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anonymous

This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement - 0 views

www.yesmagazine.org/...-everything-how-the-99-woke-up

Occupy Wall Street Movement Lopsided division of wealth Political power of millions

shared by anonymous on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Something happened in September 2011 so unexpected that no politician or pundit saw it coming
  • Inspired by the Arab Spring and uprisings in Europe, sparked by a challenge from Adbusters magazine to show up at Wall Street on September 17 and “bring a tent,” and encouraged by veteran New York activists, a few thousand people gathered in the financial district of New York City. At the end of the day, some of them set up camp in Zuccotti Park and started what became a national—and now international—movement.
  • The Occupy movement, as it has come to be called, named the source of the crises of our time: Wall Street banks, big corporations, and others among the 1% are claiming the world’s wealth for themselves at the expense of the 99% and having their way with our governments.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The list of government interventions on behalf of the 1% goes on and on: Tax breaks favor the wealthy, global trade agreements encourage offshoring jobs, agricultural subsidies favor agribusiness over family farms, corporate media get sanctioned monopolies while independent media gets squeezed.
  • Critics of the movement say they oppose the redistribution of wealth on principle. But redistribution is exactly what has been happening for decades. Today’s economy redistributes wealth from the poor and middle class to those at the top. The income of the top 1% grew 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, according to the Congressional Budget Office. For those in the bottom 20 percent, income grew just 18 percent during those twenty-eight years.
  • By naming the issue, the movement has changed the political discourse. No longer can the interests of the 99% be ignored. The movement has unleashed the political power of millions and issued an open invitation to everyone to be part of creating a new world.
  • This lopsided division of wealth corrupts government. Few among the 99% now believe government works for their benefit—and for good reason. With the 1% commanding an army of lobbyists and doling out money from multimillion-dollar campaign war chests, government has become a source of protection and subsidies for Wall Street. No wonder there isn’t enough money left over for education, repairing roads and bridges, taking care of veterans and retirees, much less for the critical transition we need to make to a clean energy future.
Tiffany Lazo

Occupy Canada rallies spread in economic 'awakening' - Canada - CBC News - 2 views

www.cbc.ca/...occupy-canada-protests.html

occupy movement canada

shared by Tiffany Lazo on 08 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • has the potential to trigger a major shift in the economic thinking of governments and big corporations.
  • Offshoot Occupy@ cities include Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, several other cities in B.C., Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Edmonton, Calgary, Saint John, Moncton and St. John's.
  • 'Occupy Wall Street is partly about Wall Street, and Bay Street, and taxes. But it's mostly about getting governments to serve the interests of the other 99 per cent.'—Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • “I just don’t understand why in a country where we have so much, there are so many people who have to choose between having a roof over their head or eating,”
  • We want to come together to say that in a world of such wealth, there is no need for such economic disparity. There is no need for so many people to go without.
  • If government and big business brush off these many concerns, they're only going to make matters worse.
  • The Occupy movement is becoming so widespread that is being taken seriously by economic and democracy analysts and watchers.
  • The Occupy Wall Street movement began Sept. 17 with an encampment
  • The movement grew out of an idea last summer by the Vancouver-based non-profit group the Adbusters Media Foundation, which was inspired by protests that toppled governments in the Middle East.
  • Occupy Wall Street protesters argue government bailouts in 2008 left banks enjoying huge profits, amid high unemployment and job insecurity, and that the richest one per cent of Americans have huge fortunes and are taxed at a lower rate than the average person.
  • "Occupy Wall Street is partly about Wall Street, and Bay Street, and taxes," she writes. "But it's mostly about getting governments to serve the interests of the other 99 per cent."
  • The measures include:The creation of civilian watchdog agencies to oversee corporate activity in each economic sector.Increased financial and legal penalties for corporate illegality.Expanded protection for whistleblower employees.A requirement that corporations must legally represent not only the interests of shareholders, but also those of their employees, customers, and society and the environment at large.
  • "The government is reviewing the Bank Act and other financial institution laws over the next year, so the window of opportunity is open now," notes Conacher.
Tiffany Lazo

