Rich, poor divide at heart of Wall Street protests

By Yu Fenghui (People's Daily Online)

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16:53, October 09, 2011

Edited and Translated by People's Daily Online

The "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration, which has lasted three weeks, has spread to all parts of the Untied States. The Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg recently warned that street riots might occur in the Untied States due to the high unemployment rate. 

Apparently, it is the gloomy economy and high unemployment rate of the Untied States that impel the U.S. public to demonstrate in the street, but actually there are many other in-depth causes, and two of them are worth special attention. 

First, the polarization between the rich and the poor, which has existed for a long period, is intensifying. The demonstrators, including labor unions, social groups, university graduates and unemployed people, claim that they are representatives of the 99 percent of U.S. people who are exploited by the richest 1 percent of U.S. people controlling 40 percent of the wealth of the Untied States. 

They demand to have dialogues with the so-called elite class of the 1 percent. The second one is that although the Untied States was heavily impacted by the financial crisis in 2008, the fat cats of Wall Street still enjoy abnormally high salaries and their deceptive operations, hidden incomes and derivative product trades still keep increasing. 

The polarization between the rich and the poor is a stubborn illness of developed countries, and the United States is not an exception. However, one puzzling thing is that the big shots of Wall Street, who designed the financial crisis of 2008 not only escaped punishment but also have become much greedier. After the financial crisis occurred, George W. Bush and Barack Obama both launched financial acts successively to normalize the financial order, but they met with a lot of difficulty and were blamed and censured while doing it. Actually, the Untied States has turned into a wrestling arena between Wall Street and common consumers and between the rich and the poor. And behind the wrestling, it is of course the political battles of the Untied States.

Originally, it was believed that the U.S. government would take a tough stance toward the "Occupy Wall Street" activity. However, the spokesman for the White House Jay Carney said on Oct. 6 that the U.S. public's gloomy outlook about the economy and the difficulty of finding a job or keeping their jobs is understandable. 

U.S. President Barack Obama also said that the protest has reflected the U.S. people's dissatisfaction with the financial system. Barack Obama also took this opportunity to censure the Republican Party, saying that the Republicans always obstructed the implementation of the act in the past year and even wished the Untied States could return to the period with little supervision before the financial crisis. It is a little surprising that Barack Obama implied his support to the protest activity and used it as a card to fight back against the Republican Party. 

Anyway, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement has given various countries in the world a strong warning. First, they must buck the trend for the growing wide inequality between the rich and the poor. This is a very realistic warning to emerging economies in Asia. Particularly, as the most populated country, China must prevent the too wide inequality between the rich and the poor. 

Second, regulation of the financial industry must be strengthened. The authorities should properly manage money supply, curb inflation, handle foreign exchange rates and maintain a sound financial order by preventing excessive speculation and usuries. 

In particular, the remunerations of senior executives in the financial industry should properly be managed. If their remunerations remain abnormally high for a long term, it will cause greater discontent among ordinary Americans because all U.S. financial firms are privately owned.

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Leave your comment2 comments

Jean-Francois Morf at 2011-10-1081.13.250.*

STORY:1) Parents said to their spoiled children: never play liar poker, or we will punish you!2) But the spoiled children played liar poker, and so they loosed everything in 2008!3) Instead of a punishment, the spoiled children became 15 trillion $ debt recognition from their parents, but parents ordered to children to never play liar poker again...4) Not punished children immediately stopped to obey to any adult parent! 5) Not punished children immediately played the 15 trillion $ on liar poker again!6) Children also created from nothing a quadrillion $ liquidity (google: quadrillion $ derivatives), but this huge liquidity creation NEVER provoked hyper-inflation...7) Children sold to speculators cheap CDS: children must now pay back exorbitant!8) Children sold to speculators cheap PUT options on children stocks, but children must now buy back PUT options on crashed children stocks to exorbitant prices!9) The more the children stocks drop, the more the PUT options on children stocks rises, making children stocks drop even faster, making PUT options rise faster...10) Children dare insulting their parents (having saved children) for being insolvent!11) Children treat parents of PIIGS (it was an ill CALUMNY, but it was a self fulfilling prophecy, ruining more and more all parents, worldwide) 12) And in 2011, children are now ruined again, because poker players has again be more twisted then the disobedient children!13) Multi-billionaires poker players have now all the 15 trillion $ in their pocket!14) And the parents discuss to recapitalize again the children with dozen trillions $!15) The parents are the governments, and the children are the bankers...I said that the ill PIIGS story was an ill CALUMNY?i- = IllinoisCA = CaliforniaLU = LouisianaM = MichiganN =NevadaNY = NewYork(It would be an i-CALUMNNY to say that these 6 states are ill PIIGS!

PD User at 2011-10-09124.133.127.*

harmony

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