Trying To Discern Occupy Wall Street's 'Demands'? Think 'Jubilee'

Over at Salon, Alex Pareene writes about the struggle that the media is having discerning the "demands" of the Occupy Wall Street movement. As I noted earlier, I think it's pretty easy to discern the larger concerns of the 99% if you just start paying attention to the things that are happening to ordinary Americans. "But if the elites want a demand," Pareene says, "I say give 'em a demand." And he has a pretty good suggestion:

Household debt is at 90 percent of GDP. Any stimulus proposal -- even "dropping money from helicopters" -- would result in a massive transfer of money from indebted Americans to cash-engorged banks, rather than the spending spree that would theoretically put us back to work.

[...]

So my immodest proposal is simply this: Individuals and households in the bottom 99 percent who owe debt to any large financial institution that received federal government support during and after the 2008 crisis should see their debt forgiven. That would certainly stimulate the economy, as most people would suddenly find themselves with a great deal more money to spend on iPads (and food, and clothing, and housing, and healthcare). The debt can be forgiven by decree or if the government really wants to it can step in to pay it itself; I don't much care either way. (Though it'd be nice to see it just wiped off the books, to enrage the banks.)

Let's wipe the debt of the 99 percent off the books, tell the financial sector to eat it, and get on with our lives.

When the major financial institutions that are currently being "occupied" by the demonstrators found themselves submerged in a massive cock-up of their own devising, who rode to the rescue? The "99%," that's who. And they didn't just put a few coins in their cup -- taxpayers ponied up $4.7 trillion to help the financial industry survive. And under programs like the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, these institutions continue to save money from the faith and credit that taxpayers have lent them. If turnabout is fair play, then it seems only just to suggest that it's time Wall Street did a solid for the folks that kept them alive, at work, and rolling in bonuses.

Spoiler alert! I'll use the same argument for those who would suggest that bailing out the American taxpayer constitutes a "moral hazard." Pareene has also anticipated this:

The problem with the proposal -- basically "moral hazard" -- is precisely the problem with the government's de facto policy of not allowing the financial industry to collapse under the weight of its colossal greed. If you believe Americans should be taught "the hard way" not to live "beyond their means," forcing credit card companies to take a haircut on the money they're owed would certainly lead them to limit consumer debt-spending in the future. Banks would rather receive regular payments from fixed-rate mortgages than trick people into ARMs if they thought the government was likely to step in on behalf of borrowers rather than lenders. In other words, forcing the financial sector to feel the pain of the rest of us would help align our interests. It would no longer be profitable to rip us off if the government stepped in to halt the Great Rip-Off.

Is the idea "radical?" Only if you allow that the mainstream Judeo-Christian values that I'm constantly told form the underpinnings of our society are similarly radical. What Pareene is proposing is nothing more complicated than the good ol' Old Testament concept of "Jubilee." And in a nice coincidence, here's E.D. Kain, talking the same game as Pareene over at Forbes today:

...Keynesian spending isn't the only way to fix a balance sheet recession and get consumer spending to kick back in. There's the old biblical idea of a jubilee - a national cancellation of private debts. That's what Fred Clark suggests could be a fix to our economic ills, and it's not a bad idea at all. He quotes this Reuters piece which spells out the value of such a program:

"More than three years after the financial crisis struck, the economy remains stuck in a consumer debt trap. It's a situation that could take years to correct itself. That's why some economists are calling for a radical step: massive debt relief.

Federal policy makers, they suggest, should broker what amounts to an out-of-court settlement between institutional bond investors, banks and consumer advocates - essentially, a 'great haircut' to jumpstart the economy. ...

Renowned economist Stephen Roach, currently non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, has gone a step further, calling for Wall Street to get behind what others have called a 'Debt Jubilee' to forgive excess mortgage and credit card debt for some borrowers. The notion of a Debt Jubilee dates back to biblical Israel where debts were forgiven every 50 years or so. In an August appearance on CNBC, Roach said debt forgiveness would help consumers get through 'the pain of deleveraging sooner rather than later.'"

For a nation that's forgiven economy decimators, Gulf of Mexico destroyers, torturers, and pointless-war starters, debt forgiveness simply seems like a logical next step.