Canadian activists put out a simple Twitter hashtag: #OccupyWallStreet. After that, 'it... - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...singlepage

occupy movement canada wall street

shared by Tiffany Lazo on 09 Jan 12 - No Cached
    • Tiffany Lazo
      Tiffany Lazo on 09 Jan 12
       
      Harper on Occupy Wall Street
  • This summer, the staff of the Canadian activist organization Adbusters gathered to brainstorm an idea.
  • the group sought to take the idea of regime change to America, focusing on the financial industry’s impact and influence on democracy.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • dbusters’s art department conceived an image of a ballerina, balanced on one pointed foot in mid-turn, standing atop Wall Street’s iconic “Charging Bull” sculpture. The juxtaposition was stark – an image both serene and aggressive. For the campaign, Adbusters chose a simple Twitter hashtag: #OccupyWallStreet.
  • thousands of protesters caught on to the message, which coalesced around a planned occupation in New York on Sept. 17th.
  • Mr. Lasn predicts the movement will evolve into a cascade of “surprise attacks” in 2012. Instead of large, long-term occupations, Mr. Lasn sees daily occupations of everywhere from banks to university economics departments.
  • “We've been one of the hubs for global activism for more than 20 years, and this is by far the biggest thing that's happened in our history,” he says. “When the moment is right, all it takes is a spark.”
  • Timeline of the Occupy movement Sept. 17 Generally regarded as the start of the movement, as protesters descend on Zuccotti Park. Oct. 1 More than 700 people are arrested during a protest march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Oct. 15 Massive protests in hundreds of cities around the world, organized in solidarity with the occupy movement. Oct. 25 A 24-year-old Iraq war veteran is severely injured during an Occupy Oakland protest when he is hit in the head by a projectile, allegedly thrown by police. Nov. 15 New York police attempt to begin clearing out Zuccotti Park. Nov. 18 Protesters at the University of California, Davis, are pepper-sprayed and video of the incident goes viral.
  • The genesis of Occupy Wall Street can be traced back to a group of Canadian activists
  • Fuelled by millions of mostly young protesters around the world, the Occupy Wall Street movement has not only redefined the terms of the debate around income inequality, but also revolutionized the very act of protest.
anonymous

2011 Year in Review: Man behind Occupy movement discusses what's been accomplished - Ci... - 0 views

www.citytv.com/...usses-what-s-been-accomplished

Occupy Toronto Peaceful demonstration Protesters Social Media

shared by anonymous on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The Canadian man who sparked the Occupy movement says Occupy Wall Street and its spinoffs in Toronto and elsewhere have rejuvenated the political left and awakened millions of young people in just three short months.
  • Lasn is the co-founder of Adbusters, the anti-consumerist magazine that proposed a peaceful demonstration to occupy Wall Street and took out the domain name, occupywallstreet.org.
  • The Occupy movement, which began Sept. 17 with Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan, spread a month later to about 1,000 other cities around the world, including Toronto.
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  • The largest Canadian demonstration on Oct. 15 was in Toronto in the city’s financial district before protesters settled in at St. James Park and has since ended with their eviction a month later.
  • Elsewhere, demonstrators also occupied parks, held general assemblies and marched on the streets, protesting the increasing income disparity between the so-called 99 per cent and the top one per cent of income earners.
Tiffany Lazo

Occupy Wall St. comes to Canada - Canada - Macleans.ca - 0 views

www2.macleans.ca/...occupy-wall-st-comes-to-canada

occupy movement canada wall street

shared by Tiffany Lazo on 09 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Bay and King, the financial district launch spot for today’s Occupy Toronto demonstration
  • The corner had over a period of an hour or so become bloated with people—perhaps a thousand, but it was hard to tell.
  • hat it was announced the crowd would march three blocks away from the headquarters of the big banks on Bay Street to St. James Park
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  • The occupiers set up in St. James. A logistics committee chose the location beforehand and signs of organization, including caution tape demarcating spaces like a clinic and media centre, were already visible by the time the crowd arrived. Within a couple of hours, the place had been transformed into a marketplace of left-leaning ideas, an accumulation of soapboxes, an activists’ trade fair.
  • Many of the participants here are veterans of earlier fights. Vasey is best known as the first person arrested at last year’s G20 demonstrations; he spoke of fighting against Canadian mining practices oversees and the environmental toll of Alberta’s oilsands.
  • In the park itself, many looked set up for a long stay. More than a dozen tents and tarps were erected
  • “Don’t underestimate the power of the 1,000 plus cities that are doing this.”
Kuzivakwashe Musiyiwa

