Wall St. protests

[hockeywings]

very true red.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Mitch[/color]]Not sure how that says they were peaceful.

was posting that in response to Red's comment.

but, if any of them were breaking shit, you can be sure it would be all over the news right now, to tar them as some sort of "extremists" who don't appreciate all the wonderful things this country has done for them, and don't spend every second of every day thinking about how they love big brother Uncle Sam like you do.

the fact that they've been largely ignored is proof enough for me.

So you know me. Shut up dude. You seem to close your eyes and see one side of the story. You have no idea what went down there. If you don't want to be here, move to Canada they take anybody.

 

[Michchamp]

hey red: here's an article (http://www.salon.com/news/wall_street/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/09/28/protests) that sums up a lot of the media coverage. I agree in large part, especially with this quote:<blockquote>The very idea that the one can effectively battle Wall Street's corruption and control by working for the Democratic Party is absurd on its face: Wall Street's favorite candidate in 2008 was Barack Obama, whose administration -- led by a Wall Street White House Chief of Staff and Wall-Street-subservient Treasury Secretary and filled to the brim with Goldman Sachs officials -- is now working hard to protect bankers from meaningful accountability... </blockquote> The quote misses the hyperlinks in the original text, but you can read them in the article. and this quote:<blockquote>Does anyone really not know what the basic message is of this protest: that Wall Street is oozing corruption and criminality and its unrestrained political power -- in the form of crony capitalism and ownership of political institutions -- is destroying financial security for everyone else? Beyond that, criticizing protesters for the prominence of police brutality stories is pure victim-blaming (and, independently, having police brutality highlighted is its own benefit). </blockquote> I agree with Matt Taibbi's comment (and have for a long time) that the provisions of Graham-Leach-Bliley that allow a merger of investment banks and commercial banks needs to be revoked. These provisions had revoked the provisions of the Glass-Stegall Act (I may have botched the spelling on that one) which was a New Deal law that put up a wall between commercial and investment banks and was for decades hated by Wall street. It essentially allows banks to keep gambling with investors money, but NOT with commercial bank deposits, which is completely reasonable and logical, and should never have been revoked again in the first place. But in the name of "government interference with business" it was, in the 90's, pushed by Republicans in the legislature and signed by Bill Clinton. And provisions to revoke it in Dodd-Frank were gutted before they even got to the floor of the House.

So now the issue becomes: when you have a two-party system, and neither party is interested in enacting simple legislation to protect the banking system - the backbone of just about everything in the economy, and a media controlled by large corporations that keeps this issue buried, or obfuscated so that voters have no idea what should be done, what do you do? Well... some people feel their only recourse is to take to the streets to protest, and you really can't blame them.

 

[redandguilty]

I'll come back to read that link, but right off the bat I want to say you've made a bunch of good points here. I found a list of the companies whose employees give the most campaign contributions broken up between the reps and dems. Of the financial companies, no company was skewed one way or the other more than 40/60. They were all somewhere between 50/50 and 60/40 rep/dem...with one exception. Goldman-Sachs, the #1 contibutor, was 60/40 dem/rep. There are two ways you can look at the even-ish splits and I think both are right to some degree. 1) They buy both parties. 2) "Wall St." does not think with a single mind. I think I read years ago that the big shifting of funds had switched from the top 10% gaining on the other 90% to the top 3% gaining on the top 4-10%. The 4-10% gaining on us isn't even the big show anymore.

 

[erg57]

Mitch[/color]]Just a bunch of whiney young people with no jobs.

LOL...yeah, that's kinda the point guy!!

 

[Mitchrapp]

So go to your local Walmart. I saw some job available yesterday. Some people decide that instead of getting work, any work they hold out for the big one, because they have a degree and then just bitch. When i graduated from College I got a job at Toys R Us for two years before I found a much better job.

 

[redandguilty]

Mitch[/color]]So go to your local Walmart. I saw some job available yesterday. Some people decide that instead of getting work, any work they hold out for the big one, because they have a degree and then just bitch. When i graduated from College I got a job at Toys R Us for two years before I found a much better job.

