Democracy Now! talks to investigative reporter Greg Palast about a controversy in the banking community around the Occupy Wall Street movement. Palast investigates the story behind Goldman Sachs' recent decision to pull out of a fundraiser for the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union in New York City after it learned the event was honouring the protesters at Occupy Wall Street. The investment bank withdrew its name from the fundraiser and also cancelled a $5,000 pledge. Was the $5,000 a Goldman Sachs donation or actually American taxpayer bail-out money Goldman set aside for community banks?
Showing posts with label wall street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wall street. Show all posts
21 Nov 2011
10 Nov 2011
The Top 1%
The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years.
25 Oct 2011
The Capitalist Network that runs the World
The 1% indeed: a new study of the global economy and wealth concentration has identified a complex system of only 147 banks and corporations around the world which share in the largest chunk of the change. While that number might not seem too shocking to those of us paying attention, this study, "by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power," writes New Scientist. In other words: valuable data which will not only strengthen OWS' political arguments but will help us identify whether, and how, the global economy is unstable.
Number one? Barclays, which currently helps fund Robert Mugabe, among other things. The scientists in the study were split on whether economic concentration necessarily amounted to political power, but it's certainly a porous distinction in some places. Read the full summary and list at New Scientist.
Barclays boss makes last-ditch plea to halt bank reform - guardian.co.uk, 1 September 2011
24 Oct 2011
The Shocking US Graphic Data That Shows Exactly What Motivates the Occupy Movement
What are the Occupy Wall Street protesters angry about? The same things we’re all angry about. The only difference is the protestors turned their anger into public action. Occupy Wall Street lit the embers and the sparks are flying. Whether it turns into a genuine populist prairie fire depends on all of us.
Now is not the time for wonky policy solutions, as the media meatheads are calling for. Rather, it’s time to air our grievances as loudly as possible, which is precisely what Wall Street and its minions fear the most. Here’s a brief list of why we should be angry and the charts to back it up.
Actually the top tenth of one percent. Because of financial deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, the income gap is soaring. Here’s one of my favorite indicators that we compiled for The Looting of America. In 1970 the top 100 CEOs earned $45 for every $1 earned by the average worker. By 2006, the ratio climbed to an obscene 1,723 to one. (Not a misprint!)
11 Oct 2011
Occupy Wall Street Predicted in 2009 Interview
Elizabeth Warren is many things—champion of the people, righteous scholar, role model, etc.—but could she also be psychic? In a 2009 interview now making the rounds, Warren essentially predicted that OWS would go down, pointing to cycles in the economy and disruption of the middle class as a precursor to uprising. So maybe she's not Alison Dubois, but her use of historical and sociological context is on point. Watch, via Mediaite. (AlterNet)
10 Oct 2011
8 Oct 2011
7 Oct 2011
99% Vs. 1%
It's Day 20 of Occupy Wall St. (#OWS), a movement that has inspired Americans all over the country to fight Wall St.'s assault on their political and economic rights. Yesterday, in the biggest action yet, over 20,000 people marched in Lower Manhattan. Occupations have sprung in over 200 cities all over the country. Occupy Wall Street is only getting bigger.
Like this: - 10:12 NOLA.com reports: "A sea of dissatisfaction swept through downtown New Orleans shortly after noon Thursday."
Hundreds of people, young and old, black and white, marched with signs held high and slogans spewing. It was a disjointed group: upbeat, angry, courteous, displeased, but united in unhappiness with the current economic and political climate. If there was a singular message shared among the masses, it centered on a simple idea: The status quo has got to go...
The Latest Developments on the Occupy Wall St. Movement on AlterNet
2 Oct 2011
Occupy Wall Street Protests Continues
Hundreds of people protesting Wall Street abuses were penned in and arrested by police Saturday, two weeks into an ongoing demonstration that has become known on Twitter as #OccupyWallStreet.
Centered at Zuccotti Park since September 17, the gathering that began as a call to arms from anti-consumerist magazine AdBusters has shown no sign of a slowdown.
The movement aims to "express a feeling of mass injustice," according to the group’s declaration for the occupation of New York City released Friday. The injustices include the foreclosure crisis, work place discrimination and student loan debt, among a list of others.
As HuffPost reported recently, the movement is less about specific policy demands and more about an expression of opposition to ever yawning economic inequality driven by Wall Street and its allies in Washington. - huffingtonpost.com
More than 700 people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday evening during a march by anti-Wall Street protesters who have been occupying a downtown Manhattan square for two weeks. – The Guardian
28 Sept 2011
Lawrence O'Donnell on Police Brutality at Occupy Wall Street
Full clips of the clash between demonstrators at occupy wall street and the police
apparently, the cop who pepper sprayed the girl in the video is Deputy Inspector Anthony V. Bologna
26 Sept 2011
Police Crackdown on Peaceful Wall Street Protesters
Protesters from the week-old "occupation" in New York's financial district were arrested, penned up, and Maced on Saturday when the NYPD showed up to their march.
Deep in the belly of the beast, among the financial district’s skyscrapers, next to derivatives traders in business suits and Rolex watches, you will find a one-block large democratic society, governed by consensus, whose features include free food, free professional childcare, an arts and culture area, medical and legal teams, a media center, constant music, a library and a stand with refreshments for the many police stationed to supervise the area. This is the one-week-old occupation of Wall Street, located at Liberty Plaza Park.
A group of protestors from the camp ventured outside the park and marched on Union Square Saturday morning, and around 100 of them were arrested. Police sprayed peaceful protestors in the face with pepper spray, threw them to the ground and assaulted them with elbows, dragged a woman around by the hair, jumped over barricades to grab and rough up young people, and, when all was said and done, laughed to themselves triumphantly. This is exactly the sort of violence and brutality American authorities routinely condemn when perpetrated against non-violent civilians demonstrating for democracy in Middle Eastern dictatorships, even as they employ horrifying cruelty right here.
21 Sept 2011
Yahoo blocked e-mails about Wall Street protests
Yahoo apologized yesterday after people using its e-mail service were prevented from sending messages about anti-Wall Street demonstrations over the weekend.
The company said that an external spam filter had blocked the messages but maintained that it was inadvertent. It said that the problem has since been resolved, though there may be some residual issues. ThinkProgress, which first noticed the problem, posted the following video of someone being blocked from e-mailing a message inviting their friends to visit the "Occupy Wall St." campaign Web site. - CNET News
Filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Monday evening to discuss the media’s coverage towards the tea party being notably larger than coverage given to protests from the left. (Raw Replay)
24 Aug 2011
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
Anonymous has just released a video communiqué endorsing #OCCUPYWALLSTREET on September 17. Using language from our first Tactical Briefing, the video calls on protestors to adopt the nonviolent Tahrir-acampadas model. On the 17th of September, it says, "flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months … Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices."
See also signs of support for S17 on Anonymous's Twitter and websites.
30 Jun 2011
Bankers Laugh As Athens Burns
Greece's ruling socialist party has passed a second austerity bill needed to implement an austerity package to secure more funds from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The vote saw 155 members of parliament voting in favour of the bill, 136 voting against and five abstentions. Politicians voted on Thursday on the second of two austerity bills that are key to receiving funding, after endorsing an initial law on Wednesday to slash $40bn off the national debt.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
9 Jan 2011
New Obama Chief of Staff A Message to Wall Street
President Obama is more concerned with pleasing Wall St than appeasing public opinion.
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