How Deregulation Eviscerated the Banking Sector Safety Net and Spawned the U.S. Financi... - 0 views

moneymorning.com/...deregulation-financial-crisis

shared by Kuzivakwashe Musiyiwa on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Kuzivakwashe Musiyiwa on 13 Jan 12
     
    No one person is responsible for the credit crisis, the failure of investment banks, the insolvency of commercial banks world-wide, the implosion of the world's stock markets, or for leading us to the precipice of another great depression. The truth is there were many. Fundamental and pragmatic banking regulations, which arose from the devastating financial collapses of the Great Depression, for decades strengthened U.S. banks and capital markets, making them the twin engines of American growth and the envy of the world. The systematic dismantling of those same regulations by greedy bankers began in earnest in 1980, peaked in 1999, and finally climaxed with an insane Securities and Exchange Commission ruling in April 2004, a final decision that paved the way for the implosion of everything regulation was designed to protect. Just how did we get here? Wall Street bankers, their exorbitantly well-paid lobbying army of former congressmen and former regulators, their greatly contributed-to sitting legislators and, most egregiously, the self-righteous and still mega-rich "former" Street executives have systematically eviscerated the muscle and bones from the regulatory bodies charged with protecting us from banks' self-destructive greed. An inordinately powerful group of executive insiders from the once-deeply respected House of Goldman Sachs (GS) have served as U.S. Treasury secretaries and in innumerable other administrative capacities.
Tiffany Lazo

Occupy Wall Street coming home to Canada - 0 views

www.canada.com/...story.html

occupy movement canada

shared by Tiffany Lazo on 08 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • the Vancouver-based anti-capitalist magazine Adbusters called for 20,000 people to head to New York City to mirror the Egyptian occupation of Tahrir Square.
  • What started online in Vancouver, with the rallying hashtag cry of #OCCUPYWALLSTREET — will materialize Saturday in rallies and camp-outs in at least six cities across Canada — Ottawa, Victoria, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and of course, Vancouver.
  • They call themselves the "99 per cent", because, they say, they are the majority that is supporting the one per cent at the top of the food chain through bank bailouts and tax breaks.
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  • Canada's economy is in better shape than the U.S. economy, many of the Canadian protesters still have concerns similar to those of many Americans.
  • the rights of corporations; aboriginal rights; the economy; a perceived attack on organized labour; issues of sex equality; and the environment.
  • Governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney said he sympathizes with their viewpoint.
  • "I understand the frustration of many people, particularly in the United States. You've had increase in inequality because of — and this started before the financial crisis — but because of globalization, because of technology," he said.
  • t's up to governments to ensure youth are able to capitalize on their education and find good jobs
  • He said in the near future new measures will brought forward to help end the risk of banks being 'too big to fail'.
  • while the movement in the U.S. has gone on for nearly a month, he doesn't expect the same thing to happen in Canada.
  • "We don't have millions of homeowners on the street now having lost their homes as a result of foreclosures,"
  • We need to reform our systems. Especially in the U.S., there is a need for banking reforms, there is a need for tax reforms.
  • Unemployment at the beginning of the summer for Canadian youth aged 20 to 24 was at approximately 15 per cent, more than double the national average.
anonymous

