Wall Street.

[Nikki Stone1]

"Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.... Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. ...the politicians said we suffered from overproduction. Overproduction when 10,000 little children starve to death every year in the U.S. and over 100,000 shop girls in New York are forced to sell their virtue for bread. ...

There are thirty men in the United States whose aggregate wealth is over one and one-half billion dollars. There are half a million looking for work....We want money, land and transportation. We want the abolition of the National Banks, and we want the power to make loans direct from the government. We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out....We will stand by our homes and stay by our firesides by force if necessary, and we will not pay our debts to the loan-shark companies until the Government pays its debts to us.

The people are at bay, let the bloodhounds of money who have dogged us thus far beware."


--Populist Orator, Mary Ellen Lease; 1890, Topeka, Kansas.

Quoted in Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" (pg. 288)

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. I missed that.

I guess the mods were quick.

[AllentownJake]

3. Probably Rahm or Geithner setting you straight

:rofl:

[Nikki Stone1]

7. Well, hopefully not completely straight

I've had my fun. :evilgrin:

[glitch]

8. !

:spray:

[Nikki Stone1]

30. Surprised?

:D

[glitch]

32. Nah, just funny. nt

[Nikki Stone1]

33. I do my best.

:)

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

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[leftstreet]

4. K&R

[Cleita]

5. K&R

[ProSense]

9. 1890: "Wall Street owns the country

...We want the abolition of the National Banks, and we want the power to make loans direct from the government. We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out..."

Here we are, more than a century later, through FDR, Truman and LBJ, still saying "Wall Street owns the country." What does that say?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. KICK!

:kick:

[treestar]

11. Once again, you're saying the voters are helpless in the face

of slick campaign ads and that they can't think for themselves.

As long as "Wall Street" spends money on ads, people will do what the ads tell them to do.

Wall Street represents nothing but the state of the economy, the value of companies, and whether or not the company is doing well. Which most people want, since that's how they keep their jobs.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[treestar]

19. 90% of the country are still employed

Most people don't think of their employers as "masters." It's not slavery to be employed. Most people don't see it that way.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nikki Stone1]

29. Actually that's not true. the 10% is only part of the total unemployment rate

"The national unemployment rate is computed solely from the Current Population Survey (CPS) of about 60,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau. Residents of selected households are interviewed about their work experience. From these responses, the Bureau of Labor Statistics then estimates the size of the labor force and the number of people who are jobless....

....The unemployment rate has specific limitations. It can't differentiate between full-time and part-time jobs. It doesn't account for people who are underemployed, or working in jobs for which they are overqualified because they can't find a good job. It won't tell you how many people have become so discouraged in their job search that they have given up hope of finding a job...."
http://dli.mt.gov/resources/howrate.asp


There have been estimates that as much as 20% of the nation is not actually working right now.

[DJ13]

15. Wall Street represents nothing but the state of the economy .......

No, Wall Street represents nothing more than a mixture of gambling mixed with raw greed hiding behind a thin veil of respectability.

When the P/E ratios stop mattering more than the opinions of faceless analysts its time to stop believing the stock market represents reality.

Oh I know the pro business types (who really do believe trickle down works) (cough DLC) including the WH believe they are doing the right thing by stimulating Wall Street to the exclusion of the rest of us, that the Dow IS the "real" economy, but they're wrong.

You dont fix a consumer led recession caused by a credit crunch (and stagnant wages) by stimulating corporate balance sheets, thats asinine.

[treestar]

21. One does not have to "believe trickle down works" to realize

that Wall Street crashing is not good, and not in our interests. We didn't like it happening in 1929 and we don't like it now. It means misery.

It isn't pure gambling, it is about figuring out which goods and services will sell. We all need a job involving something someone else is willing to pay for.

We probably have to deal with the reality that we would not live as well as we do if we had nothing but small businesses that only served locally. The rest of the world would pass us by. Find a country that is like that and I'll show you a third world country.

[DJ13]

25. No one wants them to crash

But no one expects big firms to become welfare queens constantly sucking on the government tit either.

Its not rocket surgery, in an economy 70% based on consumer spending you dont fix a recession caused by an inability for consumers to spend by cutting them out of the bailouts if your intention is to fix the economy.

If they have money they would spend it, and who always ends up the beneficiaries of consumer spending?

The very corporations directly propped up by the bailouts.

Duh

[AllentownJake]

16. The stupid it burns so bad, so bad nt.

[treestar]

22. What kind of a remark is that?

If you were in charge, we'd all be toast. All of us. Maybe you'd have the satisfaction of seeing the fatcats suffer, but so would everybody else. Are we really supposed to have nothing but little businesses that serve only locally? And if they hurt or injure someone, there's no one to recover from (if you can find them to sue them).

You're creating this fantasy world of small shopkeepers who never do any wrong.

[AllentownJake]

24. Sigh

See this is typical, all or nothing logic I have to be subjected to all day on here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7338642

Take some logic and call me in the morning.

[neverforget]

26. Not good without a pic:

[Nikki Stone1]

28. Jeez!

!

[Greyhound]

12. Now that's tradition!

:rofl:
:kick: & R

[inna]

14. KR

Related thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7387970

[amborin]

17. KNR

[unkachuck]

18. K&R....

"Populist Orator, Mary Ellen Lease; 1890,"

....my oh my, this scuzzy system has been fucking us for quite a while, and little or nothing has changed....

....we must like taking it in the ass....

[Nikki Stone1]

27. It surprised me how much it sounded like our current complaints.

Even the part about foreclosure and not leaving one's house. Unbelievable.

[MellowDem]

20. There are two kinds of populists:

stupid and smart. The teabaggers represent the stupid sort, and this little rant could be at one of their rallies. Of course, there is a lot of good reason in the rant, but what, exactly, do the populists intend to do about it? The solution is more regulation of banks, but it's funny that those populist teabaggers advocate the exact opposite.

[Nikki Stone1]

31. The teabaggers are being led by GOP strategists who don't give a crap about them.

Fox Noise has channeled all their incoherent rage into completely useless channels.