Protests around the world may be as different as the Arab street is from Main Street USA, but they all share some things in common. According to Reuters Political Risk Correspondent Peter Apps, there is a pervasive “feeling that the youth and middle class are paying a high price for mismanagement and malfeasance by an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite.” In that sense, Occupy Wall Street may be part of a global Arab Spring, and is not explained away by Presidential contender Herman Cain’s “Cadillac envy” theory.
The elite should be taking this seriously. Tina Fordham, Managing Director, Senior Political Analyst at Citi in the UK, says: “This is most definitely going to be a multi-year trend, perhaps even a decade. What’s interesting is the way you’re increasingly seeing these … strands come together. So far the policy impact has been minimal, but that could change. An extended period of low or no (economic) growth could galvanize these emerging movements into political forces.”
The movement continues to expand. As part of a wider “occupy everything” strategy, organizers are planning demonstrations at the mansions of financial elites who have shown a “willingness to hoard wealth at the expense of the 99%.” They include JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, billionaire David Koch, hedge fund manager John Paulson (who allegedly rigged a CDO to fail so his fund could short it), Howard Milstein, and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch.
Page Perry is an Atlanta-based law firm with over 150 years collective experience protecting investor rights and fighting Wall Street greed.