LOS ANGELES, October 1, 2008 – A small demonstration was held outside the Los Angeles Obama campaign office today to protest Obama’s support for the Bush’s Wall Street bailout bill.
The protest initiated by Code Pink Women for Peace did receive some local corporate media coverage. KTLA TV and KFWB radio did interview some of the protesters. (It is unknown if they will broadcast the event or if these corporate media outlets can be relied upon to correctly represent the demonstrator’s message.)
This Indymedia reporter did have the chance to speak with No Bail Out activist, Peter Thottam. Peter is a former employee of Goldman Sacks and is now a sharp critic of the Wall Street investment banking industry and its relation with the policy makers in the government. The interview is uploaded in full and with no edits. Peter and some of his fellow No Bail Out activists have started a web site, http://madashellnetwork.org/ to help get the word out on the threat that the Wall Street bail out poses to the real economy: Main Street. When asked if the current economic situation was an indictment of capitalism in general Peter responded: Yes.
The MBSs were backed up by CDSs and other exotic derivatives.
The right wingers started out by blaming the borrowers for borrowing too much.
The liberals said the people selling the mortgages were to blame.
Who's really at fault though? These derivatives were created to reduce risk, and everyone thought they would reduce risk. In fact, they created a huge volume of trading that quickly created a new layer of the economy.
There was your growth in the GDP. Somehow, you can move factories away, have people stuck in low-pay service jobs, and still grow the GDP, as long as there's a new layer of the economy that's based on trading money and writing contracts.
So, now that strata of the market is collapsing. But the problem is, banks invested in this fraudulent market. Pension funds invested in it. Regular people even bought into it. So, many people will lose a lot of money.
It is time to enumerate our real needs, and figure out how to meet them. We all need food, housing, clothing, education, transportation, a phone, and probably the internet. Let's "socialize" these needs, and make it possible for everyone to have their basic needs met.
Then it won't matter if the stock portfolio goes up in flames.
by screwdriver
Saturday, Oct. 04, 2008 at 11:18 PM
It's too bad Prion Party's post is hidden.
Universalizing internet would be a potential way to soften the blow of this coming crash.
The cost of extending internet to everyone would probably be modest. You just need to define "universal access" flexibly, to include dial-up access and low-speed radio. In urban areas, mandate that all people within a company's range be sold product that has a reasonable level of reliability.
Then, once the standards are set, force companies in the cities to comply. The hardware upgrades alone would create jobs and raise revenues. These could even be American companies and workers benfitting.
Also, you could mandate that all apartments offer some kind of apartment-wide internet. This would create an apartment-specific market for small routers.
Boom, instantly, you have a few thousand jobs over the next five years or so.
The internet, like the phone, is a technology that creates economic effects that go well beyond the phone.