Income inequality in America: The 99 percent | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...income-inequality-america

inequality income unemployment rate

shared by anonymous on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • "Occupy Wall Street" gets a boost from a new report on income distribution
  • OF ALL the many banners being waved around the world by disgruntled protesters from Chile to Australia the one that reads, "We Are the 99%" is the catchiest. It is purposefully vague, but it is also underpinned by some solid economics.
  • A report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) points out that income inequality in America has not risen dramatically over the past 20 years—when the top 1% of earners are excluded. With them, the picture is quite different.
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  • The biggest component of the increase in after-tax income for the top one percent is "business income" as opposed to income from labour or investments
  • Whatever the cause, the data are powerful because they tend to support two prejudices. First, that a system that works well for the very richest
  • Second, that the people at the top have made out like bandits over the past few decades, and that now everyone else must pick up the bill.
anonymous

David Suzuki: Occupy Movement Demands Fresh Thinking -- For Our Grandchildren - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.ca/...occupy-movement_b_1082730.html

Corporate Greed Globalization Occupy Canada

shared by anonymous on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The laws of physics tell us we can't build a rocket that will travel faster than the speed of light, that gravity governs objects on Earth, and that perpetual motion machines are not possible.
  • Those are laws of nature and we can't change them. We have to live within their boundaries. Capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, corporations, currency, markets, and regional borders are not forces of nature. We invented them. If they don't work, we can and must change them.
  • It's a message that's starting to emerge from the Occupy movement. It's not just about the one per cent who rake in an ever-increasing proportion of society's wealth while 99 per cent bear the real costs. It's also about corporate power and the systems that facilitate it. A few corporations have become bigger than most governments.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Occupiers know, because so many are young, that the inequities represented by the one per cent today are also intergenerational. Although not all corporations are bad, many of them, and the super-rich who run them, are increasing their wealth at the expense of generations to come -- exhausting resources, extinguishing species, and poisoning air, water, and soil. The costs of those problems will be most strongly felt by successive generations to come
  • Why do the governments we elect to look after our well-being and future act as cheerleaders for the corporate sector? Because money talks.
  • Corporations may produce or do things that we need and that are good for society, but their real mandate is to make money, and the more they make and the faster they make it, the better.
  • Globalization does not encourage the highest standards for workers, communities, or ecosystems. Instead, corporations often go for the lowest standards of medical care, wages, and environmental regulations because it's all about maximizing profit.
  • To me, the Occupy movement is about putting decisions and democracy back into the hands of people.
  • We need democracy for people, not corporations; we want greater equity; we demand social justice; and we want to recognize and protect our most fundamental needs -- clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy, biological diversity, and communities that support our children with love and care.
  • My generation and the boomers who followed have lived like reckless royalty and thoughtlessly partied like there's no tomorrow. We forgot the lessons taught to us by our parents and grandparents who came through the Great Depression: live within your means and save some for tomorrow; satisfy your needs and not your wants; help your neighbours; share and don't be greedy; money doesn't make you a better or more important person.
anonymous

Occupy protestors say it is 99% v 1%. Are they right? | News | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...occupy-protests-data-video

Wealth Distribution Average Income National Wealth

shared by anonymous on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Is it really 99% v 1%? It has become the rallying cry of the Occupy Wall Street movement - and the Occupy protests around the world. But is it true?
  • When Americans are asked how US wealth is distributed, they think the very richest fifth should own up to 40% of the national wealth - and that includes 90% of Republicans surveyed. In fact, that richest group owns 85% of the nation's wealth. Those surveyed also thought the bottom 120 million people should own around 10% of the national wealth. The reality: 0.3%
  • In 2010, the average American earned $26,487 - down over $2,000 in real terms on 2006. That's a drop of 5.27%, including inflation. If you were poor it's been an even bigger drop - the 24 million least wealthy households in America saw their average income go down by 10% From $12,276 in 2006 to $11,034 in 2010
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  • If you were super rich it went down too. The 400 wealthiest American households lost around 4%, including inflation Between 2006 and 2008
  • Part of the reason average Americans have been hit so hard is where their wealth comes from. Before the crash, middle-class Americans had 65% of their wealth tied up in their house.. But the richest 1% of the population kept most of their wealth in stocks and shares and business. So, when house prices went south, many Americans found their wealth disappearing too.
  • One in six Americans have no health insurance - 50 million people
  • Now, one in every seven Americans lives below the poverty line - that's a record 46.2 million people
  • Of every 17 Americans, at least one will be earning below the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour
  • 14.5% of Americans households are defined as "food insecure". That means for every seven households, one will have trouble putting enough food on the table
  • What about taxes? The 400 wealthiest households paid $19.6bn in taxes in 2008 - the latest year we have data. That's 1.9% of all the income tax the IRS collects
  • Is it the 99% v the 1% What do you think?
pauleniar

