I support Occupy Wall Street one hundred percent. People have been waiting for the government to do something about dangerous banking and corporate practices that are literally destroying us. Now it’s clear the government isn’t doing much of anything. Our government right now is creating problems, not solving problems. I’m so happy to see the protesters doing whatever they can to start this great conversation and put some pressure on our elected officials. The banks are still doing all the dangerous trading they did before the economic collapse. They haven’t stopped because no laws are stopping them. Israel and Canada didn’t cave in to pressure to deregulate their banking industries like the US and Europe did. Because they have strong banking regulation their banks are fine and their people didn’t have to bail out anything. We need serious banking regulation, for a start. We need some laws to prevent a handful of people from legally taking us all down for their own huge personal profit.

applaud these protesters… Anyone that understands macroeconomic theory can understand that the economic system in the US is rigged. Anyone who insults the folks over there that are brave enough to fight for all of us do not deserve to be called American. We are not against capitalism. The problem is that the wealthy have hidden behind “capitalism” to take advantage of the rest of society, and that is not capitalism. The wealthy have been able to lobby to get laws in place that benefit them. That is the reason that they have won the class war.

Companies are sitting on huge amounts of cash on their balance sheets. Do you think they don’t know that the power to jumpstart the economy lies in their hands? They have economists, lawyers, and business folks that are only focused on MAKING PROFITS AT ALL COST! And sure… that is the basis of capitalism… But let’s stop kidding ourselves… the corporations do not care that I can put food in my family’s mouth. They don’t. They are not “job creators” either. They are cash hoarders knowing how harmful that is to an economy that is 70% based on consumer spending. These economic conditions are only bad for certain people, not for the wealthy. They are doing just fine, because they have managed to take advantage of our economic and political system.

These same corporations want to use the current economic environment to eliminate regulations that are meant to keep them in check? FDA, EPA, FEMA, all under attack… Regulations exist for a reason. They have proven that the big interests need supervision… They want to even eliminate Sabarnes-Oxley… Did they forget about ENRON and TYCO? Did americans forget that regulation is the result of misbehavior by big corporations? They want to eliminate Dodd-Frank because they say that this regulation is a burden! Dodd-Frank was put in place to protect the economic system from another meltown like the one that the financial industry created! The government wanted to pass regulation that guaranteed that financial firms put the interests of the customers first. They lobbied against it and had the regulation shelved! In some instances they sold investement products to consumers and bet that they would fail! They made money by selling them, and then made money when they failed… With these strategies the financial industry took advantage of retirement trusts, municipal governments, and even countries.

If corporations were to put that cash into hiring, people would have jobs. In turn, people would be able to spend. In turn, companies would get more revenue. The cycle repeats consistently. It is the flow of money that matters. Where is the bottleneck? In the big corporations pockets… The economy is messed up because of THEM, not because of government. Is this nation so blind? They are not hiring because they want to force the governments hand in the chess game that is politics. Plain and simple. Obama wants to restore some of that power to the people, and that is not in the best interest of the wealthy class in the US. Some people say that companies will not hire until demand increases. Don’t you think that if more people were employed and were making decent wages demand would increase? Either these people do not understand how the economic system is supposed to work, or you basically agree of the greed that plagues the system.

The big interests need to stop playing our country’s population for fools…

Unemployment Insurance is not a hand out. I payed for that through taxes.
Social security is not a hand out. I payed for that through taxes.
Medicare is not a hand out. I payed for that through taxes.
Medicaid is not a hand out. I payed for that through taxes.

The money in this country has moved from the middle class into the hands of the wealthy for the past 30 years. CEO pay has skyrocketed. Average worker pay has decreased. CEOs get golden parachutes for destroying companies, offshoring workers, and laying off people…. Average workers are doomed until they wake up. And I think they might be…

Not a single executive from any financial firm has been prosecuted for the meltdown of our economy. They say it was legal. Sure… They managed to prevent regulation (complex derivatives) they repealed Glass-Steagal and they destroyed our country. Wake up America. You have already lost the class war.

Go protesters Go! I support you 100%!

