{"id":2781,"date":"2008-09-27T08:40:10","date_gmt":"2008-09-27T13:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=2781"},"modified":"2008-09-28T09:30:26","modified_gmt":"2008-09-28T14:30:26","slug":"protest-on-wall-street-no-bailout-for-billionaires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/protest-on-wall-street-no-bailout-for-billionaires\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest on Wall Street: No Bailout for Billionaires!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Liz Gold<\/strong>, for Planet Waves<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aThe bailout is bullshit. We\u0432\u0402\u2122re going to stop it.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/em><\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aThe bailout is bullshit. You broke it, you bought it.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/em><\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aNo bail! Send them to jail!\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/em><\/p>\n

These were the chants heard over and over again as protesters infiltrated the Stock Exchange Thursday in Manhattan\u0432\u0402\u2122s financial district. These rallying cries were urgent, guttural, angry and directed at President Bush\u0432\u0402\u2122s plan to spend upwards of $700 billion to make up for the disastrous Wall Street shakedown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Protester in New York’s financial district Thursday afternoon. Photo by Liz Gold.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The proposal, announced by the president Wednesday evening, would allow the treasury to buy troubled assets with the hope of restoring confidence to the credit markets. On Thursday, Democrats and Republicans battled it out in Washington D.C. in an effort to come up with a nonpartisan counterproposal. Instead, they are at a standstill unable to agree on what needs to be done revealing their divisiveness – even in the face of a profound crisis that affects all American people.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, people are pissed.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aI\u0432\u0402\u2122m here because I\u0432\u0402\u2122m furious that the government is considering giving $700 billion to financial companies,\u0432\u0402\u045c said Hannah from Queens. \u0432\u0402\u045aIs there money for healthcare? No. Is there money for education? No. But there is a trillion dollars for multi-million companies? It\u0432\u0402\u2122s crazy.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

The protest was a call to self-organize set forth by Arun Gupta, a journalist at the Indypendent<\/em> newspaper, who sent an e-mail to friends and colleagues earlier in the week that quickly circulated the web and sparked the rally downtown. People brought personal trash and junk to illustrate Wall Street\u0432\u0402\u2122s now worthless assets. The pile, appropriately enough, was stacked on the ground by the famous Bull of Wall Street\u0432\u0402\u2122s back end, aka its balls.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aThis is the financial equivalent of September 11,\u0432\u0402\u045c Gupta wrote in his e-mail. \u0432\u0402\u045aThey think, just like with the Patriot Act, they can use the shock to force through the \u0432\u0402?therapy’, and we\u0432\u0402\u2122ll just roll over!\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

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Starting at the southern end of Bowling Green around the bronze Merrill Lynch bull, protesters started marching to Wall Street where the rally congregated on the steps of the Stock Exchange. Chanting ensued. Cameras were snapping and rolling, journalists were quoting people with their notepads. Handmade signs with messages such as \u0432\u0402\u045aBail Me Out Too,\u0432\u0402\u045c circulated within the crowd – which was in the hundreds. All this while business people in suits and ties dodged the rally the best they could, many with BlackBerry to ear, annoyed and somewhat smug at the situation.<\/p>\n

One disgruntled man grumbled, \u0432\u0402\u045aMotherfuckers\u0432\u0402\u045c while briskly walking through the shoulders of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Protesters on the steps of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday afternoon protest the proposed bailout for investment banks. Photo by Liz Gold.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aThe idea of just handing our money to Wall Street is dog poop,\u0432\u0402\u045c said Eric from Brooklyn, who happened to be carrying a blue bag of fake dog doo. \u0432\u0402\u045aThat\u0432\u0402\u2122s what we\u0432\u0402\u2122ve been asked to do. These guys lost all our money and now they want us to refill their bank accounts with our money. That\u0432\u0402\u2122s insane. For every dollar we give them, we need a dollar worth of equity in their company.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Some financial folks, however, got right in with the protesters. One smiled but refused to talk with me, but his sign, \u0432\u0402\u045aThe crimes are endless. Drive out the Bush regime\u0432\u0402\u045c said it all. Another shrugged and said he didn\u0432\u0402\u2122t have an opinion. His buddy, though, did.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aIt\u0432\u0402\u2122s necessary for the entire economic structure,\u0432\u0402\u045c offered \u0432\u0402\u045aBob\u0432\u0402\u045c from New Jersey, clad in an expensive suit, clutching his cigarette like a gangster. \u0432\u0402\u045aThere\u0432\u0402\u2122s the potential that the government can make money off this because they are buying assets. They are going to get 11 percent.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Then Bob got a little more real: \u0432\u0402\u045aI think what happened was a mistake, yes. The money train was rolling but nobody thought it was going to stop.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Tony, an investment banker who works in the financial district, was watching the crowd dissolve from the Stock Exchange steps and flow down Broad Street. He said he thought most people really didn\u0432\u0402\u2122t understand the scope of what was going on.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aI think a lot of people are putting a lot of blame on Wall Street but you have to put the blame on the home owner in Iowa who makes 50 grand a year and wants a $500,000 house, the head of the local bank that gives the loan to that person, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that package those loans together and the people on Wall Street who paid too much for those packaged assets\u0432\u0402\u045c said Tony, who identifies as a democrat.<\/p>\n

\u0432\u0402\u045aTo be honest, I think the bailout is the right solution. They [just] have to figure out how to do it. I think it\u0432\u0402\u2122s going to end up better for the taxpayer in the long run and in the short term it will make the market more stable.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Daren and Dara in Battery Park after the Wall Street bailout protest. Photo by Liz Gold.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The protest threaded through the Wall Street area, with police officers standing off on both sides, mainly on motorcycles and on foot. When asked how many officers were dispatched to the scene, an officer refused to answer. When asked if he knew the rally was taking place today, the same officer replied, \u0432\u0402\u045aI can\u0432\u0402\u2122t tell you that.\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n

Heading towards Battery Park, where a mime of the Statue of Liberty stands with tourists as they take photographs, the last of the protesters gathered around a fountain, a cruise ship as a backdrop. Drumming calmed the crowd, while the rally slowly dissipated. Walking toward the subway, a couple was perched peacefully on a bench, as the man holds up a sign that perhaps sums up the plight of many: \u0432\u0402\u045aI\u0432\u0402\u2122ve got a 4.0 GPA, $90,000 in debt and no job. Where is my bailout?\u0432\u0402\u045c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These were the chants heard over and over again as protesters infiltrated the Stock Exchange Thursday in Manhattan\u0432\u0402\u2122s financial district. These rallying cries were urgent, guttural, angry and directed at President Bush\u0432\u0402\u2122s plan to spend upwards of $700 billion to make up for the disastrous Wall Street shakedown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[252,312,314,313],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2781"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}