Canadian governments brace for higher debt costs - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2299505

systemic risk possible solutions Volcker Rule

shared by pauleniar on 12 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The proposed reforms, known colloquially as the “Volcker Rule,” are designed to avoid a repeat of the global banking crisis triggered by the collapse of Wall Street brokerage firm Lehman Brothers in 2008
  • limit the risks big banks can take by restricting them from trading securities for profit, an activity known as “proprietary trading.”
  • Government officials and banking regulators here say that as a result, the Volcker Rule will interfere with the liquidity of this country’s sovereign securities, driving up the cost of borrowing for governments
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  • More than $1.3-trillion in Government of Canada bonds were traded by foreign investors last year
  • While all three levels of government – federal, provincial and municipal – could see their access to international investors stifled, the new rules would have the biggest impact on those regions with large debt loads
  • The timing of the proposed rules is bad for the federal government and many of the provinces, which need to tap the bond markets to finance their large deficits and debt. Ontario alone needs to borrow $35-billion this fiscal year to manage its deficit, invest in capital projects and refinance maturing debts. To date, it has borrowed $27.2-billion
  • The Volcker Rule would apply to the global activities of banks with operations in the United States
  • oyal Bank of Canada, have significant trading operations there
  • The federal and provincial governments do significant business in U.S. financial markets, where they easily attract investors with their highly-rated bonds
Jessica Luong

As business confidence ebbs in Canada, jobless rate rises - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2257739

employment challenges declining confidence unemployment rate macroeconomics

shared by Jessica Luong on 28 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Canada’s labour market has hit a wall, with job declines in three of the past four months suggesting turmoil outside the country’s borders is denting the confidence of employers.
  • The slowdown comes as deepening global uncertainty is gnawing away at business confidence. Consumers, too, are growing cautious, with a report on gross domestic product earlier this week showing both spending and total domestic demand cooling in the third quarter.
  • Manufacturing employment tumbled to another record low last month, while in the finance and real estate industry, three-month average job losses are the steepest on record. Meantime, government hiring – a key source of employment in the past few years – is expected to weaken amid budget cuts.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • More Canadians gave up looking for work last month. The country’s labour force participation rate fell to 66.6 per cent in November, its lowest level since 2002. The drop may stem largely from young people becoming discouraged, economists said.
  • Cynthia Richardson is looking for full-time work in the Barrie area, but seeing few opportunities. The 64-year-old is searching for jobs as an administrative assistant and says most require updated computer skills she doesn’t have.
  • The country shed 18,600 jobs last month after a tumble of 54,000 in October, marking the first back-to-back monthly drop since the recession. The jobless rate hit a five-month high of 7.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday.
  • “It’s definitely not a friendly trend,” said Sheryl King, Canada economist for Merrill Lynch in Toronto. “Certain industries are growing worried about the state of economic growth, and there are signs restructuring is going on in other industries such as the public sector as well.”
  • That said, details of Friday’s Statscan report were better than the headline number suggested. The private sector resumed hiring last month, and full-time positions rose while part-time jobs declined.
  • The country’s labour market is clearly delineated along an East-West divide, with provincial jobless rates higher than the national average from Ontario eastward, and lower than average from Manitoba to British Columbia.
  • Among major cities, Regina has the lowest jobless rate in the country, at just 3.5 per cent.
  • much of the growth is in temporary work, or minimum-wage retail jobs that require working evenings or weekends.
  • Jessica Luong on 28 Dec 11
     
    Due to the increasing turmoil in the global economy, business and consumer confidences are on the decline. 
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