In the strange politics of 2012, the strangest wrinkle may be the growing convergence between high-powered establishment financiers and Occupy Wall Street. Earlier this week there was a convocation of bankers, lawyers, academics and financial leaders in the august halls of a major Manhattan law firm. Its central purpose was to examine federal regulatory responses to the Great Financial Meltdown.
What emerged was a cri de coeur about the future of the American economy. Its central thesis was that the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the top 1% (of banks) was a danger to the other 99% (of banks), to our economy, our liberty and our democratic values. I expected to hear this at Zuccotti Park. It was a genuine surprise to hear it on 5th Avenue.
The group that met was made up of very smart people, with a variety of social and political views. Among of string of piercing presentations, two stood out. First, Henry Kaufman, the storied "Dr. Doom" of years past, who made an international reputation predicting interest rate shifts and the economic realities behind them. He laid out how mega-banks:
Next, Ira Millstein, the diffident gray-eminence of anti-trust law and corporate governance who has engineered reforms at places like General Motors and New York's MTA, subtly skewered Dodd-Frank and increasing federal regulation of banks. His skepticism comes not from the scripted anti-government perspective of the Tea Party and Mitt Romney, but because such regulation is doomed to fail. The answer: An anti-tust analysis of the mega-financial conglomerates.

Without ever saying so, both Kaufman and Millstein were calling for a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, the New Deal restriction against financial conglomerates repealed by Bill Clinton. Repealing Glass-Steagall created mega conglomerates which include insurance, investment banking and related functions, and which decreased competition in the banking sector. Breaking up these mega conglomerates allows a market-based solution that restricts the power of the huge players who currently control our financial lives. Both were skeptical that it would ever happen.
Having spent considerable time around and about Occupy Wall Street, the ironies of the Kaufman's and Millstein's concerns struck me as considerable. While the social perspectives and life experiences could not be more divergent, their conclusions were precisely the same as OWS. The great danger to American prosperity, to American values, to average people is the result of the huge concentration of money and power that have been the "hallmark of the American economy" for over thirty years.
The convergence of these ideas is an enormously important phenomenon. Even as concentrated power increases, and as almost all Republicans and most Democrats enable it, the populace is becoming increasingly restless and counter-forces are bestirring themselves. It may be incongruous to think of Kaufman and Millstein drumming on the steps of Zuccotti Park, but drumming they are. The folks who are starting to hear the drumming are now the financial academic and legal elite of the business community.
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Its central thesis was that the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the top 1% (of banks) was a danger to the other 99% (of banks), to our economy, our liberty and our democratic values. I expected to hear this at Zuccotti Park. It was a genuine surprise to hear it on 5th Avenue.
Does this ever end? Well they say it's the most sincere form of flattery but now even the “Banksters” are joining the 99% Movement?
Y’all better hurry up and reserve your place at the May 1st General Strike (if not sooner) otherwise we might not be able to Guarantee you a spot at the OWS Protests!
These "Other" Banksters migh take them all.......
I found that there were only short extraordinary growth spurts when the common people had the upper hand and a fair shake to grow, develop and prevail. Those periods did not recognize especially great leaders. During the Neolithic Era those leaders of that extraordinary discovery and growth period have been erased from human memory. Yet, the Pharaohs and Emperors following who made lasting monuments to themselves are studied as great leaders. Yet, they resided over stagnant, declining organizations (with some temporary exceptions).
Now our nation's shift from action to the power of words has again cast a people operating for themselves and their nation to a people under the foot of power and rising oligarchy. We have lost our confidence and competence to build and reconstruct and gained vision and inspiration of the glory of eternal life and other absolute truths.. We are no longer our brother's keeper but his indentured servant .
Congress reminds me of the doctors of yore who bled patients to "cure" them. When the patient grew sicker after bleeding, they bled him again. Not surprisingly, he got worse. So the cure recommended was more bleeding. And then the patient died. But those physicians insisted that eventually the bleeding would have cured him, if only the patient hadn't stubbornly gone and died on them first.
There is no greater symbol of the corruption of our society and sytemmatic concentration of wealth and power at the expense of average citizens, taxpayers, employees, consumers, and the neediest of Americans than the lives and "service" of Bill and Hillary Clinton. They continue to shamlessly pander to a progressive base of support claiming to champion the middle class and to address the great needs of the world's impoverished and oppressed, while selling their influence to benefit profiteering corporations and receiving their share of the cut to become mega millionaires. They serve themselves.
Sure the Bushes, Phil Gramm and many other Republicans have gotten wealthy off of power. The Clintons claim, however, to represent a different agenda and value system, while they contribute to the very same outcomes. Bill Clinton led and signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall and within months of leaving office received millions and millions from grateful Wall Street cronies. What is a retroactive bribe called? kickback? "speaking and consulting fees"? Clinton has now collected over $75 million. And his wife wades every day in huge conflicts of interest that further enrich Clinton, Inc. Power gluttony and greed?
Among all the power elite who continue to concentrate wealth in personal fortunes, the Clintons stand out for particular scorn as the most sanctimonious and hypocritical.
Any non-approved candidate who gains too much popular support is systematically destroyed by party insiders and the corporate media, until by the time of the election, the American people go dutifully to the polls and vote for corporate candidate A or corporate candidate B.
Having said that, though, I'll take the corporate candidate who'll at least throw a bone or two to the masses instead of those who quite openly plan to destroy the middle class and the poor to enrich and empower ONLY the very wealthy.