partisan compromise. If the government follows the Constitution, all they can do is defend your rights... Nothing more. Of course realize that then they won't be able to violate anyone else's rights as well, so don't expect free stuff.
Re:Assange condemns greed? (Score:4, Informative)
tl;dr making bad loans was not compulsory to private lending instututions. They did it because they saw dollar signs instead of what it really was: a plan designed to fail for private institutions due to the inherent risk. Subprime means less than optimal. If you're putting your own money up, you're not going for subprime.
Re:Assange condemns greed? (Score:5, Informative)
Straight from horse's mouth:
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
- Benito Mussolini.
Re:Not the Boomers (Score:4, Informative)
Outsourcing/offshoring was not a boomer idea, it was an integral part of Reaganomics. Up until the 70's, a third of government revenue came from import/export tariffs. So-called "free trade" had already been a longstanding desire of conservative business interests for many years, and Reagan started the process that culminated with NAFTA under Clinton.
I agree with the rest of your analysis, but the idea of "free trade" did not originate with the Boomer generation, it had been around for quite a while already.
Re:What's the alternative? (Score:2, Informative)
If you mean Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, I'm all for it. If you mean the thousands of bankers who were forced to make bad loans by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, then why? You can't punish people for doing something they would never normally do until the govt steps in and makes them.
Re:Someone needs to organize these guys (Score:0, Informative)
Source of the protests: age of entitlement. Who said that you were entitled to a "stable retirement." News flash: a 401k is an investment, just like any other investment in the stock market. The only reason 401ks and the like exist is because of the presence of the market and the ability of these bankers to profit on risk. There is still some risk if you select the "super stable growth" plan for your 401k and when you bubble in that option you agree to the remote possibility that everything will be lost. And these free-loaders who are asking for all debt to be wiped out don't understand that this means that the banks are going to come get everything they can: "your" cars, houses etc... since they aren't "yours" - the bank is doing you a favor by lending you money you didn't have so you could have something you "want" now. Of course with educational loans, it's hard to take away the "collateral" - viz, the five years of crayon theory and history of polka dots you "learned" while spending 200k on an art degree. If you whine about that, you're just going to screw it up for people taking loans out in moderation for legitimate degrees.
Re:What's the alternative? (Score:3, Informative)
Nobody is even looking for the crimes so of course they will never be found
A little googling found otherwise. I see evidence of prosecution going on. Whether it's a small portion of the crimes or not, remains to be seen.
The current meltdown 40x the size of the S&L crisis.
That doesn't mean anything. Meltdowns don't have to have criminal acts as a cause and in fact, usually do not. And fewer criminals would be needed because of the ease of committing the mortgage fraud.
there are 120 agents spread out over the country.
That is incorrect. That number is for 2007, before the crisis started (though it is worth noting that I see evidence that the FBI was requesting resources for widespread mortgage fraud back in 2004). I see that there's more than $200 million [wikipedia.org] just in one act that was put to law enforcement against mortgage fraud in 2009 and 2010. This is apparently in addition to overall beefing up of funding for prosecution of mortgage fraud.
Also recall that states also have their own prosecution efforts.
Re:I'd say it the other way around (Score:4, Informative)
Umm, yes. To say that it is the US movement that went global is indeed a bit US-centric.
But, while the indignados movement is one of the strongest and a great inspiration for the rest of the world, Greece (May 2010), Tunisia (Oct 2010), Libya & Baharain (Feb 2011), Chile (May 2011), and probably a lot others I don't remember, started sooner. "World 2011 (201X?) protests" would be a better label by now.
Re:Political systems worldwide. (Score:3, Informative)