I've been meaning to look further into this movement and their demands. Apparently, this is a global movement, Wall Street not being the sole target of the Occupy movement. That does not suggest a 'grass roots' movement, but a concerted developed strategy by the few, like how Marxists created much of the anti-Vietnam war rallies in the U.S. on American campuses. (My comments in parenthisis).
"But while "Occupy Wall Street" has become more organized, its demands haven't coalesced into a coherent message. The only thing its various constituent groups appear to have in common is a deep-seated anger at inequality in this country. For them Wall Street symbolizes that unfairness, but the groups have other concerns as well. Many want to redistribute wealth; others want to enlarge government social programs. Some are protesting against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Daniel Levine, a journalism student from upstate New York, said he was taking a stand against the controversial method of natural gas extraction known as hydrofracking in his hometown – but also noted that the practice can bring jobs to economically disadvantaged regions."[/left]
"LIST OF PROPOSED "DEMANDS FOR CONGRESS
1. CONGRESS PASS HR 1489 ("RETURN TO PRUDENT BANKING ACT" ). THIS REINSTATES MANY PROVISIONS OF THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT. --- Wiki entry summary: The repeal of provisions of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999 effectively removed the separation that previously existed between investment banking which issued securities and commercial banks which accepted deposits. The deregulation also removed conflict of interest prohibitions between investment bankers serving as officers of commercial banks. Most economists believe this repeal directly contributed to the severity of the Financial crisis of 2007–2011 by allowing Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors' money that was held in commercial banks owned or created by the investment firms. Here's detail on repeal in 1999 and how it happened: "
(That might have helped, but not the real cause. U.S. removal from a gold standard in the 1970's allowed the banking elites and Federal Reserve to create money out of thin air, not backed by silver or gold. That's what really brought in defecit spending, creating dollars by 'fiat', relying on the American taxpayers to foot the bill. So whether Wall Street heads sit on bank boards or not, it's the free creation of dollars by a bookkeeping entry at the commericial bank level that will still keep the fiat money creation going, which devalues the buying power of the U.S. dollar. The Federal Reserve ensures this keeps going on too.)
"2. USE CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY AND OVERSIGHT TO ENSURE APPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGENCIES FULLY INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS who clearly broke the law and helped cause the 2008 financial crisis in the following notable cases: (insert list of the most clear cut criminal actions). There is a pretty broad consensus that there is a clear group of people who got away with millions / billions illegally and haven't been brought to justice. Boy would this be long overdue and cathartic for millions of Americans. It would also be a shot across the bow for the financial industry. If you watch the solidly researched and awared winning documentary film "Inside Job" that was narrated by Matt Damon (pretty brave Matt!) and do other research, it wouldn't take long to develop the list."
(The documentary Inside Job is a good exposing of what caused the financial crisis. No doubt about that. But the crisis would not have been possible if the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and others like Barney Frank hadn't supported the fabricated instrument of speculation based on fake mortgage loan value which the bankers treated as investment capital. What the financial community did was actually create something they treated as real money when it did not exist in reality. I guess they thought no big deal, since the Federal Reserve has been doing the same since removing the U.S. dollar off the gold standard in the early 1970's.
That once again, gets back to what the Federal Reserve system has created in the U.S. since its inception in 1913, starting with 'fractional reserves' of percentages of silver and gold backing the dollar, and then in the early 1970's with that gold backing being totally removed, the U.S. dollar note name of 'Silver Certificate' redeemable in silver changed to a 'Federal Reserve Note' not redeemable in silver.
The gold standard limited the money supply from being purposefully dilluted with fake dollars. Inflation of the dollar is caused by dillution of the money supply, i.e., printing more dollars in circulation, driving the buying power of the dollars in circulation downwards. Alan Greenspan originally knew this and supported the gold standard prior to his becoming elected Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve. See: http://www.constitut...enspan_gold.htm )
"3. CONGRESS ENACT LEGISLATION TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY BY REVERSING THE EFFECTS OF THE CITIZENS UNITED SUPREME COURT DECISION which essentially said corporations can spend as much as they want on elections. The result is that corporations can pretty much buy elections. Corporations should be highly limited in ability to contribute to political campaigns no matter what the election and no matter what the form of media. This legislation should also RE-ESTABLISH THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES IN THE U.S. SO THAT POLITICAL CANDIDATES ARE GIVEN EQUAL TIME FOR FREE AT REASONABLE INTERVALS IN DAILY PROGRAMMING DURING CAMPAIGN SEASON. The same should extend to other media."
(Not a bad idea. That means the amount of lobbying by special interest groups should have limitations also, not just upon corporations. Should be same across the board for everyone, including supporters in the media, which is a big business too.
And by the way, Leftists often refer to the U.S. with words like Democracy when the U.S. is actually a Constitutional Republic per the U.S. Constitutional founders. Follow the U.S. Constitution, and a lot of these problems today would go away. But it's quite obvious, that many politicians on both sides have no real intentions of following our U.S. Constitution, and that's the real problem today.)
