Occupy Systemic Change | Michael Hudson

Quoting 

What’s basically wrong is that the financial system is running the government. For years, Republicans and Democrats have both said that a strong government, careful regulation and progressive taxation are markers on the road to serfdom. The politicians and neoliberal economists who write their patter say, “Let’s take planning out of the hands of government and put it in the ‘free market.’” But every market is planned by someone or other. If governments step aside, then planning passes into the hands of the bankers, because of their key role in allocating credit. The problem is that they have not created credit to finance industrial investment and employment. They have lent for speculation on asset price inflation, using debt leveraging to bid up housing prices, stock and bond prices, and foreign exchange rates. They have convinced borrowers that they can get rich on rising housing prices. But this merely makes new homebuyers go deeper into debt to buy a home. And when banks say that rising stock and bond prices are good for the economy, this price rise lowers the dividend or interest yield. This means that pension funds and individuals have to save much more for retirement. Instead of improving their life, it makes them work harder and borrow more just to stay in place. The banking system’s alternative to “the road to serfdom” thus turns out to be a road to debt peonage. This financial engineering turns out to be worse than government planning. The banks have taken over the Federal Reserve and Treasury and put their lobbyists in charge – men such as Tim Geithner and the others with ties to Rubinomics dating from the Clinton administration, and especially to Goldman Sachs and other giant Wall Street firms. - Prof. Michael Hudson

https://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/11/some-modest-proposals-for-reforming-us.html

Occupy Wall Street: Michael Kink inside the New York Stock Exchange, next steps for movement - Countdown with Keith Olbermann // Current TV


"Those who do not move do not notice their chains"

https://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/the_roots_of_the_uc_davis_pepper_spraying/

Zondor 

In this country, the bottom 80% had 7% of the financial wealth, in 2007. The top 1% had 43%. So why SHOULDN'T they pay 40% of the taxes? So they can create more jobs, like they have since then?

Now there's an idea, how about the percentage share of financial wealth the top 1% own becomes their tax rate. The bigger share they take, the bigger share they pay.

It's becoming like Mexico where the top 1% has close to 95% of the wealth. I recall back in 1999 , that idea was laughable. Now two taxing ongoing wars later and all the Fed intervention and the housing hustle and banksters bailout, multinationals having shipped 30 million jobs to China within the past 10 years under the media radar, with 2 trillion in corporate global profits not re-invested back into the U.S., whole small towns resorting to growing pot farms to make money, it's getting closer to the situation in Mexico, especially in California. You go to rundown sections of LA it already looks like Mexico and poor areas in central California -> in "middle-class" neighborhoods , every other neighbor works for the state usually in education or corrections.

good posts guys.

sadly the economic trends don't look good for those of us in the US. despite the deep recession and unemployment, we are more productive! Thanks to automation and computers many jobs have been wiped out, never to return. I dread the day the rest of the US will be like California...

I don't know if you saw this, interesting talk at TED. How economic inequality harms societies.

The message, if you want to live the American dream, move to denmak! you won't find it in the US unless you are the 1%.

Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies | Video on TED.com

2012 would be the worst year ever with event there wil be difficult to undestand.
Food prizes will go up to start new riots and US will default the dollar with 40% and make China looking red.
A war with Iran will be pushed forward faster and faster. I think May month will be the times running out, but it can go faster.

This world is going total insane.!

Hope i am total wrong

NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests ? study | World news | guardian.co.uk

Quoting 

The NYPD appears to be the worst offender, in large part because it has made little attempt – unlike Oakland, for example – to reassess its practices or open itself up to dialogue or review. The NYPD practices documented in the report include: • Aggressive, unnecessary and excessive police force against peaceful protesters, bystanders, legal observers, and journalists. This included the use of batons, pepper spray, metal barricades, scooters, and horses. • Obstruction of press freedoms and independent legal monitoring, including arrests of at least 10 journalists, and multiple cases of preventing journalists from reporting on protests or barring and evicting them from specific sites. • Pervasive surveillance of peaceful political activity. • Violent late-night raids on peaceful encampments. • Unjustified closure of public spaces, dispersal of peaceful assemblies, and trapping of protesters. • Arbitrary and selective rule enforcement and baseless arrests. • Failures to ensure transparency about government policies. • Failures to ensure accountability for those allegedly responsible for abuses. The report argues that the lack of transparency and accountability is especially troubling because the public does not know whether police actions are guided by specific written policies, or whether they are random or ad hoc.

They're Ba'ack...

Mass arrests in NYC as OWS movement marks one year (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT

Here's What We Learned Today About Occupy Wall Street — It's Not Coming Back

Read more: Occupy Wall Street Anniversary - Business Insider

"wealthy" stats by CNBC the other day.