Happy Birthday Wishes to the Occupy Wall Street Movement

Image courtesy of Forbes

Happy Birthday Occupy.  You've been around a year.

Didn't get too much accomplished in that time, I fear.

Camping out in city parks and banging on a drum

Doesn't mean the change you want to see is gonna come.

Have to find an issue or a candidate to back;

Have to organize yourselves and go on the attack.

Trying to encircle buildings doesn't change a thing.

Need to fix the Congress where, right now, cold cash is king.

Fiscal cliffs and sequestrations are not sexy stuff

Still, we have to tell the House and Senate; "That's enough."

Have to make them implement reforms now on the books.

Put your Representatives at home on tenterhooks.

Let them know you plan to vote and that you won't forget

Which side they've been fighting for.  They'll listen then, I bet.

Wall Street just steps over those who sleep out in the parks.

Need the law's protection when you're swimming with those sharks.

Dear Occupy Wall St.; WTF? (Want To Finance?)

(Photo credit: Sacha Lecca for RollingStone.com)

Heard about an old idea that's morphed to something new,

People helping other people - this is what they do;

Rather than a painful trip to beg some giant bank

For a loan, they're asking strangers.  Internet's to thank.

Someone with a good idea will post the thing on line

Looking for investors and - so far - it's going fine.

Catching on in Europe, where it's known as "Peer to Peer".

Wondering if Occupiers ought to try it here?

I believe the movement, if it wants to change a thing,

Has to now agree upon a single song to sing.

(Maybe it's not peer to peer but fixing our campaigns...

Super PACs are dangerous.) We have to use our brains.

I know smarter folks than I - more actively involved -

Must be trying very hard to get this problem solved.

Hope that they're more organized than first impressions seem;

That the Wall Street Occupiers don't run out of steam.

Pick a single issue.  Stay on message.  Talk it up.

Find a worthy Kool-Aid and then pour us all a cup.

...

(Want some proof we need to have a single message sent...?

Ask the poor Egyptians how their last election went.)

You Get What You Pay For? - Part II?

Charts are from the Senate Hearing on Income Inequality

 Anybody still believe the Nation doesn't need

Legislation to protect us all from Wall Street greed?

Facebook's shares have plummeted to 31 and change;

And it looks like Morgan Stanley managed to arrange

Special deals for wealthy folks...  You know - the 1%.

Don't know if the law was broke but looks like it was bent.

Meanwhile, all the rest of us (again) were on our own;

Well aware the gap between the rich and poor has grown

Out of all proportion to the contributions that

Benefit society...  I think I smell a rat.

Does that make me Socialist?  I never thought I was;

But, according to FOX News?  They're positive it does.

JPMorgan Chase and Dodd-Frank - Remember the Titanic

Jamie Dimon - looking surprisingly cheerful after reporting $2B in company losses.

 

Jamie Dimon (he's the head of JPMorgan Chase)

Has revealed a problem, I think, makes the Dodd-Frank case.

Hedging on derivatives; $2 Billion, plus, in losses.

His solution to the crisis? Firing 3 bosses.

Plan was barely understood with little oversight.

Took a while for him to see that something wasn't right.

Wonder if the folks at Chase are wishing that they had

Got behind the Volcker Rule before things got so bad.

Seems to me this news is proof that Wall Street hasn't changed.

Drive into an iceberg? Get the deck-chairs rearranged!

Have to shift their current course; stop fighting tooth and nail.

Europe's looming up ahead...  We're not too big to fail.

Bankers and Republicans and major CEOs

All agreed to stall on legislation they oppose.

Think it's time we got together; implement Dodd-Frank.

Don't forget; the last time something couldn't sink...?  It sank.

"Untergang der Titanic" by Willy Stöwer, 1912 (artist's conception)