"4. CONGRESS PASS THE BUFFETT RULE ON FAIR TAXATION SO THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE & CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOP HOLES AND ENACT A PROHIBITION ON HIDING FUNDS OFF SHORE. No more GE paying zero or negative taxes. Pass the Buffet Rule on fair taxation so the rich pay their fair share. (If we have a really had a good negotiating position and have the place surrounded, we could actually dial up taxes on millionaires, billionaires and corporations even higher...back to what they once were in the 50's and 60's."
(Most of the upper class wealthy do pay taxes. It's the smaller percentage of wealthy above them that create tax-exempt foundations with control of its officers to use that money to their benefit. And some of them have been caught using that tax-exempt foundation money for subversive activities - per Rene Wormser, counsel to the Reese Committee investigating tax-exempt foundations in the 1950s'.
As for hiding funds off-shore, only repeal of free trade acts like GATT and NAFTA will turn that around, since those acts opened up opportunity for American corporations to setup shop in foreign countries under less U.S. control. So that's a state deparment and congressional created problem which corporations were allowed to take advantage of.)
"5. CONGRESS COMPLETELY REVAMP THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION and staff it at all levels with proven professionals who get the job done protecting the integrity of the marketplace so citizens and investors are both protected. This agency needs a large staff and needs to be well-funded. It's currently has a joke of a budget and is run by Wall St. insiders who often leave for high ticket cushy jobs with the corporations they were just regulating. Hmmm."
(Revamp should mean LESS structure, not a bigger structure so its original purpose for existing gets bogged down in useless government paper, which has been one of its problems. Congress is still responsible for this agency not doing its job by rooting out those in it who supported the fake financial mortgage credit instrument to continue.)
"6. CONGRESS PASS SPECIFIC AND EFFECTIVE LAWS LIMITING THE INFLUENCE OF LOBBYISTS AND ELIMINATING THE PRACTICE OF LOBBYISTS WRITING LEGISLATION THAT ENDS UP ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS."
(We don't need more laws governing that. Congress needs to do their job better, like actually read the contents of whats in a bill, instead of shoving it through based on political liaisons and committees. Less government is always the better solution. Want to see your taxes go up a lot more? Push for more government and you'll see it first hand.)
"7. CONGRESS PASSING "Revolving Door Legislation" LEGISLATION ELIMINATING THE ABILITY OF FORMER GOVERNMENT REGULATORS GOING TO WORK FOR CORPORATIONS THAT THEY ONCE REGULATED. So, you don't get to work at the FDA for five years playing softball with Pfizer and then go to work for Pfizer making $195,000 a year. While they're at it, Congress should pass specific and effective laws to enforce strict judicial standards of conduct in matters concerning conflicts of interest. So long as judges are culled from the ranks of corporate attorneys the 1% will retain control."
(There's already regulation in place governing a lot of that. It simply needs to be enforced.)
"8. ELIMINATE "PERSONHOOD" LEGAL STATUS FOR CORPORATIONS. The film "The Corporation" has a great section on how corporations won "personhood status". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SuUzmqBewg. Fast-forward to 2:20. It'll blow your mind. The 14th amendment was supposed to give equal rights to African Americans. It said you "can't deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law". Corporation lawyers wanted corporations to have more power so they basically said "corporations are people." Amazingly, between 1890 and 1910 there were 307 cases brought before the court under the 14th amendment. 288 of these brought by corporations and only 19 by African Americans. 600,000 people were killed to get rights for people and then judges applied those rights to capital and property while stripping them from people. It's time to set this straight."
(That's an obvious misunderstanding. A corporation was treated as a person so it could be allowed the same basic rights as any other individual per the U.S. Constitution. A corporation represents a lot of people who have jobs, so when it gets in trouble with breaking the law, who do you take to court, ALL its employees? No, of course not. The corporation is taken to court as an entity. If then corporate members are found guilty of embezzelments, extortion, conspiracy, etc., then they are individually accountable per their actions.
The military often uses 'group punishment' when one individual messes up. Its purpose is to get the group to work together as a cohesive team, and not as separate individuals. Can't have a democratic vote while in the foxhole with the enemy closing on whether to fight or not. With the private corporation, we don't want all its people to lose their jobs by penalizing the whole corporation when only a few may be involved in dirty dealings. Find the ones responsible, and punish them as individuals, not the corporation as a whole.
So in summary, what do I personally see the Occupy Wall Street movement is about? The pushing of Socialism against the idea of free enterprise, and the desire for government to become the owner and operator of corporations, which is how it's practiced in Communist countries like Russia and Red China with state-owned corporations. It's almost as if the financial crisis was created in order for this very idea to get pushed by the people, tricking them into pushing for more Socialism in the U.S.
