As the Occupy Movement gears up for its next phase, I hope it can help give visibility to ideas that move beyond vilifying "corporations" and "capitalism" and begin to focus on the incentives and policies that create sub-optimal results from business and capital markets. We need a more nuanced view of capitalism to make progress.
Corporations may be "persons" legally, but they are not in reality. To bring about change, we need to influence real people, especially those who shape the incentives, such as compensation and tax policy, that drive the behavior of business people and investors. General protest is important and legitimate for lots of reasons, but it's not all that is needed.
For those in the Occupy movement who blame corporations for a multitude of woes, it's also important to remember that "we the people" represent the demand for cheap goods, sugary soda, and freedom to live the way we want, which is the ying-to-the-yang of unsustainable consumption of natural resources and energy -- the goods and services largely being delivered by "corporate capitalism."
Meanwhile, however, although the encampments may be mostly gone, the attitudes about business that permeate Occupy are spreading. Harris Interactive released its latest polling data for 60 leading companies this week, and Wall Street firms hit a new low.
The percentage of respondents with a positive impression of the industry fell to 17 percent from 22 percent a year ago. The only industry with a less favorable standing was tobacco. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and AIG had scores so low they resemble the approval ratings of companies like Enron before they went out of existence.
The reasons for this fall from grace probably stem from a host of issues, but clearly trust -- or the lack thereof -- in Wall Street, business and ,increasingly, something called "capitalism" -- play a big role. Indeed, a meta-narrative seems to have emerged, promulgated by pundits and authors alike, who blame multinationals for many of our economic woes.
For example, in a recent speech to promote his book, Death of the Liberal Class, I heard Christopher Hedges argue that there are three types of capitalism -- the local kind, like the green market in the parking lot at the neighborhood church, the regional kind -- like the grocery store chain, and then, of course, corporate capitalism. He made very clear which one was the problem. Mr. Hedges is articulate, passionate, well educated and seems in command of his facts. Given his background as a long time correspondent for the New York Times with a degree in divinity, it seems like truth is on his side -- and he touches on the big issues.
He referenced rapid decline of species, yawning problems in public health, a deficit of jobs and economic security -- and tying it all together? The failure of government to act, given that "they" -- the corporations -- control the campaign coffers, a reality now made worse by Citizens United and Super Pacs.
The room was packed, and even on the Upper East Side of Manhattan -- where there are likely more investment bankers in residence than any other place on the planet -- there were bursts of applause at his recurrent theme: corporations are at the root of the problems we face in this country. There is nothing left to be done, given their influence in the political process, but take to the streets.
I share his concern about the issues. I see two problems with his analysis.
The first problem, to quote the cartoon character Pogo -- "we have met the enemy, and he is us."
But further, every boomer fortunate to have a 401k plan wants it to go in one direction only -- up. The drumbeat for high returns is the flip side of short-term behavior in business and finance that drives the most egregious behavior in markets -- from creating junk mortgages to products with social and environmental costs. Excoriating corporations isn't going to bring about the changes we need. We need to delve into the incentives and the decision rules that shape behavior of those on both sides of the table.
Follow Judith Samuelson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JudySamuelson
Bob Burnett: Class Warfare: Which Side Are You on?
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg: Occupy The Criminal Justice System: From Stop-and-Frisk To Prison Cells
Yvette Kantrow: Goodbye to All That, Wall Street Edition
Price? … a few cents on the dollar.
Pump & Dump
1929
2008….Control the bubble…control the collapse.
Control the Money…Control the World.
Synthesize the bubbles then synthesize the depressions.
Low interest rate bubble bursts…then the 8 families buy the defaults pennies on the dollar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDYfyAQ8lUI
The Creature from Jekyll Island G.Edward Griffin
http://www.thrivemovement.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AZ15EsXRL8&feature=related
If corporations are persons capable of speech; do corporations have feelings too?
Because the feelings exhibited by MOST collective GANGS is “un-feeling” group psychopathy.
8 families own the monopoly over the global economy.
8 families manufacture debt with daily interest through the Federal Reserve and Central Banks.
The Federal Reserve System is the greatest con job in human history.
Does that mean they are ENTITLED to U.S. Government welfare without tax?
The 8 families and the 1% collect daily interest on usury?
That is the legacy of the elite to take without paying their fair share?
I know the elite believe in hell;
because the elite are creating hell right here on earth.
Turning U.S. into Mexican peasantry.
8 families own 70 trillion and control BIG OIL and the fortune 500 BIG companies.
70 trillion requires tax breaks?
Printing fiat federal reserve money instead of gold backed treasury note currency
in order to manufacture debt for U.S.?
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/who-really-controls-the-world
The World Order Eustace Mullins
If people keep taking money out of BofA (as an example) to the point where they are in any actual danger, the only precedent we have to go on says the government will prop them up with taxpayer money (as they have been) with either direct fund injection or access to cheap loans from the Fed.
Without actual criminal prosecution (where appropriate), there is no solution. Blaming average citizens, or asking them to share in the blame, is totally off the topic. Irresponsible consumers, at best, merely set the stage for the crimes that took place.
Eliminate the financial profit potential from public service then,
we can debate "nuance".
The OWS will either become absorbed by the Democratic National Party or the Green party.
They will probably become absorbed by the Democratic National party in which case they will be given an office and some rooms at the National convention and allowed to sell tee shirts and hand out flyers. Their booth will be next to the "Save the whales" booth on level C.
"It is difficult to see how Gandhi's methods could be applied in a country where opponents of the regime disappear in the middle of the night and are never heard of again. Without a free press and the right of assembly, it is impossible not merely to appeal to outside opinion, but to bring a mass movement into being, or even to make your intentions known to your adversary." George Orwell, Reflections on Gandhi
There is no compromosing with EXXON Mobile for example .Their year profits are 50 BILLION AND they get billions of incentives from the govt.
Not only do you patronize the demonstrators of Occupy, you tout your superiority to Chris Hedges, even though he, not you, makes sense and has well-earned credibility.
You have been to the mountain top and yet appear condescending and unenlightened. You want to use "nuance" to change the behavior on both sides of the table when one side has all the firepower? Sorry, Judy, In this struggle you have to pick a side.
Meanwhile, those still tethered to reality note that "those on both sides of the table, (in question)" are ALL Government/Finance/Revolving Door people, batting mostly-imaginary paper back and forth, far out of the reach of influence of small investors, and then covering each other's butts, and bets, with out money--or imaginary money.
Save your: "Well let's be reasonable and blame the victims for, say, *half or so* of what went wrong."
Thousands of crimes were commited. They weren't commited by the victims. They will never be properly addressed under the guy who Wall Street installed as President in 2008. Which is why no one but two-headed boys and bearded ladies have been allowed to run against Obama *this* time.
Excoriating isn't even the beginning, Judith. We aren't buying what you're selling. Things are gonna change. And I don't just mean the way the same ol' boys do the same ol' business.
I'm calling bullcrap. It was no drumbeat from small investors that led fund wizards to create and operate "products" that *stole vast sums of money from small investors.*
"Delving"?
That's your solution?
We need to "delve"?
Newsflash: Worldwide Financial Meltdown Found to Have Been Caused By Delving Deficit.
The many valid and well reasoned complaints of OWS will always be mixed with a few extreme and simply crazy voices. It goes with the territory with any organization that operates without a central controlling body.
You can't de-capitate a swarm.