Matt Taibbi weighs in on Occupy Wall Street. Six point plan to hit 'em where they hurt.

[vets74]

Here it is:

My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters -- in Rolling Stone on the 12th

1. Break up the monopolies....

2. Pay for your own bailouts. A tax of 0.1 percent....

3. No public money for private lobbying....

4. Tax hedge-fund gamblers. For starters, repeal... carried-interest tax break....

5. Change the way bankers get paid.....

Plus making them put all their chips on the table.

Read the article to see what all that means.

Comments are free, as usual.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. kick

[xchrom]

2. Excellent - love tax the hedge fund Thingy. Nt

[Kissell]

3. Good start, but...

I don't think you're going to get rid of the protesters without stopping the wars and increasing tax on all top earners, corporations and people alike. These are all good ideas, but you've gotta tax the rich and bring the troops home to appease this crowd. A lot of people would like to send some banksters to jail, but I agree, it is much more realistic that the movement can be appeased by taxing them.

No public money for private lobbying is a no brainer... but I think a lot of people would like to see no lobbying all together. To get financial leverage out of politics. I've even heard an idea about getting rid of career politicians and making district representation a mandatory duty of citizens, like jury duty, where your day job is protected while you serve your term for your district. I wouldn't recommend a random person being president, that's too much power for one random guy... but changing the house to lottery representation, I'm for that. Then we would have balance of power, the public could override the president and the president could veto the public if they didn't have 2/3rds... that would end a lot of the problems we have with corporations and special interests paying off career politicians.

[tinrobot]

4. How about : Corporations are not people...

...and money does not equal "speech"

[Enthusiast]

10. That would do it.

Corporations are not people and money does not equal "speech" no matter how they rule on a specific case. It just undermines their credibility further. It's an absurd notion on its face.

[pacalo]

5. This article is a MUST READ for the protesters! I think Taibbi is right on.

(He's adorable, too! What do you think, ladies?)

Great excerpt:

[Kaleko]

6. "...the 50-headed hydra of Wall Street corruption..."

Great line.

[pacalo]

7. The entire article was amazing. He's got some really good advice & he knows his subject well.

[Kaleko]

8. It's thrilling to see financial analyses described with so much oomph

that the articles all become enjoyable for a much wider readership than usual.

Taibbi actually makes an impact on the culture at large and deserves credit for it.

[pacalo]

9. Oh yes, a sign of a good writer is that they explain a tedius subject in an awesome read.

[vets74]

11. The one thing he misses is the MANHATTAN PROSECUTOR.

Primary jurisdiction for fraud cases.

Never happens.

Never an investigation.

Walking Monopoly cards for free out-of-jail.

[Remember Me]

12. He's got some great ideas there

Hope OWS listens.

[Major Hogwash]

13. Wow, this is a great article.

I didn't know hedge-fund gamblers didn't pay taxes for their bullshittery.
Who the fuck doesn't have to pay taxes when they do that kind of shit?
They even make gamblers in Vegas pay fooking taxes for crying out loud!!

[vets74]

14. Thanks.