Tag Archives: Occupy Wall Street
The Winter of their Discontent
If you’re not in New York right now, let me fill you in. It’s basically the end of the world, and Frost was right: ice will suffice. From my vantage point, the drum circles at Zuccotti Park fell silent, and the welcoming line of sign-holders are nowhere in evidence. But here’s a theory. If the […]
Is Ron Paul Actually a Libertarian?
Add to the list of things I don’t understand about Occupy Wall Street — along with why they think blocking midday foot traffic on Wall Street with a meditation line (1) is a good idea, or (2) helps their cause — the support Ron Paul enjoys in some substantial portion of the group. I get […]
Can Hard Work, Alone, Pay Your Way Through College?
Signs point to no — the anonymous subject of a popularly-circulated Facebook picture, who claims to be “about to graduate completely debt free” based only on her own hard work, is either lying, or has rich parents. Living within your means and working hard for an education are both good ideas, but even together, that’s […]
A Note on “Anti-Semitism” at Occupy Wall Street
Because the sentiment is blissfully relegated so far to the fringes of free society, charging a group with antisemitism remains the surefire way to de-legitimize any ideological bloc, however new or old. But it’s a hard charge to pin on Occupy Wall Street, the right side of the internet (e.g.) notwithstanding. Like any decentralized movement, […]
Chris Christie Tries to Make My Point: More on Building Common Ground between OWS and the Tea Parties
My thanks, to the non-candidate: I think if you look at the Occupy Wall Street folks and the Tea Party folks, that they come from the same perspective, they just have different solutions. Especially because for this attempt to build some common ground, the Governor caught no small amount of flak. Per Beltway Confidential: But […]
“At Least We’re Not India!”
The right’s solution to income inequality and poverty, apparently. W[h]ither American exceptionalism? Curious how the side of the aisle most invested in screaming about our perfect, blameless, unimpeachable city-on-a-hill is also the one least willing to do the hard work to preserve (or rebuild) that status.
Common Ground
Our two packs of extremists — the tea party, and Occupy Wall Street — might have more in common than they let on. Here, an attempted synthesis. If OWS stands for something (which remains debatable), they stand for the proposition that corporations exercise too much control over the American people and their government. And if […]
OWS Needs to Ditch its Student Loan Platform
With an early victory under its belt, and while it continues to capture media attention, it’s time for Occupy Wall Street to narrow its demands, and put a plausible face on the enterprise. The first step is to ditch the unrealistic request for student loan forgiveness. For reasons I can’t fathom, demands for loan forgiveness […]
How Broad a Brush in Republican “Repeal” Theory?
If you, like me, had the misfortune to watch last night’s Republican debate, one thing you should come away wondering is whether Republicans have any plan to shore up the financial markets other than simply repealing everything in sight. I think we can grant that even sophisticated players expect Dodd-Frank to have some impact on […]
A Local’s Impression of the Wall Street “Occupation”
As some of you may know, I live on (and so have ostensibly been “occupying”) Wall Street for the past two years or so. Some thoughts, then, from the front lines. For those who live or work on Wall Street — a group increasingly composed of the former as opposed to the latter — the […]
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