The inkblot protests


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ex trader

Best of luck to the protesters

I was a trader at one of the Investment Banks frequently cited in this paper. A year ago, I finally picked up the guts to quit after a year of wanting to, sick of the lack of ethics, integrity driven by a culture of greed. Seeing the old-boys network at work, lining their pockets with gold while good folk while the poorest in this world get the opposite deal.

If I had my way, I would destroy the large investment banks and reinvent markets, our economic model (development is not always progress) more towards a Stiglitz view but recreate the financial system as a slave to humanity not the other way around. Since when were slaves paid multi-million dollar bonuses? What value-add to they really deliver? Its a waste of talented human capital driven by the ugliest of motivations

The US needs a socialist revolution of sorts. Revolutionize business intent with social-business intent. While you are at it, strip the assets from those that seem intent on abusing that privilege. If the regulator did their job, they could tidy up the street. Make example of a few. With stripped assets, fund refugees for the homeless and hungry

Now, I am travelling and soon to start work in micro-enterprise development, where development is progress. And its funny how many people I have meet, can't believe I would ever work for one of the big global investment banks, and share the same views more or less as I. A small maybe biased sample, sure, but hopefully this last boom-cycle bust in markets is the markets own undoing.


The timid majority has finally found a voice as their civil, political and economic liberties has been stripped layer by layer by crony politicians serving the interests of the Corporate fat cats over the years.


According to Mat Salleh of Yemen, the Zionists in charge of the White house had been spraying the intoxicating Jasmine scent on the Ummah to create chaos and armed uprisings. It seems that the chicken has now come back to roost as the Jasmine scent finally caught up with the local rabble-rousers. Mayor Bloomberg has repeatedly warned these Occupiers not to lay their grubby hands on the Big Banks.

Jean Michel

USA would do well to listen and respond to the protesters of the "Occupy Wall Street" protest. Though the protesters might not have a clear idea of why they are protesting, though they might not know the true and exact cause of their ill-feelings, and though they have no solution to suggest, yet they do feel that the big Wall Street corporations own the state and do pretty much what they want with the Government. They feel that the politicians are acting like employees of the big corporations since they depend on their funding in order to be elected. They feel also that the big corporations are getting much more money that they deserve, which means that they are sucking the blood out that the rest of the population. They feel also that the undeserved money that the big Wall Street corporations suck out of the population goes to a very small group of people. They know that most of the billionnaires become billionaires not because of the work they do but because of the increase in the value of real estates and stocks and this is not morally good. Sooner or later these protesters will understand all these more clearly and their demands will be clearer.


Lexington notes that the Occupy Wall Street protestors are asking for too many things and that they are unorganized. However, as a whole, it does carry a message: corporate greed has done on unabated for too long and too many are suffering as a result. They are protesting ON Wall Street and going to the homes of corporate CEO's. I think the general message is clear.

The amount of complaints reflects the raw and young nature of the protests. These diverse requests for change reflect the frustrations of many different individuals rather than the group as a whole.

These are the early stages of upheaval, and I believe they could enact change as the protests organize and strengthen. As most of us in this country are somewhere in the middle class, it is possible that the Occupy Wall Street movement could continue gaining popularity as it highlights the oppression of most Americans at the hands of corporate CEO's. Perhaps a presidential candidate backing this movement could be accepted with open arms.

Pete Thottam

Who is The Economist kidding? 2,500 Financial Industry lobbyists (average comp : $330,000) alone in Washington, DC. 435 representatives in the House.

California --> 2,200 lobbyists (general) in Sacramento. 140 state legislatures (Assembly and Senate).