These are some of the things we should be DEMANDING as constituents:

1. Ensure that the wealthiest pay at least the same tax rate as the highest tax rate of middle-class americans
2. Eliminate all corporate tax loopholes that enable corporations to not pay their fair share of taxes
3. Eliminate all individual tax loopholes that enable the wealthy to pay a lower percentage rate than less fortunate Americans
4. Establish regulations that ensure that investment banking executives have to vest their income based on longterm financial results (If the company fails, they don’t get to keep their compensation, and remove golden parachutes)
5. Establish regulations that ensure that investment banking executives are held accountable criminally for economic system meltdowns due to lack of adequate risk management and double-dipping
6. Ban the practice of hedging investment bets that ensure that investment banks profit by selling shady investment vehicles that they are hedging that will fail
7. Establish regulations that require FULL disclosure on investment positions by the financial institutions when they are selling investment mechanisms to consumers. This needs to show direct and indirect conflict of interests
8. Establish a government/business “Social Graph” that details all relationships (person-to-person, company-to-company, person-to-company, company-to-government, company-to-academia, government-to-academia) past and present for all the major players on our socio-economic system. This information needs to be made public in a fashion that is easily searchable and that makes it easy for constituents to quickly view relationships across government, business, and academia. This will make the information related to personal ties viewable to all. This will make the identification of potential conflicts of interests easier.
9. Overrule Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court. Corporations should not be allowed to donate unlimited amounts of money to political parties/individuals.
10. Properly fund and staff regulatory agencies that exist to enforce the financial regulations. Ensure that these agencies have no conflicts of interest within. Ensure the independence by guaranteed funding and give them sufficient authority by making all of them fall below a “Regulatory Organization” that reports directly to the President of the United States.
11. Reinstate Glass-Steagall less

How sad, these morons are now putting on costumes. No wonder no one will hire them. ROT THEIR SOULS.

if the protesters were a bit more serious and stop the constant ranting set the agenda get everybody on the same page. Maybe then everyone one would get the message but their are too many people being interviewed by the media that makes the the movement seem like a mess. The media is putting a bad spin on this and thats the message getting out. The little blogs and all the other efforts are not going to reach as many people as the news. The news is making the protest look bad. This protest need a clear agenda an intelligent speaker and some one to set the tone for all the rest. It is time to end all the corporate greed. We are not going to work for miserable wages while a handfull of people get fat off the sweat of the many. Lets get it together. Make the world understand.

They claim to be protesting against huge, wealthy corporations. Yet their employer (“Occupy Wall Street”) seems to be a huge and wealthy corporation – it must be, if it can afford to hire thousands of PROFESSIONAL ACTIVISTS to protest in cities across the country.

Where do I get the training needed to join the highly lucrative activist industry?

Teachers are just as greedy and union people are just as greedy as wall street people. Not everyone who works on wall st. Is rich, I don’t make much cash and I do t have a union to cry to when I don’t get what I want…So all you smelly protesters can go f yourselves

I take my hat off to these kids because they are standing up against corporate greed. As for jobs…. if there are so many how come the unemployment rate has been over 9% for such a long time and if you filter in the under employed that its closer to 15 %. We can give billions to banks at the same time that government wants to cut benefits to the miltary. Corporations have bought government and we are people are suffering. You mean we dont have enough workers in this country that we need to import more from overseas. We export jobs to foreign countries so corporations can side step enviromental rules and safety regulations…
I am not some 20 something kid but in my 60′s and have seem what has happens in corporations the mindset of those in power… I have a comfortable life but my concern is the pain I see of the people who are sufferingto make ends me. I hope that this rally escalates and wakes up this country to the greed and corruption that is occuring. Keep on the fight on.. and thank u

The individuals who believe that it is so easy finding good paying employment and believe that these kids that are protesting are lazy are clueless about life.
You should have the guts that these kids have.
You are probably too busy watching 100 channels of cable that you are paying way too much for.
Have another 6-pack and fall deeper into the abyss.

The movement is gaining momentum in its THIRD week now and Occupations are popping up all over the country! Stand up together and use your voice to give to those without through peace and solidarity. Tax the rich and feed the poor- you are the 99%! See my Occupy Wall Street painting and Anonymous homage on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/occupywallstreet.html where you can also see videos of the protests and police brutality as well as get other sources for coverage of the movement.

If all goes will The days of a Corporation giving a CEO a $20M bonus while telling a Secretary or Custodian we can’t afford to give you a 2% salary increase will be over that CEO will get $10M and that Secretary and Custodian will get $20K

If they put half as much effort into educating themselves about financial issues and starting their own businesses, they could actually get somewhere. But no, let’s blame everyone else for our misfortunes because we’re too dumb and too lazy to learn! Let the government get us out of this mess. Ha! Not likely.

Gee. It must be nice not having to work for 3 weeks and just camp out. Useless bums.

