Matt Taibbi: Hit bankers where it hurts

[marmar]

from Rolling Stone:




By Matt Taibbi
October 12, 2011 8:00 AM ET


I've been down to "Occupy Wall Street" twice now, and I love it. The protests building at Liberty Square and spreading over Lower Manhattan are a great thing, the logical answer to the Tea Party and a long-overdue middle finger to the financial elite. The protesters picked the right target and, through their refusal to disband after just one day, the right tactic, showing the public at large that the movement against Wall Street has stamina, resolve and growing popular appeal.

But... there's a but. And for me this is a deeply personal thing, because this issue of how to combat Wall Street corruption has consumed my life for years now, and it's hard for me not to see where Occupy Wall Street could be better and more dangerous. I'm guessing, for instance, that the banks were secretly thrilled in the early going of the protests, sure they'd won round one of the messaging war.

Why? Because after a decade of unparalleled thievery and corruption, with tens of millions entering the ranks of the hungry thanks to artificially inflated commodity prices, and millions more displaced from their homes by corruption in the mortgage markets, the headline from the first week of protests against the financial-services sector was an old cop macing a quartet of college girls.

That, to me, speaks volumes about the primary challenge of opposing the 50-headed hydra of Wall Street corruption, which is that it's extremely difficult to explain the crimes of the modern financial elite in a simple visual. The essence of this particular sort of oligarchic power is its complexity and day-to-day invisibility: Its worst crimes, from bribery and insider trading and market manipulation, to backroom dominance of government and the usurping of the regulatory structure from within, simply can't be seen by the public or put on TV. There just isn't going to be an iconic "Running Girl" photo with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup or Bank of America – just 62 million Americans with zero or negative net worth, scratching their heads and wondering where the hell all their money went and why their votes seem to count less and less each and every year. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/my-advice-to-the-occupy-wall-street-protesters-20111012

[randome]

1. The banks and the bankers

...should not be seen as our enemy. It's lack of oversight and regulations that are at fault here. It's human nature to expand and conquer as far as the eye can see. The role of government is to oversee that self-destructive impulse and ensure that it doesn't harm the rest of us.

The vision of the banks needs to be severely curtailed through common-sense regulations.

IMHO.

[valerief]

2. Uh, it's the banks who buy the pols who make the laws. nt

[randome]

3. Fair point.

So maybe the message we need to be sending is two-fold? Common-sense financial regulations and campaign finance reform?

[Raster]

5. Three-fold. 1-Increased financial regulation, 2-acute electoral finance reform, and

(3) intense investigation and PROSECUTION for all financial crimes.

You may not want to look upon the Wall Street banksters as the enemy, but they most certainly are the enemy. Most of the world's financial ills can be laid squarely at their feet. Insider information has shown that many times the banksters and sycophants KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING, and continued to act in destructive and cavalier fashion simply because of their greed. How many families have lost their homes because of their greed? How many children go hungry because of their greed? How much public wealth that belonged to all of us has been ransacked and appropriated because of their greed? How many will die prematurely because of their greed? Not the enemy? To the contrary, my friend. They are the most certainly the enemy.

[classof56]

7. Nice summary and yes, they are definitely the enemy.

What they have wrought is more than criminal. Thing is--the enemy simply does not care about the damage and human wreckage they leave in their wake. As is crystal clear to those of us paying attention, we are totally irrelevant and the bottom line is, they don't give a damn that we live, die, starve, freeze, lose our homes, live under bridges, watch our children suffer. They have theirs and as for the rest of us--they just do. not. care. And they own the politicians who might possibly regulate them and bring about some justice.

The realization of this is almost beyond comprehension for those of us who have held out hope for our country's future. I am thankful for the OWSers. Their courage is heartening. Long may they wave.

Tired Old Cynic

[Raster]

8. I could not agree more. Most of the 1% do not care if you live or die, only that...

...they are allowed to profit, from your life or death, it does not matter, only that they profit. And yes, the courage and determination of the OWSers is heartening and amazing. In this callous, cynical world there remains hope and a new generation WITH VISION and a moral sense of right and wrong.

[banned from Kos]

4. Matt is finally catching on. He can't "explain their crimes" so he wants to

regulate the hell out of them.

Welcome to the Reality Club, Matt!

[brentspeak]

9. It's very clear why you were banned from Daily Kos n/t

[TwilightGardener]

6. I agree with his list of demands. Now, figure out a way to make them short, catchy, and

understandable to the general public.