*ISSUE #1*: America's top 1% now control 42% of the nation's wealth and 56% of its financial wealth. It thereby controls the political system (via campaign funding & issue determination). Wall Street Analysts Nouriel Roubini, Harry Dent, and John Mauldin are predicting a Dow Jones Industrial Average as low as 5,000. The 2007-2011 mortgage defaults in U.S. and European housing have resulted in Trillions in asset write-offs in U.S. banks' debt assets. The asset liquidations have been truly unprecedented and destroyed any real equity in most of the world's major banks. The underlying detioration -- without addressing any of the underlying structural & labor/capital problems -- are far worse than 1929-33. The U.S. government's balance sheet has been used -- primarily via faux MIC war spending (Iraq/Afghanistan/Libya/Pakistan, etc.) and "too big to fail" bailout funds -- to stimulate aggregate demand and to bailout the top "1%" and -- to an extent -- the top 5%. The top 1% and their lackeys have been bailed out by unprecedented leveraging of the public balance sheet and by the creation of trillions of dollars in growing liabilities that taxpayers & consumers will have to eventually pay for.

Future U.S. taxpayers & a corporate subservient public sector have rescued the Fortune 500 via vesting "too big too fail" banks with government backed interest rate payment streams via explosive growth in public sector debt that they have purchased (guaranted by the U.S. govt/U.S. taxpayers). The ponzi-scheme U.S. economy now has doubled down its stakes via an incredible $122 TRILLION in fully aggregated cumulative public & private sector debt (an unprecedented 7 times GDP). FYI -->: In 1946, the US financial sector owed $3 billion of debt, or 1.35% of GDP. By 2009 this increased to $15.6 trillion, or 109.5% of GDP.

This has been driven by New York & London money center banks' 2001 -2011 multi-trillion dollar buildout of a global military-industrial-congressional complex via a 5 TRILLION DOLLAR financing of foreign wars in return for essentially non-productive jobs (USA) & for dollar support as the global currency of last resort (i.e. of the global policeman/hegemon). It has also been enabled by a complicit Fed's faux enabling of public sector demand that has monetized a phantom stream of illusory earnings for all sectors of the economy, especially a partial reflation of the prior "new economy" bubble.

However, China's property bubble & overbuilding now rivals even Dubai's -- except it is on a far far greater scale. A devastating Chinese real estate implosion & parallel U.S. stock market crash is now inevitable. This will likely occur sometime between Oct 2011 and April 2012. Already, markets are starting to cave in New York and Hong Kong.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, America's U-6 rate, i.e. its real unemployment rate, is now somewhere between 23% to 25%. China's #s are comparable and probably closer to 30%. 1 out of 6 Americans is now officially on food stamps, SSI or General Relief. 50 million+ are in poverty and the middle class is rapidly shrinking. Banker controlled corporate media is now primarily a cesspool of ongoing lies & distractions. Use the below-left links to share this site & its links with others with unprecedented fragmentation & entertainment driven social engineering. Global events are being spun continously by establishment linked talking heads without any attempt to provide historical perspective or context (U.S./UK military & empire support of proxy & client states) & underlying class realities.


But it cannot work any more in such an integral system.


Lexington seems to have passed over the fact that elections now are simply between the extremists on one side and the extremists on the other, thanks to the decades of gerrymandering. It has gotten so bad that now both sides depend on corporate money to win elections, which means the corporations have essentially corrupted and taken over the system to cater to their own interests. So going to the ballot box is a largely futile exercise, much as it is in Russia. Today’s protesters don’t know how to protest; for example the Civil Rights Movement, people marched in their Sunday best and made sure that the message they were trying to send was the only thing that challenged society; which is why the images of them getting hit stuff were so powerful. By being presentable and on point, they could enter the national spotlight without inspiring revulsion and at the same time make the reaction of the people who opposed their message seem more extreme. The current protests may be utterly incoherent and lacking in intellectual content, but it may be that this is merely the very beginning of something more significant. Protests like this always hand the public easy reasons to dismiss them out of hand. And the news stories inevitably go something like, "the protest is supposed to be about A, but we saw various crazy people protesting B,C, and D." It makes it look like the protesters don't actually care about A." So when the vast majority becomes disenchanted and feels useless, instability is sure to follow.