READ THE WHOLE THING:
A proposed demand for Occupy Wall Street [Pareene @ Salon]
Could a Debt Jubilee Help Kickstart the American Economy? [Forbes]

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Comments

[Dark Ness]

01:56 PM on 11/17/2011

I love the idea of "separation of corporations and state." Kick the lobbyists out of Washington by making them irrelevant. Fix Wall Street by making it a device for investing in business and that's it. Buy and Sell stocks and Bonds, that's it. No shorting, no hyper-speed trading, no derivatives, no ETF's (unless they hold fixed assets). Buy and Sell period. As for the Government, you can change it, Vote. Vote for people who have never held office. Vote for people who want to help. Don't vote for lifetime politicians. The people in office are their because of you. Take ownership of that. 99% is a whole lot more than is needed to “Vote a difference”. Its way more than you need to change the Constitution. It's in the framework of the Constitution. The power is there.

[americanmademag]

10:32 AM on 10/17/2011

The demands are simply...Occupy Wall Street is no longer sharing the American dream that money and stuff defines us. Their challenge is to gather enough momentum to change a country that has built its whole identity on this premise and worked tiredlessly to sell it as democracy to the whole world. american made magazine spent a day with OWS - their message is not buckling, but only growing. http://americanmademagazine.com/2011/10/17/a-day-with-occupy-wall-street/

[booksnmoreforyou]

10:36 AM on 10/10/2011

I can sum up the demands, in part.

We are not objects from which to extract profit, nor do we wish to be tools which extract profit from others. We refuse to live by a system where money is God and greed is his queen.

[Athelstane]

03:11 PM on 10/10/2011

Those are noble sentiments, but when you try to enforce them through the government, they have a habit of becoming some form of socialism or communism, which haven't worked well in the past.

[booksnmoreforyou]

05:11 AM on 10/11/2011

Not at all. It's called a mixed economy. EVERY economy is a mixture of capitalism and socialism. In Nordic Europe, it works exceptionally well. In ours, capitalism has run amok and needs REGULATION and reasonable RESTRAINT.

[Yankster Yank]

08:02 AM on 11/02/2011

So if I have a sole proprietorship business, how do I make a go of that with no one from whom I may extract a profit? Money certainly is not my God, but I do have to purchase goods and services myself in order to run my household. ?

[Athelstane]

10:31 AM on 10/10/2011

In addition to the abolition of debt, I understand many of the OSW protesters advocate free money.

[booksnmoreforyou]

10:38 AM on 10/10/2011

No, but some think the ideas of monetary.org would be a lot better than what we have now.

[DanielGosser]

06:06 PM on 10/08/2011

Proposed solutions to our nation's problems part 1:

1. ABOLISH FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING
This would include the institution known as the Federal Reserve. Our government must then create a congressional banking committee, whose members will be appointed and approved by all three branches of government every four years, that will print Debt-Free U.S. Banking Notes backed by our precious metals reserve and U.S. Credit. This will be owned entirely by the United States Government and it will be illegal for this institution to accept interest laden capital loans from any individual or entity, whether foreign or domestic. It will also be illegal for this institution to lend interest laden capital to any individual or entity, whether foreign or domestic. It will be illegal for any domestic entity or individual to lend interest laden capital to any individual or entity, whether foreign or domestic, and conversely, it will be illegal for any domestic entity or individual to accept interest laden capital from any individual or entity, whether foreign or domestic.

2. END THE MILITARY CAMPAIGN IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, AND LIBYA
This does not mean setting a timetable for 2035. This means pulling all of our troops out of these countries today. This will include selling the Iraq embassy for upwards of 1.5 billion USD.

[p47nandmosquito]

12:41 PM on 10/08/2011

This is certainly an interesting idea, and would probably be a major help in the short term. In the long term, though, it does nothing about the reason people are in so much debt. The underlying problems are stagnant wage growth and appalling income inequality, equal to that of Ghana according to the UN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality). Ultimately middle class people are heavily in debt because their income is too small to cover a middle class lifestyle. I don't think we can fix that without legislated caps on executive pay relative to worker pay.

[LauraSchleifer]

11:52 AM on 10/08/2011

Yes, good suggestion, but it doesn't get to the deeper root of the problem, which is the incestuous relationship overall between Corporations and State--as Mussolini (who would know) put it, the very definition of fascism. We need to demand a constitutional amendment mandating the separation of Corporations and State, an updated version of that basic constitutional tenet this country was founded upon, the separation of Church and State. Anything less will be merely putting a band-aid on a large knife wound that has split open a vital artery.

