Wall Street Worldview: Why Are People Upset?

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34964-wall-street-worldview-why-are-people-upset

“What is the vein that is being tapped into across parties, that has made people so unhappy?... That is something you should spend some time on.”Schwarzman might have gotten a clue when his president at Blackstone Group (Tony James) hosted a multi-million-dollar fundraiser for Democrat Hillary Clinton at which she denounced corporate crime (wink-wink, nod-nod). Clinton omitted denunciation of Blackstone for its then-recent fine by the SEC, even though the Blackstone victims included public pension systems in California, Florida, and New Jersey (for teachers, firefighters, police, and other government workers). And if that didn’t seem like enough of a source for anger, Schwarzman might have listened to fellow Blackstone billionaire Byron Wien, who was kicking those public sector workers back in 2010:

“The retirement benefits for state workers, really not only in New York, California and New Jersey, but throughout the country, are very generous. Too generous. And it is very hard to change that.... But I think we have to be more realistic. We literally can't afford the benefits we have given our retirees in state and local governments. And we have to change that.”

So Blackstone tried stealing from those pension funds, which may not have been Wien’s intent.
Either way, when you set about to reduce the retirement income of people who have earned it by contract, why wouldn’t you expect them to get angry? And especially why wouldn’t you expect them to get angry when their pension “problems” stem from the fiscal deceit of politicians you support? Billionaires attack the life savings of $19,000-a-year workers and expect to be loved? Yes, they do.

[tecelote]

1. Who really expects Hillary to be tough on Wall Street?

We all know she's just saying she'll be tough to get elected.

[SamKnause]

2. Corruption is being rewarded instead of being prosecuted.

[raouldukelives]

3. Becuase we live in the most reality Wall St will allow.

Whether it is our economic reality, our educational reality, our climate reality, our political reality or our peacetime reality.

If it is bad for a shareholders profits, it will be dismissed, undercut and blocked at all costs. Costs which are paid by every shareholder in the corporation and which are rewarded with each dollar they collect for the service.

Still, other people take seriously the idea of democracy. The sacrifices of so many lives and the battles fought to guarantee us our liberty are not taken in vain or jest, they are our foundation and must not, and will not, be dismissed by the desire for profits over principles.

[pampango]

4. Approaching the wealth distribution of pre-FDR tycoons must be affecting our billionaires' sense

of entitlement. They are entitled but but not the $19,000-a-year worker.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/americas-rich-may-soon-blow-past-roaring-twenties-tycoons

[Dustlawyer]

5. That's really rich (pardon the pun) the Blackstone CEO Wien thinks Public Employee retirement

is too generous! I mean, with what has happened to CEO pay in the last 30 years! They are so out of touch to be that tone deaf.

We will beat these oligarchs! They must lose!

[countryjake]

6. Stephen Schwarzman says that the markets are unsettled because of...

...geopolitical risks, the slowdown in China and because Bernie Sanders has become a viable candidate.

[Photographer]

12. +100 thanks.

[Octafish]

7. Davos 2016 Total Disconnect

... However the last Davos (20-23 January) will remain in the history of the WEF, as the best example of the growing disconnection between the elites and the citizens. The theme of the Forum was “how to master the fourth revolution,” a thesis that Klaus Schwab the founder and CEO of Davos exposed in a book published few weeks before. The theory is that we are now facing a fusion of all technologies, that will completely change the system of production and work.

The First Industrial Revolution was to replace, at beginning of the 19th century, human power with machines. Then at the end of that century came the Second Industrial Revolution, which was to combine science with industry, with a total change of the system of production. Then came the era of computers, at the middle of last century, making the Third Industrial Revolution, the digital one. And now, according Schwab, we are entering the fourth revolution, where workers will be substituted by robots and mechanization.

The Swiss Bank UBS released in the conference a study in which it reports that the Fourth Revolution will “benefit those holding more.” In other words, the rich will become richer…it is important for the uninitiated to know that the money that goes to the superrich, is not printed for them. In other words, it is money that is sucked from the pockets of people...

http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/01/the-lesson-from-davos-no-connection-to-reality/

[hifiguy]

8. These fucks need a shave from

the French National Razor.

?w=670

[smirkymonkey]

9. Exactly what I was going to say!

This has gone to far - their attitudes toward the average worker are revolting and their limitless greed is completely unchecked. The government isn't going to stop them, so we need to find another way

[leftstreet]

10. +1

[JPnoodleman]

11. Cancer cannot be bargained with, only removed with the scalpel. /nt

[eridani]

13. Yes!! And where are the tumbrils now that we really need them? n/t