"Will it solve anything, or create more problems? It's like the example I gave earlier, chemical additives(i.e maltodextrin) are poisoning our food. Sure let's ban it, but don't protest about the raise in food prices."

I fail to understand your analogy. I certainly don't doubt that in the situation you describe, perhaps food prices would go up.

What has it to do with the protests? In fact, if we're to take any lessons from History, recent and old, whenever any given societies stopped listening to the "people" they got into serious trouble. DO you truly need examples?

I'm not saying they represent a majority of the Americans, or any other nation where there have been similar protests, I'm just saying that trying to tell them to be "political" sounds condescending.

Why not listen to what they're saying?

Perhaps all they want is their voice to be heard.

There's something wrong with the global economony, special emphasis on the West's economy. All our governments have been doing so far is either pump banks with freshly printed trillionnaire sums or increase tax and diminish wages in the middle classes again to make sure the banks, and the bankers do not lose their money. Not to mention other things such as speculation and casino-like financial tools which to be honest scare me a lot as they seem specifically designed to make people wealthy out of others misery.

This said, between 20-50% of Europe's/US youths are unemployed. In the specific case of my country, Portugal, we never had such a well-educated generation, with our numbers of graduates per year in per capita terms among the highest in the world. Perhaps not so different from what is going on in other countries.

Do you truly think these youngsters care for CDS, hedging securities, treasury bonds, or whatever new trend is there in the financial sector?

No, they just want a JOB! And a normal life! And no matter how hard you tell them, yeah the banks need to be pumped up with trillions of dollars or euros... why should they care?

Perhaps I'm not being clear enough.

All I want to say is that people are angry. And the governments so far have not been focusing on the people but rather on sort of "abstract" concepts such as QEs, and bailouts and etc. Perhaps they should look at the people. We're all humans. We're not numbers in a computer (at least not yet).

I guess that's the main message of these protests.

At least from where I'm standing.


What a ridiculous assumption. Here in the US we have two parties who are equally culpable in the total corruption of our government. What are we supposed to do - continue on the idiotic path of always having to choose "the lesser of two evils" and vote while holding our noses?


'Take to the ballot box'? Been there, done that. It's clear something more forceful than voting is going to be necessary to restore some fairness. For once people's justifiable anger is focused on the right place --- Wall Street. The inconceivably monstrous fraud that has been perpetrated by the 'malefactors of great wealth', is not going to be addressed by our bought-and-paid-for politicians, without substantial public protest.


You guys need to get out more. The Tea Party was a manufactured astroturf campaign bankrolled and controlled by the billionaire Koch brothers. As such, there are NO comparisons between it and OWS. The occupiers are composed of those who have been rendered powerless and voiceless by the machinations of men like the Koch brothers. It's a popular uprising. It won’t go away quietly while the monstrous injustices fueling it remain. To critique it because it lacks no more than three properly bulleted and powerpointed demands is foolish. The occupiers want a just society. They want real reform that creates real opportunity for the 99% of America that is not hedge fund managers and corporate CEO’s. This is not reducible to a handful of bullet points when the machinery of politics and business is so utterly and thoroughly corrupt. Most elites probably have a very clear idea what concessions need to be made to get OWS to go home (those who have homes anyway). It’s no secret what’s wrong in America. Joblessness is at Depression era levels. The “official” numbers are manipulated to make it look like a mere 9%. Real joblessness is 22%. Debt burdens are destroying lives. Medical bills are causing 60% of all bankruptcies. Monsanto continues to poison the food supply and oppress family farmers with impunity. Banks continue to foreclose on families, forging the documents they need to do so. America continues to violate international law and its own Constitution in Guantanamo. When elites ignore all this and deride the protesters for not having a discrete list of demands, it says much. The real question is, are they sure they want the commoners delving into these matters? The more they do, the more they will see how thoroughly corrupt this nation is. The more they see it, the more their calls for reform will turn into calls for revolution.