There aren't enough to go around. Globalization have push the low skill jobs down to a level approximately equivalent to our social safety nets and since that's still higher than manufacturing overseas, manufacturing has gone overseas. Combine that with the fact that we are reaching an age where we can provide enough goods for the population with less than the employment of the full population and you have a recipe for big problems in a free market system. It's amazing we've handled it as well as we have.

As an engineer, one of the way I like to look at things is to draw a box around something and consider what flows in and out of the box. You can draw boxes around huge parts of town where the bulk of people are employed and stuff flows in but doesn't flow out. Toys R Us and WalMarts and car repair shops and fast food places...they all have stuff coming in and and the jobs consist of people performing a service, helping people to consume the stuff coming in. Meanwhile nothing (but dollars) go out. It's overwhelming and unsustainable. When there are 10 people and 9 jobs, the "suck it up and quit your whining" attitude will help keep you from being the odd man out, but it will also help the company turn those 9 positions into 8 by loading up on everyone's responsibilities a bit more.

 

[Michchamp]

mitchrapp is the guy who doesn't complain until it happens to him... and then he gets even whinier than the people he criticised for complaining before...

 

[erg57]

Mitch[/color]]So go to your local Walmart. I saw some job available yesterday. Some people decide that instead of getting work, any work they hold out for the big one, because they have a degree and then just bitch. When i graduated from College I got a job at Toys R Us for two years before I found a much better job.

I'm an economist with a specialty in the labor market. I wish the jobs issue could be summarized this easily. Believe me, it cannot be.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Have you actually listened to the protesters. They're nuts. Not sure most of them have a purpose outside of being on tv. Btw, One guy was interviewed and asked if he wanted a job and his answer was no. Way to go on that.

 

[Mitchrapp]

mitchrapp is the guy who doesn't complain until it happens to him... and then he gets even whinier than the people he criticised for complaining before...

Cool story. Congrats.

 

[redandguilty]

Mitch[/color]]Have you actually listened to the protesters. They're nuts. Not sure most of them have a purpose outside of being on tv. Btw, One guy was interviewed and asked if he wanted a job and his answer was no. Way to go on that.

You don't have to study econ to understand that you're gettin' screwed somehow and you can't expect everyone, or even most people, to answer questions with the polish of a lawyer. Your kind of thinking paints the Tea Party as a bunch of racists.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Mitch[/color]]So go to your local Walmart. I saw some job available yesterday. Some people decide that instead of getting work, any work they hold out for the big one, because they have a degree and then just bitch. When i graduated from College I got a job at Toys R Us for two years before I found a much better job.

I'm an economist with a specialty in the labor market. I wish the jobs issue could be summarized this easily. Believe me, it cannot be.

I was actually kidding about the Walmart bit.

 

[erg57]

Mitch, your point was well taken and understood. I'd don't want to pontificate or "bring work home" but there are some labor market issues that are mind boggling in terms of hiring. My group is absolutely bewildered, but there are underlying data out there that show how truly bad the job opening numbers are vs the talent that's out there. problem for analyst is that we have no precedent to look to. This is not a typical downturn/recovery to put it nicely. The economy did about a generation's worth of changing in about two years. No one forsaw this job market coming and if they say they did they are lying.

I could lay a lot of data on you that is not part of the typical economic lexicon via media. I won't go there. No one needs a stick in the mud like me to tell us what we probably know already

 

[Mitchrapp]

I understand that it stinks. I just think the wall street protesters went about it the wrong way. My opinion only so don't go all wounded knee on me Michchamp, eh? Lol.

 

[mhughes0021]

you guys missed the most important part of these protests.....theres a bunch of hot topless chicks running aroung with signs. google it...

Bill maher has discussed the protests the last 2 weeks on Real Time...flick on your OnDemand HBO and watch it if you need to kill an hour. Hes had some pretty good guests the last 2 weeks. Seth Mcfarlane was on this week....he always makes it entertaining!

 

[Mitchrapp]

you guys missed the most important part of these protests.....theres a bunch of hot topless chicks running aroung with signs. google it...

I might have misjudged them

 

[redandguilty]

500 arrested today

 

[Mitchrapp]

Police fault again, lol.

 

[redandguilty]

Make that 700.