[Memelogic]

09:21 PM on 10/07/2011

COINTELPRO Alert!

Opposition shills and the uniformed are hyping up one forum poster on the OWS website as if this one pie-in-the-sky forum post is the official list of OWS demands.

For the record:

"Admin note: This is not an official list of demands. This is a forum post submitted by a single user and hyped by irresponsible news/commentary agencies like Fox News and Mises.org. This content was not published by the OccupyWallSt.org collective, nor was it ever proposed or agreed to on a consensus basis with the NYC General Assembly. There is NO official list of demands."

[DJ6ual]

07:07 PM on 10/07/2011

Examining the Stop the Machine! Create a New World! October2011 Movements Core Issues - These are the core issues identified by the October2011 (#October2011) Movement steering committee. They claim this “list” is meant to get a conversation started, and so we thought we would take them up on their offer to start talking.
http://members.beforeitsnews.com/story/948/474/Examining_the_Stop_the_Machine_Create_a_New_World_October2011_Movements_Core_Issues.html

Do you support the [October2011.org] Stop the Machine! Create a New World! Movement?
[Take the Poll by Clicking Here and Scrolling Down to the Question]
http://www.squidoo.com/politics-news-and-free-stuff

The ACORN, Obama, George Soros Connection (Timeline) - What if a corrupt far left billionaire got together with a corrupt but effective grassroots group in an effort to radically change America? That's exactly what's happening between George Soros and ACORN. Think of ACORN as instruments of George Soros grand plan. Soros wants to elect far left candidates, pass universal health care, props up the unions among many liberal ideological goals. Think of ACORN is the tool of implementation of his ideology, or at least a tool. On top of this, every policy which Soros uses ACORN to implement also helps President Obama. That's the stakes in this unholy alliance.
http://dj6ual.jigsy.com/entries/new-world-order/the-acorn-obama-george-soros-connection-timeline

[Ashley Spencer]

03:58 PM on 10/07/2011

There are way too many unrealistic demands on Occupy Wall Street’s list of demands. America needs to reinstate the Glass Steagall Act, which was repealed by Congress in 1999, a major victory for Wall Street. The Glass Steagall Act was enacted after the Great Depression kept banking and investing separate. The Glass Steagall Act was a major contributor to economic stability and without it Wall Street can do almost anything, even destroy American economic stability and viability. America must reinstate the Glass Steagall Act. This should be the first goal on Occupy Wall Street’s list of demands.

[Shayne ONeill]

09:49 PM on 10/07/2011

That list of 13 demands was not agreed to by the occupation general assembly. It's just some random dudes idea as to what the demands should be. Some are good some are implausible. Don't get distracted by them.

[Henry Garman]

11:01 PM on 10/06/2011

Jubilee is a great theme for the 99 percent to adopt.

It's about more than just debt cancellation.

Prior to Moses, ancient Sumerians kings cancelled debts at regular intervals. In Babylon, Egypt, Assyria and Anatolia, even Egypt, there are many records of the "washing away of debts".

According to the Biblical account, Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt, and once in the promised land, the Jubilee was instituted to prevent the establishment of an oligarchy. Elijah's battle with the prophets of Baal was a fight against the overlords (Baal means Lord, supreme owner) who were reestablishing slavery. The prophets of Israel railed against the rich who were robbing the poor.

Jesus stated that the purpose of his ministry was to proclaim good news to the poor and set captives free. His harshest words were for the lawyers and religious teachers who put heavy burdens upon the people. Jesus chased the moneychangers out the temple with a whip.

Solon, celebrated "Father of Democracy", legislated "shaking off of burdens", a debt cancellation, key to creating the Athenian democracy.

In Rome there were many debt cancellations, proclaimed by Hadrian, Julius Caesar and others.

In the 1800s a transatlantic Jubilee movement protested the black slave trade.

The inscription on the Liberty Bell is taken directly from the Jubilee in Leviticus 25.

Jubilee 2000 campaign was the largest anti-debt movement to date, calling for the cancellation of third world debt, continuing in the "Drop the Debt Campaign".

