Thursday, October 6, 2011

#OccupyWallStreet: Roubini Predicsd U.S. Social Unrest - Without Reform, Capitalism Will Remain in Crisis

United States' quiet period ended with the Occupy Wall Street protests -- which are now in their third week and appear to be growing. Moreover, if Roubini's August prediction is correct, this is just the beginning of a period of social unrest, if major reforms are not implemented.

To Fix Capitalism, Balance Needed Between Free Market and Public Goods

current global economic system -- capitalism -- will remain in a crisis, one that economist Karl Marx predicted more than a century ago -- until major systemic reforms are implemented.

social unrest and demonstrations are all being driven by the same thing, a crisis period for capitalism -- the economic system's most serious crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

One that stems from globalization, financial intermediation run amok, and a destructive redistribution of income and wealth from labor to capital.

All of the nations that have seen social unrest and demonstrations "are all driven by the same issues and tensions: growing inequality, poverty, unemployment, and hopelessness. Even the world's middle classes are feeling the squeeze of falling incomes and opportunities,"

one of economist Karl Marx's critiques of capitalism is playing itself out in the global financial crisis.

Marx, among other postulates, argued that capitalism had an internal contradiction that would cyclically lead to crises, and that, at minimum, would place pressure on the economic system.

need to return to the right balance between markets and provision of public goods. That means moving away from both the Anglo-Saxon model of laissez-faire and voodoo economics and the continental European model of deficit-driven welfare states.
Both are broken

Prosthetic Exoskeleton commanded by brain may soon enable paralyzed to walk. Brazilian Moon Shot.

via latimes.com

An ambitious objective: On the opening day of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, they hope to send a young quadriplegic striding out to midfield to open the games, suited up in the "prosthetic exoskeleton" they aim to build.

The latest experiment of the nonprofit consortium showed that electrical messages conveying sensation could be sent directly to the monkeys' brains — in enough detail that both animals could distinguish among three identical circles by virtually "feeling" their differing textures.

Those sensations did not come from the animals' fingers, but from specially coded electrical currents delivered straight to each monkey's sensory cortex by four filaments the breadth of a hair.

>
this of course has a huge potential - sending electrical signals to the brain to simulate different feelings

bypass the body's complex network of nerve endings and supply the sensation of touch directly to the brains - of monkeys

National Strike in Greece against bankers defrauding the nation. General Strike on Oct19. Referendum necessary.

Flights were grounded, schools shut and civic offices closed in a nationwide strike Wednesday to protest the government's austerity measures. Riot police in Athens clashed with protesters and fired tear gas

Greek police tear-gassed protestors in central Athens on Wednesday as public sector staff and students went on strike over austerity cuts, shutting down courts, schools and transport including flights.

On Athens' central Syntagma Square outside the parliament building, police used tear gas to clear some of the 20,000 protestors, who included some 300 anarchists, after firebombs were thrown at them,

The protests organised by the two main Greek unions, ADEDY and GSEE, came ahead of a general strike on October 19, which will also affect banks and shops.

It was called in response to new taxes, wage cuts and layoffs imposed by a government,

All workers must unite and coordinate their forces against this storm of measures that strike income and labour rights,"

Interior Minister Haris Kastanidis said Greece must hold a referendum so the seemingly outraged public can vote on the government's response to the debt crisis.

Civil servants are protesting a plan to furlough some 30,000 employees, who will be on reduced pay for a year as they try to find other jobs.

The workers concerned already suffered sweeping wage cuts last year.

The 24-hour walkout has shut down ministries, town halls, museums, schools and courtrooms, as well as flights in Greece. It also brought trains to a halt and hospitals were reduced to emergency staffing.

criminals and thieves ruling this world

Unions lend muscle, resources to Wall St. protests #occupywallstreet

via news.yahoo.com

The protesters have varied causes but have spoken largely about unemployment and economic inequality, reserving most of their criticism for Wall Street.

"We are the 99 percent," they chanted, contrasting themselves with the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

The unions were donating food, blankets and office space to the protesters

We support the idea that the rich should pay their fair share."

Late Wednesday, some demonstrators marched toward the New York Stock Exchange but were stopped by police about two blocks away.

The Occupy Wall Street protests started Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange.
Since then, hundreds have set up camp nearby in Zuccotti Park and have become increasingly organized, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper.

stop the fraud.
introduce economic justice, not organised thievery.

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