I think the solution presented in the title for the protestors would simply not work. A main point in the protests seems to be that almost every politician in influenced by corporate campaign donations and that no matter which candidate they choose, government will be heavily influenced by corporations. I'm sure the supreme court ruling that ended the limit on corporations directly donating to candidates didn't help to calm the situation.

shaky Jim

A lot of you could go to one instead of just pontificating. They're very interesting. I went to the protest in front of South Station in Boston. Every night at 7:00 the protesters meet in General Assembly to discuss their goals in a sort of direct democracy. As yet the police have been quite forgiving about it all. I asked some police opinions and they were surpirisingly receptive to the protest's ideology. I felt the proceedings needed more direction, but approve thoroughly of the protest as a whole. Unfortunately the problem is this: we can all agree something is wrong in America today, giving rise to mass inequalities, but we don't all agree yet on how to fix the situation. It is at this point that informed contributions become essential in the formation of a rational agenda. You're all very welcome to come and grab some coffee if you want, there seems to be an "Occupy Somewhere" protest in almost every major city now. Give it a shot and if you like it stay and listen.


Though I'm not old enough to ask you: Listen to the young and? Will it solve anything, or create more problems? It's like the example I gave earlier, chemical additives(i.e maltodextrin) are poisoning our food. Sure let's ban it, but don't protest about the raise in food prices.

They can't even see consequences of their actions, an endgame plan is even more out of this world. How is a dialog going to occur? They don't even know what they want or don't want! They need to put some thought into it, before anyone can do anything for them.

Richard Michael Abraham


There is no demand and the U.S. Economy never recovered.

Indeed, America is riding the steep decline as a World economic engine.

But you will never hear this reality from the U.S. Government.

Wall Street Corruption devoured the bowels of America, tearing up the intestines like ravenous coyotes.

Now, U.S. corporations sell 60%-75% of their goods and services to sovereign countries.

American unemployed are deadened people looking for Ghost jobs and the worst is yet to come.

Occupy Wall Street will turn into the Arab Spring. Violence begins soon as the entrenched 1% establishment wields its machete to stop the protests.

Welcome to America, 2012.


Richard Michael Abraham
The REDI Foundation

Richard Michael Abraham


There is no demand and the U.S. Economy never recovered.







Welcome to America, 2012.


Richard Michael Abraham


Dear Sir
From the text:
“.... (They) are rioting because they can see their economic future being washed down...!
“Mob “regulated US Corporations behind? Yes!-Blame to the US Congress and to yourselves! But do not forget the China currency and its Political artificial oriented weakness.


Finally, the American public are getting out of the 'feel good' stupor of the last thirty years. Let them feel the pain of 'withdrawal' of this drug called 'credit and round tripping'. The Japanese are getting used to it for the last one decade and my guess is that the Americans and the Western Europeans (except Germany due to the merger of East and West) will have a lost decade in the future. AND, rioting cities will increase.

Have you pondered about the quick recovery of the world economy after World War Two? This recovery was lead to a stupendous rise in the GDP of the economies of US, Western Europe and Japan (Big 3) . All this growth, in my view, was not real. It was a deliberate indulgence in round tripping. The round tripping was a necessity felt by the political powers to avert a global economic crisis due to the ravages of world war Two. My guess is that the Jews planned this out.

Additionally, there was a credit built up – primarily based NOT on real net-worth of the Big 3 but on a fictitious (hollow) net-worth.
Unfortunately, a combination of round tripping and credit built up created a black hole like condition. It grew wider and wider and hence needed more quantitative easing. Once the QE stops, stagnation sets in - hence the slowdown – or the Japanese ‘lost decade +’ syndrome.

But the credit built-up is not sustainable and hence, if there is an attempt to reduce it, it will mean severe tightening and this will create havoc on society. I expect the governments will topple and chaos will reign in the Big 3 (Japan may escape). And not treating will bring the chaos closer and more violent.

Best wishes

Kishore Nair from Mumbai



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