[laurieanichols]

08:28 PM on 10/06/2011

Consumer debt is a symptom of the wealth inequality that has grown since the 1980' s, how else were middle class families supposed to continue to live in middle class means but not for credit cards and home equity loans. If wages could have kept up with the cost of living than perhaps the middle class wouldn't have resorted to credit spending. The difference between household debt and government debt is that the household can't print it's own money, we also can't stimulate our own economy. We are beholden to outside factors. The government can hire people, put more people to work, get more jobs into the economy and raise revenues if it wants. It would be lovely to have debt forgiveness, it would be nice to not have to play what won't be shut off right now in determining which bill to pay. Trying to get a job is next to impossible, the people working at Wall Street drinking champagne and dismissing the protracted.

[lrobb]

04:25 PM on 10/06/2011

As a card carrying member of the 99%, after I read this article I did some fist pumping and shouted "woo, woo" a couple of times. Then I engaged my brain.

I have 12 loans. This would be because I have one home, one HELOC and 10 rental properties. Come the Jubilee, I could support an entire block on the outfall from my local spending. Or I could send my tenants' children to the private school of my choice which would be St. Anthony's--the local Catholic school. Don't want your children to go there? Tough. It is the only school I am funding.

Still think Jubilee would be a good thing? It is my money, after all, and Jubilee means that now I would get to direct it.

[Twopennygal]

06:19 PM on 10/06/2011

And you don't think that's a good thing? What do you do with your money now, send it to the black hole banks?

[lrobb]

06:38 PM on 10/06/2011

The bank I send it to is not a black hole. It is First Reliance--a local bank in Florence, SC. Remember Adrianna Huffington's move your money campaign? I didn't have to because I have only ever dealt with my local bank.

Without my bank, I could never have build up the equity I have which is what is going to support our family in retirement. Everything will be paid off in 5 years when I turn 68.

My bank believed in me when I bought properties others wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. My husband and I spent evenings, weekends and holidays fixing up our rental units over the last 30 years. We were not wealthy, so the only properties we could afford were those with major renovation problems.

Now, after almost 40 years of unrelenting hard work on my husband's full time job, my small business and our properties, we are going to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not even a recession can take it away from us because what we have is "sweat equity."

Unless you have done roofing in South Carolina in August, you have no concept of what "sweat equity" really means.

I fully intend to enjoy every single cent of the money we have earned until we pass our properties to our children--who grew up working on them and earned their inheritance the hard way.

[Kydo]

01:32 PM on 10/06/2011

Haha, I love this:

"Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all...And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period."

You know this would completely destroy all the banks in the world, right? I mean the basic bank business model is to "borrow" their customer's money so they can loan it out at a higher interest rate. If you take away all their income then they have no means to continue to exist and so they will all fold.

Perhaps a world without banks might appeal to some people although I have to wonder where they would go to borrow money to buy a car or a house.

[Twopennygal]

06:21 PM on 10/06/2011

I doubt it would have the impact you imagine. I have no figures, so I can't say with impunity, but I think the debt of the 99% is much smaller than the "debt" of the 1%. As you say, they all trade their money around to multiply.

[sorjuana]

10:01 PM on 10/08/2011

This list of demands is not an official statement from OWS, Just someone's idea.

[William50]

11:56 AM on 10/06/2011

The unemployed, the over sixty or even 55 still working, the need to create millions of new jobs-What if I could do in one step, one wave of the federal money train and still the voices of the 99, put millions to work and open up employment for the graduation classes for five years or more.
How to do that plus get the housing market moving and sell cars--it is not hard but it is radical.
There are 40 million Americans age 50 and up employed or looking for work. Each is given one million tax free for the first year and they have to stop working or looking for work. Each has to buy one new American car and one of a couple has to buy a home or pay off their home. They may start new business, retail retirement and only work in jobs newly created for five years.
Out come, taxes go up the second year, jobs will have to be filled, low unemployment. Many will start their dream job because they have money and new and old homes will be bought and exchanged.
Ya I know!! But go ahead I enjoy the comments. Even sent it around the wed but it is not my idea and I am just restating it because it is no worse then the garbage we hear from Washington.

[Kydo]

01:25 PM on 10/06/2011

As soon as you announce this program every single 50+ year old in the US will quit their job in expectation of getting $1M handed to them.

[Twopennygal]

06:22 PM on 10/06/2011

That's what he said...

[lrobb]

04:32 PM on 10/06/2011

You have the first glimmering of a very good idea, but it needs work. Get back to us when you have fleshed it out a little more and applied spell-check.