OWS needs to demand that Glass-Steagall is reinstated

[Klukie]

Start with this one demand. Make it a plain and simple message and effect change.

[TBF]

1. I disagree -

turning this into we want this or that legislation is a way to get it disbanded quickly. Let it grow and we can accomplish so much more. They are doing a great job in NY as far as I'm concerned - the more folks in the street the better. YMMV.

[Agony]

3. yes what you said

:thumbsup:

the declaration is the demand.

http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

[TBF]

4. That is beautiful - solidarity. nt

[ixion]

5. exactly. The system is the problem.

Once they start trying to 'work within' the existing system, the movement has been co-opted by the Powers the Be, and is effectively neutralized.

[FormerDittoHead]

17. I agree with the OP, but you're right - "demands" only weaken the cause...

"demands" might cut into their profits, but that's the cost of doing business, but the system basically stays the same.

The reinstatement of Glass-Stegall would only let their employees (the congress) write a set of rules of which,I'm sure, will end up benefiting them.

The REAL "demand" is the thing they don't want give up - control, and that's why OWP doesn't give demands.

[Klukie]

18. I completely disagree

I think the lack of a solid demand will tear down the momentum. Look what happened to the Tea Party. They are doing a great job in NYC, I just think that they should have a unified demand to go along with the protest. We must start somewhere if we really want change, otherwise we are protesting in vain.

[TBF]

20. Fine, here is your "demand":

Don't blame me if it doesn't fix into your box. :shrug:



Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

Posted on September 30, 2011 by NYCGA
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on september 29, 2011
Translations: French, Slovak, Spanish, German, Italian

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/

[Klukie]

21. These statements, while all true....

do nothing to offer solutions to problems. They simply offer the problems. We must come out of the box and demand solutions!

[TBF]

22. Why? To satisfy our corporate overlords? No sale. We're doing this our way. nt

[Klukie]

23. No....to solve the problems...right?

Isn't that the whole point?

[mother earth]

2. I agree this needs to be addressed, it is the heart

of why the financial sector has run amok, but certainly not the only issue at hand.

[trumad]

6. Possibly the biggest legislative blunder in financial history

Think about it--- this was the beginning of the end and most certainly helped lead to the world wide crisis that we are in.

Here's a great piece about it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/11/glass-steagall-act-the-se_n_201557.html

[Demit]

7. Agree totally. It is at the root of the banks' enormous power over the govt.

All the problems OWS wants addressed are tangled up in the banks' power over our lives. It was the repeal of Glass-Steagall that allowed for consolidation of the insurance industry, brokerage firms and regular commercial banks into one giant "vampire squid."

Glass-Steagall had kept commercial banking separate from investment banking. It was a good thing because the two financial entities have different cultures. Commercial banks are supposed to be about protecting deposits, and the securities business is about speculation and risk. Once the act was repealed, commercial banks and investment banks were allowed to merge.

Now they could both sell mortgages to homeowners and sell fancy investment structures on Wall Street. They could sell increasingly dicey mortgages just so long as another sucker was picking up the garbage. It led to no-doc, interest-only, option-ARM, no money down mortgages being repackaged as "sound investments" and sold as "stable assets" to city pension plans, etc. Then the housing bubble burst and all hell broke loose.

Yes, there are other aspects of the system that makes the whole system broken. But OWS is occupying the right place: where the banks are. How do we fix the part of the system that is broken because of the banks? Bring back regulations. Bring back Glass-Steagall.

[banned from Kos]

8. G-S did not apply to

Lehman
Bear
Merrill
AIG
WaMu
Countrywide
IndyMac
AmeriQuest
100's others


None of those wanted to combine I-banks with C-banks.

A trainwreck was inevitable.

[Demit]

15. Your post made me read further, thanks.

I had coincidentally been doing reading on Glass-Steagall when I saw this thread. After your post, I started googling G-S and Lehman (also interesting to me, never having understood why the big boyz let it fail) and saw an interesting discussion at TalkLeft from ppl more knowledgeable than I on the roots of the subprime mortgage debacle.

One commenter did say this: "Without the subprime crisis, no failure of Lehman. Without the repeal of Glass-Steagall, no subprime lenders, hence no crisis." How would you answer him?

There is general agreement that, however industries get re-regulated, there is a crying need for re-regulation.

[banned from Kos]

16. Dodd-Frank is the re-regulation and is stronger than G-S.

That is what is so frustrating to Democrats - we are fixing it!


Now, the root cause of the crisis was millions of bad mortgages, there is no denying that. G-S didn't prevent bad mortgages at all. They were going to take down whoever had them on their books.

Lehman didn't use FDIC insured deposits to buy these bad mortgages - so G-S had no bearing on them.

WaMu didn't have investment banking - again, no G-S application.

Finally, the S%L debacle of 89-90 was 10 years before that piece of G-S was repealed. Again, G-S did not apply to the millions of S&L bad real estate loans.

G-S had NOTHING to do with risk at all but it would effect BoA, Citi, and Morgan today (by splitting them up). But then the I-bank side of each could run crazy again (like Lehman and Bear did).

[mmonk]

9. Yes, that and the creation of new "financial" instruments of greed.

That's what did it and what makes Americans thinking we are too regulated appear as such fools to the enlightened of the world.

[mother earth]

25. Agree 100%.

[CoffeeCat]

10. + one million!!!

Absolutely.

Maybe OWS could be the movement that raises awareness of what Glass-Steagall was;
while crystallizing--in the minds of Americans--how important Glass-Steagall is to a
functioning democracy.

If we could get people to understand what Glass-Steagall did--what it means--and
what happened to our nation after it was abolished--that would help a great deal.

[Zax2me]

11. George Soros would FREAK out if that happened.

I don't think he would allow it to happen.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

12. K&R "The Wellstone Bill"?! in honor of Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota

:patriot: The sadly prophetic words of the late Senator Wellstone... spoken over 10 years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNmQDOVrLOM

[Klukie]

19. That is a great idea

:hi:

[saras]

13. They need to demand RESULTS, not TECHNIQUES

The laws are negotiable and flexible. The purposes of the laws, not so much so.

[Klukie]

24. And you don't think that the return of Glass-Steagull will yield results?

[elehhhhna]

14. Reinstated retroactively (probably not possible). We can dream.