Maybe Obama can put them to work ” rebuilding roads and bridges ” They look like a strong, healthy folk. Or they can work in one of Obamas solar panel factories. Or one of his shovel ready projects. Instead of giving 530 million to Solindra executives to steal, he could of put all of these people through harvard or yale. Nothing to do with over regulation, keep up the good work. Its such a pleasure doing business in new york state, a breeze

Get an F*&^ing Job! And don’t give me that BS that there are none. There are plenty of jobs, just not always the kind that we would want. Go be productive, can’t find a job… don’t want one? Come up with a new business or invention or an idea that no one ever had. Get some cheap financing from the bank, a friend, or a rich relative. Or go to work in McDonald’s, or become a bartender, or waiter to earn enough cash to get that business or idea off of the ground. PRODUCE SOMETING WITH YOUR LIVES! STOP WHINING ON THE SIDELINES BECAUSE THINGS AREN”T GOING YOUR WAY!! To quote Dennis Leary, “Welcome to the real world where most of the time things don’t go your F*&^ing way!” Funny, but true.

They should march to Washington DC and protest their savior. Bamboozled liberals.

I believe that this country was built on protest where the voices of the people can be heard. Take for example The Boston Tea Party which led our country to
The American Revolution and our independence from England.
Let us not forget President Kennedy and Martin Luther King as well as Kent State.
When I see how the American People are suffering now by Losing jobs, their homes, the financial burden of the cost of health care and the cost of goods, and the cost of education, etc… I cannot place blame on our youth for being upset and protesting. These kids go to college in a time when a college education has been demanded of them, they acquire a degree after paying out tens of thousands of dollars to eventually come to find that they are unable to get a good paying job of any kind let alone one that they have an education for.
Shame on our leader for allowing this to happen to our Country.

They are kids without jobs, people with no genuine responsibilty to themselves or a family, or malcontents with nothing to do looking for a cause, and exitement. It is the cause de jure. Their hippy parents and professors teach them that authority is never to be respected (they use the term “civil disobedience” I believe), but did not bestow an ounce of common sense with their anti-authoritarian rantings. They were raised to believe that they are the center of the universe, and are so special that they can ignore the cop that asks them to move from the middle of the street twenty times without consequence. Once the cop has had enough, and has no options, and pepper sprays them, they are overcome by unearned righteous indignation, and scream about civil rights violations and police brutality. They make me yearn for the days of nightsticks, fire hoses, and Kent State.

what losers, get a life,who has all that free time to dress up and stand around out in the cold?

what time is the Yankee game? Is that early Halloween? What’s going down there?

they a bunch on malcontents- go look at their web page

Clueless kids who don’t understand the real issue, if they did, they would be outside the Fed as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Fed is the organization that kept interest rates so low, affording easy money to the banks and investors who bought the mortgage backed securities that Fannie and Freddie hand bundled. People who couldn’t afford houses would not have gotten mortgages without this easy money from the Fed. These are the same idiots who voted for Obama and who want BIGGER government to solve the problem. Hey dolts, the BIG government mantra caused this problem. What we need is less Government intervention artificially affecting our economy. Get the Government out of picking winners and losers. Get Washington to pull back and let the people decide. I guess these are the same clowns who were protesting against Bush, voted for Obama… and got more of the same. Gitmo still open, MORE war, not less and unemployment rising and rising.

I BELIEVE THE POWER OF THE THE SMALL STOCK HOLDER , THE PERSON WHO GETS THE PROXY TO VOTE ON ALL CORP. ISSUES INCLUDING SALARYS ,OPTIONS AN BONUSES OF THE SO-CALLED CEO;S HAS BEEN DIMINISHED BY THE401 PLAN MANAGERS ,WHEN YOUR MIONEY IS IN A 401 YOU WILL NEVER SEE A PROXY VOTE REQUEST THE ONLY INTEREST IS INCREASE NO MATTER. GOD BLESS THESE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE GETTING ARRESTED AN DEMONSTRATING AGAINST THE PRESENT SITUATION BY THE BY THE 401 SITUATION WAS NEVER MEANT TO MAKE SHRUD AN CLEVER INVESTORS OUT OF PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT A PENSION AN WATCH IT ALL DISAPEAR WHEN THE STOCK MARKET DROPS . THIS INSIDER SITUATIONS IS SO COMMON AN UNCONTROLABLE THESE ARE ONLY ONE;S STRIKING GOLD . THERE ONCE WAS A VERY GOOD US PRESIDENT WHO TOOK US OFF THE GOLD STANDARD AN ALERTED FRIENDS WHO MADE A BUNDLE . THESE ARE A SENIOR AMERICAN’S OBSERVATIONS . GOD BLESS AMERICA AN ESPECIALLY THESE YOUNG PEOPLE SERVING IN THE MIDEAST.

Just shows what a joke there cause is.Ha HA funny what a bunch of losers there parents must be so proud

I think the zombie business takes away from the seriousness of their message.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/ghosts-in-the-machine/