#OccupyWallStreet is becoming a living laboratory for direct democracy.
wall street
Financial crisis as a way of life
From Wall Street to Iceland to Greece to Ireland, the world is lurching from one financial crisis to the next. The financial panic of 2008 has morphed into the era of financial crises. If you think you live in an oasis away from financial meltdown, think again. Financial markets are so twitchy (and so interdependent) that a problem anywhere could become a problem everywhere.
How did we become hostage to financial markets? A generation of neoliberal finance set the stage for chronic worldwide financial instability:
Inequality has skyrocketed
Financial sector plays no role in deficit reduction
Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, Canadian banks have enjoyed almost heroic stature for not being like those bad Wall Street banks that collapsed, triggering a global recession.
Certainly there's been no talk of imposing higher taxes on Canadian banks, to make them help pay for the huge government deficits brought on by the financial crisis and resulting recession.
That wouldn't be fair, since our banks -- unlike the Wall Street banks -- played no role in bringing about the financial crisis.
But why doesn't that logic apply to other groups who also played no role in bringing about the financial crisis?
Occupy Wall Street
The Occupy Wall Street movement refers to a series of protests currently underway in New York City's Zuccotti Park -- formerly known as Liberty Square Plaza. Since the demonstrations commenced on September 17, 2011, the "occupy" movement has spread to cities across the United States. Similar protests are also slated for a number of Canadian cities including Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal.
The focus of the demonstrations remains protesting against corporate greed and economic inequality.
Many of the movement's organizers have cited the Arab Spring as their inspiration.
Time to talk replacements as capitalism moves to bury itself
Where is Henry Ford when you need him? You may remember Henry -- the ruthless industrialist who nonetheless refused to be hobbled by suicidal ideology when it came to doing business. He realized as his workers cranked thousands of new cars off the assembly line that none of those workers would likely ever own one because he didn't pay them enough. So he dramatically increased their wages. It was such a good idea that most industrialists followed suit and his practical approach was dubbed Fordism. It was the foundation of a high-wage economy, it lasted a very long time and produced incredible real wealth for decades.
'We are the 99 per cent': Protesters occupy Wall Street
If 2,000 tea party activists descended on Wall Street, you would probably have an equal number of reporters there covering them. Yet 2,000 people did occupy Wall Street on Saturday. They weren't carrying the banner of the tea party, the Gadsden flag with its coiled snake and the threat "Don't Tread on Me." Yet their message was clear: "We are the 99 per cent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 per cent." They were there, mostly young, protesting the virtually unregulated speculation of Wall Street that caused the global financial meltdown.
